Ms. H shares her elementary school events calendar with the mothers and fathers of her child’s classmates.

Information for many events in elementary school is disseminated in print. Sharing this information makes things easier for everyone.

What made you want to share your “elementary school events calendar” with everyone at first?

My family has always used TimeTree to begin with. My daughter started elementary school this April, and the school distributed many printed materials with events on them. When I saw that, I thought of using TimeTree to manage these events, but then I wondered if everyone else would be doing the same. If so, I thought it would be easier for everyone if someone enters the information and shares it with everyone else.

So you shared it with the mothers and fathers whom you are close to. What were their reactions?

Yes, I was on close terms with the mothers whose children went to the same elementary school as my daughter from the same nursery, and I suggested this idea as it was easy for me to ask if they were interested in trying it out. Some people among them had already used TimeTree before, so we did not encounter any problems in particular when we starting using it. In fact, I received good feedback after we started using the app. Around 16 people are currently participating in this.

Using the comment box for sharing important items and storing printed handouts

Which schedules do you share with others and what kind of communication is carried out using this app?

I share the schedules for the elementary school’s planned events as well as its after-school care programs. This includes school events such as Saturday classes, holidays-in-lieu for athletic meets, school lunch tasting sessions, the start of swimming lessons during summer holidays, as well as PTA general meetings, PTA committee meetings, and so on. It is not just me doing it; when other participating members remember an event, they will enter it into the schedule as well. In addition, we also write important matters such as “To bring: slippers, drinks” and paste photos of the printed materials into the app’s comment box, which gives us the sense that everyone is keeping the information up to date. We also use the “participation button” which allows us to know who else is coming on a certain day, and so on, which makes our discussions easier.

A collaborative calendar whose information can be updated by anyone who remembers!

I see. That makes things really convenient.

In any case, the school distributes a lot of printed materials at different points in time, and it is hard to remember where one event will be held or when another event is until. Consolidating all this information in the same place in the form of a calendar makes things a lot more convenient. I also think it is great to update the information alongside all the mothers and fathers who are my friends, as doing so makes us feel like we are all helping one another!

Thank you very much!