Create a Communications Station to Manage Your Household
Create a Communication Station To Manage Your Household
Schedules and time management systems are the quickest and
easiest ways to eliminate conflict and better manage your
household. It's amazing how wonderful these tools are and how
they simplify one's life, but it's even more amazing that with
all these benefits, few people use them! It will take a few
hours to set up your system, but it's worth it.
Communication Central Shopping List:
* A weekly planner * A set of colored dry-erase markers *
Dry-erase calendars (both monthly and weekly) * Address book * A
small bulletin board * Notepad * Two letter trays * A message
book (spiral notebooks work fine) * Scrap paper and tacks * A
three-ring binder and assorted color construction paper * Hole
punch
Communication Central will become an important place in your
home. To begin, mount a weekly and monthly dry-erase calendar on
your refrigerator. Assign each of your children a colored
marker. Let them be responsible for recording their school
notes, field trips, re-port deadlines, etc. on the calendar.
Parents should have two colors; one for your personal schedule
and another for family events and other activities that concern
the family as a whole.
Other necessities for Communication Central include:
* An address book to keep all phone numbers handy. On the first
page, fill in emergency contact numbers and make sure that your
children know how to access, and when to use, these numbers.
* Keep a message book by the phone, and teach children how to
properly take messages. Spiral message notebooks tend to work
better than the notepads since the messages stay in one spot.
* Use your bulletin board to leave each other notes or
reminders. Have some fun and leave each other special notes on
special papers. A little gesture like this can brighten the day
of both parent and child. You may also want to sup-ply hooks for
each family member to store their keys.
Create a weekly calendar of meals, and plan these out in
advance. A Sunday afternoon is a good day to sit down and have a
small family meeting so everyone can touch base. Create the
upcoming dinner schedule during this time and a shopping list.
Post it on the refrigerator for easy reference.
Create a kid's phone book. Purchase some construction paper and
a three-ring-binder. Let each child have their own color paper,
i.e. Kim's Red Pages, John's Purple Pages, etc. Punch the paper
and insert it into the binder. Kids can record frequently dialed
numbers, schedules and notes in their pages. You may want to tie
a string to a binder ring and attach it to a table near the
phone to prevent it from "walking" away.
Lastly, put an "In" & "Out" basket somewhere within your child's
reach. Anything she needs your help with or signature on can go
in the "In" basket. You can also use this for items you need to
read, file or respond to. Once completed place the item in the
"Out" basket, once a week go through the Out basket and handle
each item to avoid pile up.