Look, Link and Learn: Cozi--- What a GREAT free app!

"Free"
Wonderful word, isn't it?
How about pairing "Free" with the words "Very, very useful?"
Better, no?
How about "Free; very, very useful; and superbly easy to use!"
Got it for you with Cozi!

Cozi is my new favorite free app that is more than an app. It's a tool to keep the whole family in the know about what's going on. We don't all need Outlook or some complex site to get it all  shared!
Bliss!
The homepage is www.cozi.com and looks like this: 




Cozi allows our family to share a calendar, shopping lists, journal space and more from our computers, our phones and our tablets. I am an Android user and it works perfectly for me, so there's no need to have one of the ubiquitous "i" things to make it work. (Though it works great for y'all too!)


Our family accesses our family Cozi site using individual usernames, but with a shared password.  Each person can input his or her schedules or see what I'm doing to know whether I can or can't "take them," "drop them" or pick them up. They also are reminded of appointments that effect them by the color coding...with one unique color per person. There are enough colors for even my dear Guru with 11 kids to use!







This is our family's Cozi page. Note the tool bar on the left that allows even closer access to each part of our Cozi account than the homepage holds. Note the journal where we can all add notes, pictures or anything as often as we'd like, and we even have the ability to share/email it to family or friends who are not part of your account as well.




The Shopping List feature allows us to add things from any of our accounts, print, send to phones, and more. The nice thing is, from my phone I can check things off and add other things very easily.  (From my Smartphone, I have access to all the tools on Cozi as well.)   No more phone calls while I'm in the market to add one more thing. It's an easy add from any device to update the list.
The shared calendar tool is probably the best part of Cozi because it allows everyone to add what they are doing and check on the schedule in the larger or smaller sense.

Every piece of the schedule is easy to manipulate and customize. Easier (by far) than Outlook or Google Calendar. The kids can do it and so can we!

 There are far more tools and ways to customize and use Cozi than you can shake a stick at! For a homeschooling parent/family, this tool can make life much easier and more streamlined. This would be a great tool to keep a daily log in for those with littles and a great tool for those with teens, because everyone can input activities and keep track. To do lists, recipes and tips are easily at hand. I just love this thing!
I had checked it out when it first came out and it's vastly improved and they are updating it all the time. Great!

Check it out. You can't beat free, now can you?

Wordless Monday - August 8, 2011

This and this and this- Priceless.

K¹² is a top-notch, thorough, challenging curriculum.

Homeschooling provides  provides amazing ability to individualize education for each of my kids.

Our kids have gotten a world-class education.

All true statements. And I’m not saying any of this because I work for K¹².

None of this is lip-service.  I mean every one of those statements.

But I have to tell you what the very best thing has been about our 16 years of schooling at home and what  it has done for my kids and our family.

It’s this:

And this: 

 And this:

And this:

It’s the gift of family time. 

Watching the kids grow close. Watching them play and learn together. Laughing.  Creating. (OK, even bickering.)

It’s been watching their personalities be shaped by our collective family experiences and enhanced time together. It’s the time together and the times apart, missing one another, and seeing the crew come back together. My kids miss one another when they are apart.

It’s family meals, even with finicky eaters. And it’s having the kids, at younger and older ages, verbally tell me that family meals mattered…were important to them…and that they wanted to have them often during the week.

Family is the priority. The kids are the priorities. They are priorities together and apart.

And they grow and are gone so quickly from our home.Homeschooling is allowing us to send intelligent, educated, literate, well-rounded adults out into the world.

But it’s helped me give them something else. 

The kids have memories of family, of one another, and time together that they would not have had otherwise.

Thanks, K¹² and homeschooling, for the Family Time. 

Priceless.