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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. Brook Noel is an international best-selling author and has
written over 10 books. Her newest book The Change Your Life
Challenge: A 70 Day Life Makeover Program for Women has
helped thousands of women improve relationships, finances,
home management, self-esteem, fitness, self-care, stress and
depression you can visit the website at
http://www.changeyourlifechallenge.com/. Brook Noel More Articles Key to Excellent Communication: Anticipation - Susan Dunn MA Clinical Psychology
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