Creating Shared Digital Calendars for Increased Brain Power

mom with daughter
Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge

Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge

With so many children currently using educational technologies in some manner, parents may find it difficult to create schedules that reinforce routines. Children are used to structure and predictability but creating a consistent routine is difficult when learning needs to take place in the home. Kids eventually will be returning to school full-time, so keeping that structure in place is critical to maintain their learning progress in this time. The upside of the virtual learning technologies is that they have built in calendars and reminders that can help students link their daily tasks to the classroom, while also giving parents an easy way to set a routine during the day. With kids returning to in-person learning, 

Creating a “School Day”

 

Balance, structure, and routine in all aspects of a families’ home and life are more important than ever as we wade through this pandemic, and they give children and teens that sense of control they crave. In small and big ways, giving your child control within the home is paramount for mental health. 

One of the most important things that parents can do for their children is to treat remote learning like they would treat a traditional school day. Whatever rules you normally set for your children – from television and video games to mealtimes and bedtimes – should be the same whether your child is attending in-person or remote classes. Setting rules around things like calling/texting friends should also be similar to the way children would be interacting with friends during a traditional in-person school day. 

Creating a “school day” means making sure that your child is following the same behaviors at home during traditional school hours that would be followed in the classroom including:

  • No phone calls 
  • No television
  • No texting
  • No video games

Once you have those rules set, you can start putting together a schedule for your child and the rest of your family to help set a school/work/life routine. 

Using Google Classroom

 

Most school districts are using Google Classroom as their “virtual” schools. The good news is that this means you have a lot of great technology tools at your fingertips. The bad news is that school email accounts don’t transfer to other applications for things like email and appointment scheduling. 

So, let’s start with the Google Classroom tools that are available. 

The first thing to look at is that “Google Classroom Calendar” link which is in the upper left-hand corner of the homepage login. 

calendar graphic

If your school is scheduling assignments using the Calendar feature, this gives you a quick and easy view into the day’s expectations, at least as far as school work is concerned. 

To add new items to your child’s calendar, you need to go through a few extra steps. 

First, click on any of the class cards to get to a menu and click on the “Classwork” link that will give you the opportunity to see the Google Calendar. 

calendar graphic

Then, click on that and it works like any other calendar. You can create new “events” and add reminders. Click on a day and you get this popup:

calendar graphic

This allows you to set a time, just like you would for a meeting. In this case, you might want to make this a specified time such as “finish social studies assignment” or “half hour play break.”

If your child is using the Google Classroom calendar for school, they can also use it to help create their routine. 

Making a Shared Calendar

 

The biggest problem with the Google Classroom calendar is that in order to protect student privacy, parents can’t export that calendar into their own. This means that while a child might be able to follow their calendar, you need to keep your own calendar and your child’s open. That means more monitoring, more work, and less brain power for everyone. 

When people need to focus, they shouldn’t have to waste precious brain power thinking about little details like monitoring multiple calendars. Creating a single calendar that tracks events for everyone in the family means that your brains can power up and alert you to the task at hand. A shared calendar gives you a way to increase everyone’s ability to focus – both adults and children. 

If you’re comfortable with the idea, you can create a Google account just for your child’s routine. You don’t need to share this email with your child if you want to protect their privacy or if they’re too young to have an email. It can be an anonymous account just so that you can create a shared calendar across all family members. 

Most likely, to create a calendar across all members of the family, you’ll need a unique email for all of you. While this setup seems really awkward and cumbersome, the end result will make things easier for everyone. 

Cool Apps For Shared Calendars

 

A lot of cool applications let you share calendars across multiple accounts – whether Google or not – and across devices. 

Some examples are: 

  • Google Calendar
  • Any.do
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Apple Calendar
  • Fantastical 
  • 24me
  • TimeTree
  • Cozi
  • My Study Life

Each of these has different features to help you manage all meetings and scheduling for the whole family. 

Putting All Meetings in One Place

 

The whole goal of doing this front end work is to have everyone’s meetings, assignments, and activities in one place. You can color code each person’s calendar so that everyone can see at-a-glance who is busy, when they’re busy, and how long they’re busy for:

calendar graphic
If you want to get even more detailed, including the times that a child should be working on a given assignment can be included as well:

calendar graphic

The good thing about a shared calendar for the whole family is that it gives everyone an idea of who should be doing what and also who can answer a child’s questions about school work. 

The benefit of a digital calendar over a paper calendar is that when you update an event in one location, it automatically updates everywhere. For example, if a caretaker’s meeting moves from 8am to 9:30am, the calendar updates everywhere and the child can more easily see the change. If the meeting updates at the last minute, the caretaker might forget to update a handwritten schedule which can lead to confusion, especially for children who struggle with transition issues. 

Making It All Work

 

No one knows how long children will be learning either entirely or partially remotely. However, what we do know is that when kids have clear boundaries, then they are more likely to succeed. 

We also know that when children know what is expected, they feel less anxiety because they feel like they’re more in control of their lives. 

As you navigate this new world of learning while also likely working from home, the key to success for everyone will be having a set schedule that, if not exactly like a pre-COVID day, at least provides structure and routine. 

Are you looking for help for your child’s or teen’s behavior? 

 

Boy, the world is stressful right now (and it has been for a long time!). Of course, you are worried about your child’s stress level! You want to see them SUCCEED and be confident. Your child may be struggling with focus, stress, mood, behavior, emotions, or socially and you aren’t sure what to do about it and you feel STUCK… Well, Dr. Roseann is here to show you how to GET UNSTUCK and cultivate success in small and big ways!

As a licensed therapist and certified psychologist, as well as a special needs mom herself, Dr. Roseann knows what it is like to search for ways to help your child’s attention, learning, and behavior and still see your child struggle. So, if you’ve gone down the Google MD and ineffective medication and therapy rabbit hole, it is time to get support from Dr. Ro who can help you help your child to be focused, calm, and feel good about themselves. 

Want to work with Dr. Roseann, so you can turn your child’s behavior around and GET UNSTUCK and CULTIVATE SUCCESS?

 

Join our Raising Successful Kids Community, where you get Dr. Roseann secrets to raising a successful child at school, home and in life regardless of your kid’s age or ability. For less than $1 a day, you get Dr. Ro, the foremost expert in the world on children’s mental health in your back pocket! Join a community of like-minded parents and get the secret sauce to cultivating confidence, independence, and success in your child in only the way that Dr. Ro can do!

You can get her books for parents and professionals, including: It’s Gonna Be OK™: Proven Ways to Improve Your Child’s Mental Health, Teletherapy Toolkit™ and Brain Under Attack: A Resource For Parents and Caregivers of Children With PANS, PANDAS, and Autoimmune Encephalopathy.

Want to work with Dr. Roseann personally?  She sees people at her Ridgefield, CT center using neurofeedback, biofeedback, and psychotherapy to turn behavior around, as well as does neurofeedback and coaching remotely.  She has also reached billions through her dozens of media appearances on her mission to, ‘Change the way we view and treat children’s mental health™.” 

The best way to find out if we can help you is to apply to work with us, so we know you are ready for the powerful change that lies ahead. 

Are you a professional who wants more training from Dr. Roseann? 

 

Sign up for her Professional Webinars and CE-Based Courses or purchase her book, Teletherapy Toolkit™: Therapist Handbook for Treating Children and Teens

If you are a business or organization that needs proactive guidance to support employee mental health or an organization looking for a brand representative, check out Dr. Roseann’s professional speaking page to see how we can work together. 


Dr. Roseann is a Children’s Mental Health Expert and Therapist who has been featured in/on hundreds of  media outlets including, CBS, NBC, FOX News, PIX11 NYC, The New York Times, The Washington Post,, Business Insider, USA Today, CNET, Marth Stewart, and PARENTS. FORBES called her, “A thought leader in children’s mental health.” 

She is the founder and director of The Global Institute of Children’s Mental Health and Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge. Dr. Roseann is a Board Certified Neurofeedback (BCN) Practitioner, a Board Member of the Northeast Region Biofeedback Society (NRBS), Certified Integrative Medicine Mental Health Provider (CMHIMP) and an Amen Clinic Certified Brain Health Coach.  She is also a member of The International Lyme Disease and Associated Disease Society (ILADS), The American Psychological Association (APA), Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), International OCD Foundation (IOCDF) International Society for Neurofeedback and Research (ISNR) and The Association of Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback (AAPB).

© Roseann-Capanna-Hodge, LLC 2021

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