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I jokingly refer to our family as the Hot Mess Express. If you invite us anywhere, expect us to roll up in our unwashed minivan, 20 minutes late, with kids whose hair may or may not be brushed. A water bottle or volleyball may accidentally roll out right as the doors open, allowing said kids to tumble out, likely followed by someone yelling, “Guys, I finally found the blue water bottle!”
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The minivan’s due for an oil change, the laundry at home needs to be folded, the dishwasher needs to be unloaded — but there’s always a doctor’s appointment, school event, game, or extracurricular to get to, so there never seems to be enough time. My sanity saver amidst this hot mess? The Skylight Calendar 2.
I’ve been a Skylight stan for a couple of years, but the new Calendar 2 is precisely the upgrade I needed. Having a digital calendar that my husband and I can access from anywhere and that everyone at home can see is a game-changer for our family — seriously. I have a widget on my iPhone so I can always see the day’s events, and my kids can see what they’re having for lunch during the school week, who has an appointment, and when.
How I use the Calendar 2
My husband and I both work full-time, so we’re busy parents of three. My youngest is a preschooler and still quite demanding, as little kids are, while the older kids are diving headfirst into extracurriculars. Two of my kids have a biweekly treatment plan I have to drive them to, and I spend some time in the hospital each month for my own medical treatment, so I’m always balancing rides, activities, and chores.
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The Skylight Calendar 2 is a gorgeous 15-inch display that lowered itself from heaven (or, erhm, a FedEx truck) to save us. It’s much faster and thinner than the first version, and the display just looks sleeker. Its curved corners give it a softer finish, but its framing makes it fit in with any home decor. A cool pro is that the frame is magnetic, so you can swap it for a black, white, or wood finish look to match your style.
Skylight offers a good user experience, with the aforementioned widget availability and compatibility with most major digital calendars. The Calendar 2 device is easy to navigate, with a menu on the left of the screen that lets you access Calendar, Lists, Tasks, Rewards, Meals, Recipes, Photos, and Settings.
You can add different profiles for each person or event in your home. I have made profiles for each of our family members and a separate one labeled Family, where I add birthdays for our extended family and major events. Each time I add an appointment or event, I add the kid whose appointment I scheduled and the adult who is taking them, so that we all know who has to drive them and when.
More than just a calendar: a full family planner
The events let you add external contacts by email, so they’ll get a calendar invite to your event, along with a description, location (which shows the weather if the event is within a week), and even a countdown. The countdown is a newer feature that is always visible in the calendar view, so we add countdowns for trips and upcoming birthdays so our kids always know how many days until X.
Meal planning is easy, especially with the new Sidekick integration. This AI assistant can generate a full meal plan around pickiness, allergies, and restrictions for you, complete with the ingredients you’ll need. You can add the ingredients to your Lists and then go shopping.
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The perfect chore chart
After trying (and failing) with multiple types of chore charts over the years, I decided to use the Skylight Calendar’s Tasks and Rewards feature. This lets you add multiple tasks and chores, which can be custom or selected from a preset list, and then add stars for completion. The stars can then be redeemed for rewards that you create.
I wanted my kids to maintain control over their chore chart, and since the Rewards feature was available in the old Skylight Calendar, I relocated it to a spot my kids could reach when I installed the new one in my kitchen.
I added simple tasks like picking up all the dirty laundry for a star, more complex ones like doing the dishes for two stars, and the hardest ones like cleaning your room for three stars. I then added kid-specific rewards they can redeem, like picking up a $5 toy, getting ice cream from a special place, or taking a trip to the movies to watch a specific movie.
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Now, my kids are learning to earn and budget their stars, while I’m seeing cleaner rooms, bathroom counters wiped down, and laundry-free floors. The rewards I created range from 17 to 40 stars, depending on their value, and my kids have already redeemed them a couple of times.
ZDNET’s buying advice
The Skylight Calendar 2 is the knight in shining armor that busy families need. It’s the Olympic weightlifter coming to help carry all the moms’ mental loads. This device is an all-in-one family planner that covers meal planning and chore management. While it may not get my little ones up 20 minutes earlier, the Skylight Calendar 2 is doing wonders to tame the heat and messiness of this hot mess express.
It’s not for everyone, though. Not everyone is looking to spend $300 on a wall-mounted or tabletop calendar display, and that’s valid. Many of the best features also require a $79/year subscription, such as uploading a school calendar and magically importing it into Calendar 2, meal planning, the photo screensaver, and rewards.
Source: www.zdnet.com
