Jacket on! / Jacket off!

I'm certain all parents struggle with getting their children to pick up their coats/shoes/hats/socks/toys/what have you. In our household, it's fairly typical day when I'm asking my kids to pick up their _______ [coats/shoes/hats/socks/toys].

My five-year-old daughter has become very good at cleaning up and helping. In fact, she gets very excited about getting to help. (Oh, how I wish I had her enthusiasm for cleaning.) My son, on the other hand, does not share his sister's motivation for tidiness, nor does he even have such desire. I understand this is partly due to maturity, partly due to gender, and partly due to temperament.

A few nights ago, I was griping on my facebook status that I was sick and tired of picking up all the extraneous kid objects strewn from front door to back door, upstairs to downstairs. I remember having a similar gripe not long after watching the Karate Kid (the new Jackie Chan version) and wanting to have my son do a similar task - "Jacket on! Jacket off!" 



So, the next day when we came home from school, I ventured to do JUST that. Sophia thought it was a new game ("Mom, I love the new game!"). But she got bored and went to go play. Aidan, the target of this lesson, was not thrilled to stay and play. But I think he eventually learned his lesson. Only time will tell.

Scheduling Mishaps

Last fall, in my attempt to be more organized, I ambitiuosly bought a calendar whiteboard and added my schedule, my kids' activities and my husband's work schedule - all cutesily color-coded, too. It worked great - while it lasted. It's still quietly hanging in my dining room, mostly forgotten, with DECEMBER's activities cheerily posted on it.

In the meantime, I've tried a more electronic means to organize our calendar: Mobile Me, Google Calendars, Outlook. But nothing seems to be working.

Last night, my husband came home with his schedule for the next few weeks - he's in training at his new job. With my morning cup of coffee, I'm trying to figure out what to do next. I updated his google calendar, so at least I have something useful for when I schedule meetings. But this is getting incredibly complicated.

My kids do NOT participate in very many activities, but this scheduling thing is becoming more difficult to maintain. All of my reading about effectivness seems to imply that handling the same pieces information numerous times is  inefficient. It also seems rather time consuming to maintain several calendars - a whiteboard, an electronic one, my personal planner.

I'm open to suggestions. I'm curious what works for YOUR family.