4 Ways to Use Your Online Calendar to Manage Your Kid's Schedules While kids don't have to worry about keeping a job, paying bills, or anything else, they still stay incredibly busy. School hours are long and filled with a myriad of...

While kids don't have to worry about keeping a job, paying bills, or anything else, they still stay incredibly busy. School hours are long and filled with a myriad of classes and activities. Outside of school, they'll want to pursue extracurricular activities, hang out with friends, and find time to play video games. That's a lot of stuff to make time for. Here's how to manage your kid's schedules with your online Calendar.

Parents and kids alike can benefit a lot from using an online calendar. This tool helps parents to keep track of each child's schedule and help them to plan out their time more efficiently. The skills cultivated through calendar use will last a lifetime.

This guide aims to help parents manage their kids' schedules a little better. The following are examples of how online calendar features can help organize schedules and manage time more effectively for both parent and child:

1. Differentiate Each Schedule

The first struggle with managing the schedules of multiple kids is keeping track of each of them separately. Each child falls under a different age group and will participate in various events than their siblings. Parents can easily get mixed up and feel stressed out trying to juggle everything.

Online calendars can help even the busiest of families to keep everything straight. Try using a color-coding tool to differentiate the schedule of each child. This way, a quick glance will inform you which child needs to be in which location and at what time on any given day.

Another option is to create multiple calendars, one for each kid. Then, you can share each Calendar with yourself and create different views. In addition, you can toggle each Calendar individually, so there's less of a mess going on when you just need to review the day for one specific child.

2. Sync With Your Own Calendar

Your own schedule is essential when trying to manage the programs and plans of others, especially members of your own family. Too many parents miss a dance recital or sports championship match because they're tied up with work or other personal commitments. You only get one chance to raise a child, so sync up your Calendar with theirs so you can be with them every step of the way.

When you sync up your personal Calendar with the one you've made for your kids, you can align schedules more efficiently. For example, suppose the deadline of an upcoming work project coincides with a parent-teacher conference. In that case, you can check that in advance and make necessary adjustments to get the work done early. As a result, you won't lose a step in your professional space while still making time for your family.

Syncing with a partner's Calendar allows for these same benefits, especially when driving commitments needs to be planned and discussed. You can even consider sharing calendar events with grandparents, friends, and other family members. This will allow them to attend events or enlist their help with things like carpooling.

3. Keep Track of Deadlines and Commitments

Adulthood is notorious for being full of deadlines and responsibilities not associated with the carefree living that is childhood. While that might be true to an extent, kids still have essential deadlines and commitments they need to keep. Whether it's a homework assignment or a playdate with a friend, an online calendar will help kids manage all of the deadlines and commitments on their schedule.

The first reason why this is important is that it teaches your kids valuable lessons. They are expected to hold their end of a commitment, and there are consequences for failing to do so. They'll also learn practical skills in time management and hard work when working toward deadlines they have set in their Calendar.

Just remember, they're still kids at the end of the day. Staying focused all day is a challenge even for adults. An online calendar allows you to view their deadlines and commitments. In addition, you can lend a helping hand by setting reminders for them as the due dates approach.

4. Find the Right Balance

Kids certainly benefit from staying active. Having a lot of activities planned keeps them off of their devices and out of general trouble. However, kids can also get burnt out or overworked when they have too much on their plate. With an online calendar, you can help them find the right balance between being busy and getting adequate downtime.

One of the Calendar's most significant features is its calendar analytics. This tool tracks every event you put into your Calendar and gets time usage data for you to look at. For example, you can see just how many hours have been spent at soccer practice. If the hours start to look overwhelming, you can start looking for a club that plays fewer games and is less demanding.

Finding the right balance with an online calendar may include intentionally planning downtime for your children. You can just as easily block off some time for reading as you can create an event for summer camp. With essential tasks like reading time (especially with very young children) and family dinners written in a calendar — you won't overwrite them with more busy things.

Time doesn't slow down for everyone, but you can learn to manage it better through the prolonged use of an online calendar. So start using your Calendar today, and soon enough, you'll be a master at balancing schedules and making time for every important person, place, and thing in your life.

Image Credit: by Bohemian_Heart Tanusree; Pexels; Thank you!

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