Writer / Kate Rhoten
If you are a parent with kids in K-12, as you are reading this column, you probably are thinking, “Where did the summer go?” or “Did we even have a summer?”
Both are questions I am sure we have all, at the very least, said in our minds. I, like most parents, was ready for my kids to go back to school. Even with the balanced calendar and the shorter break, the kids got restless.
This summer was a bit different for us as our oldest can drive and our youngest was involved in two summer sport activities. That probably made it a little more enjoyable — not being trapped in the house.
Every workday, our oldest had to be up and at cross-country practice before 7:15am, Saturdays a little later. There was no sleeping in for him except Sunday. He didn’t have a job at a place of business, but he kept up our yard and a friend’s as well.
Our youngest child, who is finishing up middle school this year, played in a PGA junior league all summer. He had practices and matches throughout the summer. He also played in the Center Grove Ultimate Frisbee summer league. He was able to practice and play for two hours each Wednesday. It kept him busy.
By the time the kids got to mid-July, they were getting a bit bored. The novelty of having wheels wore off, and they were ready to return to an even more structured routine. But, with the return to school, my life gets even busier.
So here we are, working toward establishing a routine and trying to figure out how best to keep track of tryouts, practices, meets and matches, back-to-school night, personal appointments, volunteer commitments and work travel plans between my spouse and myself. Sounds a little daunting, doesn’t it?
Smartphones have made it much easier to manage family calendars, and, being an Apple fan, I tried using their iCalendar. At first, it seemed promising, but, somehow, it went awry. During the summer, I decided to give Google Calendar a try. We use Gmail and some of their other features.
I started out with the browser calendar and then found the app. I am not the most frequent shopper of apps, but when I decide I need to find one, I go shopping. After downloading the Google Calendar app, I introduced it to my spouse, and he downloaded it. He was getting tired of asking me, “What do we have going on?”
Now, all he has to do is look at the app on his iPhone. I update the kids’ schedules on it, and he will place his work travel on it as well as other appointments that would be helpful for me to know. We also used this iPhone Unlocker and it was so easy to use.
Having the calendar has made it so much easier to manage the busy-ness of being an active family. The Google Calendar app cuts down on the craziness life brings trying to track it all.
When is our next vacation break? Oh, yeah! That’s in the calendar.
