It's September, let the confusion and pressure begin! Honestly, does it have to be this way? Not if you have a family planning system! Learn about assembling a family calendar, helping your child use a planner, organizing carpools, and minimizing last-minute surprises this school year. Discover the benefits of wall calendars, whiteboards, and digital (app-based) calendars and planners to improve time management and communication so you can enjoy family time without worrying about whose turn it is to drive or if you are bringing snacks to soccer practice this week.
Transcript:
Hi there. Welcome back. It's mid-September and if you're a parent, by now life has started to get busy. When my kids were younger, they were both in sports, which sometimes meant nightly practices in different locations. Fitting that in with homework and other commitments meant a lot of juggling for my husband and me.

Today we'll be talking about how to do advanced planning with your kids to help prevent the last minute scramble to get a costume for spirit week or get a birthday gift for a kid's party. Notice I said "help prevent" because there will always be some things your child may forget to tell you. Nobody's perfect.

This is part two of back to school. In episode two, we had marriage and family therapist Jocelyn Flores and she talked with us about helping kids adjust to back to school routines. So you may want to check that out if you haven't already. Fair warning, though, this episode is packed with information, so I recommend making a copy of the transcript or jotting down some notes. Because I'm going to give you a step by step process for making sure the whole family is planning together. September is a perfect time to start, but if you are listening to this episode later in the school year, no worries. You can start it whenever you'd like.

All right. So if you're a parent of a school age kid, by now you've met your child's teachers, you've learned what the expectations are for this school year. Your child may be considering activities that they want to participate in outside of school. So now is the time to do a family calendar. And if you have a child in middle school or older, then it's time to help them learn to use a planner if they haven't mastered that skill already. This will make your life and your child's life so much easier and a lot less stressful.

So first off, you want to decide whether you're going to keep a paper wall calendar or a whiteboard family calendar or a digital one. Obviously, if you pick something that is paper or whiteboard, you want to make sure that it's got plenty of room for writing. A digital family calendar can help parents and older kids to coordinate schedules. You can use Google Calendar. You don't have to get anything separate. Use something you're familiar with already. Use Apple's app. You can also, though, use Cozi, which is specifically created as a family

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The information contained and documents referenced in the podcast “Your Priority Centered Life” are for entertainment, educational and informational purposes only, and are not intended as, and shall not be understood or construed as, professional medical or health treatment, diagnosis, or advice. We strongly encourage listeners to consult with medical providers or qualified mental health providers with issues and questions regarding any physical and/or mental health symptoms or concerns that they may have. Furthermore, the opinions and views expressed by podcast guests, partners and/or affiliates are not necessarily those of the podcast host. Dr. Alise Murray’s opinions and views are expressed in her individual capacity and are not to be construed as those of any of her podcast guests, partners and/or affiliates.