Best shared family calendar?
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Anonymous
| I'm so technologically dumb. I can't keep my four kids' activities straight or remember everything DH and I have going on. I used to keep it all on a wall calendar using different colors for different people but it's too messy and labor-intensive. What do you use? Any great links to walk me through setting something up? I tried using iphone calendar but I don't even know how to log into icloud, and I don't think DH has a cloud. I figured this would be the board most likely to need a family calendar with overscheduled tweens and teens. I set up a google calendar today that looks pretty good but I have no idea how to share it. DH doesn't have a gmail account. Thanks for any help! |
Anonymous
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My spouse and I use different calendaring tools, but use Google calendar to join them. I use the default calendar on my Android phone and spouse uses Calengoo on the iPhone. But we are able to use one Google calendar that syncs with both of our devices. Anything we share to the family Google calendar gets sync'ed onto both of our phones.
The nice thing is that on my calendar, it uses different colors for holidays/events (like birthdays) and my calendar entries and spouse's calendar entries so that I have an idea which one of us added an entry to the calendar based on color. |
Anonymous
| I like Cozi. |
Anonymous
+1 for Cozi. Easy to access on phones or laptops. We also keep our weekly meal plan and a running grocery list in there as well. |
Anonymous
| Google. Not sure why you would use anything else. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
+2 Still have a paper calendar for “the big picture” but Cozi works for the day-to-day. We especially like the list feature and the easy color coding for individual family members. At least once a year they’ll run a sale on the paid version but “free” works well too. |
Anonymous
| Cozi and then we have a Skylight Calendar that sits on the kitchen counter. It displays the calendar and links with Cozi and other calendars. It even links with my son’s soccer schedule and displays all of his practices and games. |
Anonymous
| +1 for Cozi |
Anonymous
|
Google. We all have our own Google calendars, and we have a master google family calendar. Anything on a weekday that happens before 9am, or after 5pm for spouse or I, goes on the family calendar. Also anything and everything on a weekend or for one of the kids.
2 of the kids now in college, they can still see family things on there, like flights to Costa Rica over Christmas break, or flights home I've booked for them |
Anonymous
| We have one shared Google calendar and each person has their own color on that calendar. We sync the calendar to a Skylight frame and that is in a highly visible area in our house so everyone can see what they have going on that day. |
Anonymous
| I promise I'm saying this in the nicest way possible, I find your post so endearing, especially "I don't think my husband has a cloud". |
Anonymous
| Not the OP, but also a technically challenged parent with a busy spring schedule. Does cozi easily link schedules from Sportsengine, Team snap and Gamechanger? My kids’ sports each use a different app that sync nicely to my iPhone calendar, but gamechanger’s instructions didn’t work from my iPhone to upload in google. We have a mix of iPhones and Android and I’d like to be able to easily share. |
Anonymous
Thank you. I do not really know what a cloud is. I'm afraid to get rid of my 6 year old iphone because it has my daughter's newborn videos (and all the other photos from the last 6 years) and I don't know how to store them, protect them. Sigh. Wish there was some in-person, one hour class I could attend to tell me the essentials. I appreciate all the replies. I guess I'll check out Cozi. The replies about google...I really needed people to respond to me like I'm an idiot, which I am when it comes to this stuff. I did set up a google calendar yesterday that seems to be linked to my gmail, but I have no idea how to color code for each family member, or how to link DH, who doesn't have gmail (he has yahoo and outlook for work). I need something where he can see what's going on. That skyframe thing sounds intriguing, too...the two younger children don't have phones and they're always asking me "What do I have tomorrow?" so would be nice for there to be a calendar they could check. |
Anonymous
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There is a new app called Podz on the apple app store and on google play designed specifically for a shared family calendar. It has a lot of the same features as Cozi but a much better interface and it is free and has no ads (Cozi is overrun with advertisements and it constantly asks you to upgraded to the paid version). I also like that Podz has chat and photo galleries, to do lists, reminders, and optional location sharing. It also has a contacts section where we put aunts, uncles, doctor information, etc. The app has polls - my family uses them for things like where we should go on vacation or to dinner (not needed, but they are fun). You can easily synchronize with any calendar - you just go to the More | Synchronization option and choose any of your calendars. I was able to bring in all of our calendars into one place. At first we maintained other calendars, but now we just do everything in Podz.
This page has some more info, with links to download from the App Store and Google Play: https://strikebright.com/Podz |