This information is brought to you by Calroo Family Calendar app. All opinions are my own. #SummerGuide
Summer is my favorite time of the year – but it’s also our busiest time. With all the road trips, family visits, camping trips, kids’ summer camps and play dates we’re constantly on-the-go. Until recently, my husband and I were using several apps, plus email and texting to keep track of all of our family events, tasks and shopping lists. Then I discovered Calroo, a new family organizer app. Now the task of managing our family’s schedule became much easier.
Calroo gives your family one central place where you can see, plan and manage all your family’s activities. With Calroo,
- You know exactly who is doing what, with a color-coded family calendar that shows who is participating in each event or task
- You get reminder alerts for events and tasks you need to do – so that nothing slips through the cracks
- If you’re are stuck in traffic, you can hand off an appointment or task to your spouse or family member with a simple swipe
- Your grocery, shopping and packing lists are instantly shared and synced with your family members’ phones
- You can exchange messages and photos with you family members – so that you can be the engaged parent you always wanted to be
One of the things I like about Calroo is that it’s completely ad-free, even in its free version. This way, I can focus on my family’s schedule without any distractions.
Speaking of versions, another cool thing about Calroo is that when you download the app from the App Store, you automatically get a free 30-day trial of Calroo Pro – no credit card required. This way, you can try all the different features of Calroo for free before deciding whether it’s worth the $1.99 per month for your family to get the premium features. (The app is still useful even if you don’t pay for the premium version. All your events, tasks and lists will still be there, and you can still use all the free features.)
My absolute favorite premium feature is the ability to ask family members for help with a simple swipe. I love that I get an explicit confirmation that they accepted the handoff, so that I can rest easy knowing that my son will get picked up from soccer practice.
Other premium features that I appreciate are:
- Having my Google calendar sync with Calroo calendar. When any events get added, deleted or edited on the Google calendar, these changes are instantly reflected on Calroo.
- Being able to control what the different family members see on Calroo. You can grant “limited access” to some of your family members like nanny, babysitter or grandparent. They only see the events or tasks that you want them to see on your family calendar.
- Being able to keep private events private – like a surprise birthday party for your spouse.
One of Calroo features (which is available in both free and premium versions) that we use all the time is shopping lists. I created a bunch of lists, for each of our favorite stores. I have 20+ items on each list, and I just check and uncheck items as we buy them. No more texting back-and-forth of “oops, I forgot to add tomatoes to the list” and “never mind, we don’t need the chicken”. Lists are updated automatically and instantly, and everybody sees exactly what we need.
Another feature that I really like is how our tasks and to-do’s are shown on the Calroo calendar. If I add a to-do item like “buy groceries” (something that doesn’t have a specific due date but just needs to get done), it goes right to the top of our shared family calendar. It then stays there – rolling over from one day to the next – until it gets done. It’s a great anti-procrastination tool!
I can assign any task to someone else in my family by simply swiping it to the left. When the task gets done, you just tap the checkmark next to that task, and it disappears from the calendar. It’s really satisfying to get something off your to-do list!
We’re now experimenting with using Calroo to track our kid’s chores – kind of like a digital chore chart. We have daily chores for them to do. We set up a chores list for each of the kids. They check items off their list on the family iPad as soon as they get them done. It’s a race to get to 0 items on the list!
Reduce stress, save time, get more help, and become the organized and engaged parent you always wanted to be. Try Calroo today!