While it’s true that the business world considers New Year’s Day as January 1, it is equally true that for anyone with children, the first day of the New School Year is really where it’s at! And here in Arizona, that means sometime in the middle of August. It can even mean July, if your teen has early walk-around.
“I know it’s time for school to begin when my calendar runs out of pages.”
Years ago I discovered the Academic/Collegiate Planner book, (it starts in August and ends in July). While my children were school age, it functioned as my lifeline. Importantly, it didn’t end during Winter Break, like a traditional annual calendar does. It can get you through to the last day of school, all in one continuous calendar!
For families where ADHD plays a role, this can make the difference for starting off the school year better organized, and then helps in making a smoother transition to the second half of the year (which gets here before you know it).
Winter Break in most Arizona school districts covers TWO monthly calendar pages and FOUR weekly pages (factor in the weeks that include the last day of 1st semester and the first day of 2nd semester.)
Calendar styles vary among Arizona’s school districts. Somebody somewhere in each district made a decision to design their calendars in a particular way that made sense to them, not necessarily to me. I won’t confuse you with the fabulous calendar from California that I accidently found when I googled PVUSD. Suffice it to say that I caught my hasty error and didn’t print it here! Whew, panic in the streets averted. Here are just a few examples of the variety of calendar styles:
- Paradise Valley prints a black & white straight list of dates.
- Scottsdale prints a black & white list with accompanying monthly blocks along the sides.
- Washington and Peoria print a colorful block calendar with a list of dates at the bottom.
- Queen Creek has colorful block months divided down the middle with a list of dates.
- Roosevelt families can choose either English or Spanish versions.
- Some districts even have interactive web based alternatives.
Find your district’s link. There will be a tab for Calendar usually along the top or in the menu of pages. Save it to your home computer, office computer, laptop or netbook, your iPhone or BlackBerry. Keep a printed copy in the glove box of your car (I know we don’t use gloves here), and in your personal calendar book. At your first opportunity, sit down with highlighter markers and color-block your personal calendar.
Get ready before you get behind.
I carried a book version (big open boxes for each day) with me wherever I went, large enough to hold (clipped in!) the many colorful flyers that came home from school, the semester schedule with teacher training days, holidays, early dismissal, teacher conferences, special events, etc.
I added in printed schedules for sport practice/games, sport snacks, party invitations (while already in the car, inevitably I would wonder “Where is the party?!”), Hebrew School, Cub Scouts, Brownies and then regularly scheduled tutoring, music lessons, club meetings, and especially the days that the driving or non-driving babysitter could be available.
In addition to the book-size calendar that I carried around, the family relied on the MONTHLY DESK PAD CALENDAR, also available as “academic/collegiate,” kept on the hall table. 
Kids and babysitters had to pass it at some point during the day. Some years it was color-coded by CHILD, some years by ACTIVITY. Sticky notes could be added, and white-out was handy. I duplicated schedules of those I carried in my book version, and kept copies together with the desk-pad calendar at home.
When anyone asked about what was happening on a particular day, I just had to remember to tell them to ‘look at the hall calendar’. If I tried to answer from memory, well let’s just say sometimes we were late or a day early. Most times fortunately we arrived with the ‘whatever was needed accessory.”
When buying a monthly desk pad calendar, here’s what I found to be important: Size matters!
Get the biggest one that will fit on the identified table.
Get one that has lots of open white space. Forget about lines (they are limiting), and cute artwork (it just wastes precious space). If you can find one that has a side portion left open for notes, that is helpful.
And I do suggest keeping it on a flat surface, and not hung on the wall. I know this is different from what so many organizers reccommend, but it worked better for me. This way you can slip flyers between the pages and they won’t fall out. You can direct your kids to place all flyers and parent notices there (along with the Scholastic book order forms, sign-up sheets and health notices from the nurse). It’s easier to write LEGIBLY on a flat surface. You can keep your supplies right there (colored markers, sticky notes, white-out, pen/pencil). And, small/short kids don’t have to climb to reach it.
Whatever calendar you choose, 
the important thing is to USE IT REGULARLY and CONSISTENTLY so that it becomes the first thing you do in the morning (do I need to pack a special lunch for the field trip?) and the last thing before retiring at night (is tomorrow soccer or scouts?)
Brush your teeth and check the calendar.
Pick up a calendar at any office supply store. Don’t wait to find the best method, or you may find that you don’t settle on any method at all. If you keep researching organizing books and websites for the best ideas, ultimately you waste time and then there are so many options to choose from, that you might just give up. (I know you know what I mean.)
Judith Kolberg & Kathleen Nadeau wrote ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life in 2002. For me, it was not only life-changing, it was life-affirming. More about the book another day, but do yourself a favor and buy it now. Chapter Five is titled “ADD Decision Dilemmas.” To avoid “Decision by Default,” they offer useful suggestions that cover many scenarios. Bottom line: limit your choices to a number, a personal value, space, time or budget, and then “go with the best option.”
Reward yourself for making the decision.
If chocolate isn’t your thing, the reward for selecting your calendar without undo angst, agita or gevalt might be permitting the impulse purchase of a cool new marker or white-out pen, something that will be fun for you and your kids to use on the new calendar. “Rewards along the way can reduce the frustration of delayed gratification and are essential to keep you going on any long-term project.” (p. 53)
Being impacted by ADHD, doesn’t mean that you have to be scattered all of the time. If you didn’t set up your academic desk pad calendar before school started, don’t stress. It’s not too late. Stores will still have them for sale all year. Buy one now, even if you tear off the first few pages. (Release the torn-off pages, by recycling them, use as table cover for crafts, or tear into notepad size paper).
It will make such a difference in the transition after Winter Break. I promise.
~~Debbie
P.S.
Dear Reader,
Have you found a calendar system that works? Please share it.
