# Simple problem: What Letter day is it? (A-F) Need reminder mechanism



## House Atreides

This is simply absurd, but I just cannot keep track of what day it is.

Our school uses a rotating schedule of 6 days lettered A through F. I have a large calendar in the kitchen with the days clearly printed. Today was an "E" day for instance. Every day on that large calendar is color coded and even has what has to happen on that day.

However in the crazy morning I just cannot keep track of which day it is. What I am looking for is some magnetized letter (or similar) that I can place on the front door for the following day. Some massive "E" or whatever.

I'm even willing to have a dedicated tablet or iPad to doing nothing but display the current day if necessary. Phone reminders never work at that time because my phone is often being charged in the morning. Whatever the solution: it's gotta be big. And it's gotta be on the front door so I can remember what days my son needs his trumpet (etc.)

Any ideas?


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## StepGirlfriend

Maybe a dry erase board that you can write on the night before? Like "TODAY IS E, BRING TRUMPET". That way you're not having to keep track of magnets? And you can get magnetized pens so it's all in one place. 

Sorry not much of a suggestion! What a crazy system too :dizzy


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## SecondtimeMama

Seconding the whiteboard idea. Maybe also one your son's room? If you're a techie-person and use a smart phone or log into a computer most mornings, I'd also put the day type into your electronic calendar and set it for a reminder right around when you'd normally check the weather or whatever.

What I think you *really* need to do is get with your PTO/PTA and get them to stop having a rotating 6 day schedule. Unless the kids are in school 6 days a week, that's absurd. Whatever benefit they're getting from that, they could get from a 5 day rotation and then every Monday would be the same, every Tuesday, etc, and people could just use regular calendars.


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## House Atreides

SecondtimeMama said:


> Seconding the whiteboard idea. Maybe also one your son's room? If you're a techie-person and use a smart phone or log into a computer most mornings, I'd also put the day type into your electronic calendar and set it for a reminder right around when you'd normally check the weather or whatever.
> 
> What I think you *really* need to do is get with your PTO/PTA and get them to stop having a rotating 6 day schedule. Unless the kids are in school 6 days a week, that's absurd. Whatever benefit they're getting from that, they could get from a 5 day rotation and then every Monday would be the same, every Tuesday, etc, and people could just use regular calendars.


6 day rotations are becoming increasingly common in school systems. The problem apparently is an increased demand in exposure to various things. PE + ART + Computer + + + + + + + + +, and pretty soon they run out of days.

I _get_ that, and more to the point: I'm willing to live with it.

It just wreaks havoc with my ability to sort things out. If you haven't tried to mentally map 6 days onto 5 before, it's a lot harder than you think.

I'll try the whiteboard idea. Any other ideas?


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## SecondtimeMama

House Atreides said:


> 6 day rotations are becoming increasingly common in school systems. The problem apparently is an increased demand in exposure to various things. PE + ART + Computer + + + + + + + + +, and pretty soon they run out of days.
> 
> I _get_ that, and more to the point: I'm willing to live with it.
> 
> It just wreaks havoc with my ability to sort things out. If you haven't tried to mentally map 6 days onto 5 before, it's a lot harder than you think.
> 
> I'll try the whiteboard idea. Any other ideas?


On a 6 day system, they aren't getting PE, Art, Computer, music, etc every week. They're cheating kids out of time they should be having to renew their brains and experience more. And of the 5 cities where I know people with kids, none of them are doing it, so it's clearly not absolutely necessary. However, that is a long term fight besides being one you're not interested in taking on.:smile:

Mapping 6 days onto 5 sounds incredibly hard. (And is yet another way I think your district is doing a huge disfavor to every family. It's just such a huge waste of mental energy for everyone.)

You've already got a calendar marked with the days, is that in the ideal position in your house? Could a second calendar be helpful?

I totally missed about the phone charging. But if you're able to set up a tablet, that could do the reminder as well. You can set alarms with sound files so you could even have the tablet actually *say* "A as in Apple Day, A as in Apple Day" and such.


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## SecondtimeMama

Oh! If things are calmer in the evening, could the trumpet go one place when he needs to take it and another place when he doesn't? Or, even better, have a staging area by the front door (e.g. laundry basket?) where everything he needs goes for the next day?

So all the prep work is done when you've got time and then when you're rushing out the door you don't have to *think* just grab and go.


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## House Atreides

Ok, I just had an idea. I'll try it out and let you know how it works.

Since the door is steel I can use those magnetic photo pockets and print a giant letter (and "TRUMPET") on a sheet of paper and slip it in. Then (perhaps) I can stack them on the door, or just store them in the nearby bureau and pull the right one out per day. (or perhaps they can flip upside down and still stick).

I'll report back.


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## Linda on the move

I think having a launch area by the door where you put the needed items THE NIGHT BEFORE makes sense. I think this needs to be part of the bedtime routine rather than the morning routine. If you are changing letters on the door, when are you going to do that? What if you are getting ready to leave and you can't remember if you are looking at today's letter or yesterdays? Just look at the calendar the night before, and have your son set what he needs by the door. 


I can also see advantages to have having a rotating schedule instead of "Monday is art, Tuesday is PE, etc." A lot of school weeks don't have 5 days in them. This week we don't have school on Wednesday because of Veterans day. The week after next we don't have school on Thursday and Friday because of Thanksgiving. A couple of weeks ago we didn't have school on a Friday for Parent Teacher conferences. The students would have the same number of opportunities for each special if we rotated them. I am curious what the 6th rotation is. We have art, music, library, PE and computers. What else do you have?


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## House Atreides

Ok, well so far this is working, I think. Unfortuantely, the only real indicator of success is if it doesn't fail.....so when I forget another day, I'll know.

To answer a question up aways, it's a ritual for me to put the magnets on the door the night before.


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## Polliwog

Linda on the move said:


> I can also see advantages to have having a rotating schedule instead of "Monday is art, Tuesday is PE, etc." A lot of school weeks don't have 5 days in them. This week we don't have school on Wednesday because of Veterans day. The week after next we don't have school on Thursday and Friday because of Thanksgiving. A couple of weeks ago we didn't have school on a Friday for Parent Teacher conferences. The students would have the same number of opportunities for each special if we rotated them. I am curious what the 6th rotation is. We have art, music, library, PE and computers. What else do you have?


My daughter's charter has A, B, and C weeks. Their specials are PE (2x/week,) Music (2x/week,) and Art (varies depending on week.) their class walks to the public library every 2-3 weeks.


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## House Atreides

^^^Oye.

Our school _prints_ a calendar, but what they really should be doing is _publishing_ a google calendar that folks could just immediately import.

That way, any changes, snow days, etc., etc., show up instantly. Plus, no one gets confused with the half days, and all the other oddities that mess things up.


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