How to set up an electronic family calendar.
An electronic family calendar replaces the paper one on the fridge with a shared screen everyone can see and edit. Here's what it is, the three ways to build one, and a setup that works without buying a $300 display.
An electronic family calendar is a digital, always-on calendar shared across a household — usually shown on a screen in the kitchen and mirrored on everyone's phones — where each person has a color and every appointment, practice, and pickup lives in one place. It replaces the paper wall calendar with something that updates itself and that the whole family can edit.
The short version of setting one up: use a screen you already own (an old iPad beats a dedicated display), put a family-calendar app on it, give each person a color, mount it where everyone passes, and subscribe to the school and activity calendars so they fill themselves in. The steps below do exactly that.
How to do it.
Know the three kinds of electronic family calendar.
There are really three ways to build one. A dedicated display (Skylight, Hearth) is a touchscreen that hangs on the wall and runs one calendar — beautiful, but $300–$700 plus a yearly membership for the good features. An app on a tablet you already own (HomeHQ, Cozi) gives you the same wall calendar for the price of the app. And a "smart" paper-board replacement just means a screen showing a calendar instead of a whiteboard.
For most families the second option wins: the same always-on, color-coded family calendar, on hardware that's already in the house, for a fraction of the three-year cost.
Pick the screen — an iPad you already own is plenty.
You don't need to buy hardware. Any tablet from the last several years works as the household display; an old iPad in a kitchen stand is the most common setup. Plug it in so it's always powered, and it becomes a permanent electronic family calendar instead of a drawer device.
A dedicated display is genuinely nicer to look at, but you're paying hundreds of dollars and a subscription for a screen — the calendar itself is the app running on it.
Put a family calendar app on it and give each person a color.
Install a family-calendar app and add every household member, each with their own color. One color per person (not per category) is what makes the week readable at a glance from across the room.
Once the colors are assigned, leave them alone. Everyone learns "purple means my kid" surprisingly fast, and reshuffling resets that.
Mount it where the family actually passes.
A counter stand by the coffee machine or a wall mount by the door beats a perfect spot no one walks past. The whole value of an electronic family calendar is that it's glanceable without anyone opening an app.
Set the screen to stay awake while charging (or use the app's always-on display mode) so the calendar is just there, like the old paper one was.
Subscribe to the school and activity calendars by URL.
School portals, sports leagues, and many clubs publish an iCal/ICS link. Add each one to your calendar so games, half-days, and deadlines appear automatically and stay updated — no retyping, no missed schedule changes.
Give subscribed calendars a neutral color (grey) so they read as context rather than as a person's personal schedule.
A few things that'll save you time.
- !A calendar you have to wake up is a calendar people stop checking, so keep the screen always on.
- !Add travel time as its own short block before anything that isn't at home — a 4:00 practice 20 minutes away is really a 3:40 commitment.
- !Stick with one color per person; color-by-category looks tidy but tells you nothing about whose day is packed.
- !Pick an app that syncs two-way with Google Calendar so events you add on a phone show up on the kitchen screen and vice versa.
Skip the $300 display — use the iPad you own.
HomeHQ turns any iPad into an always-on, color-coded electronic family calendar: one shared schedule for everyone, per-member kid views, chores, and meals, mirrored on every iPhone and synced two-way with the Google Calendar you already use. No new hardware, no $699 wall panel.
See the family calendar app →Questions families ask.
An electronic family calendar is a shared digital calendar for a whole household, shown on an always-on screen (often a kitchen tablet) and mirrored on each person's phone. Every member has their own color, and everyone can add and see appointments, practices, and pickups in one place. It replaces the paper wall calendar with something that updates itself and that the whole family can edit.
It depends on whether you want to buy hardware. Dedicated displays like Skylight and Hearth look great but cost several hundred dollars plus a yearly membership; app-based options like HomeHQ or Cozi give you the same color-coded family calendar on a tablet you already own for far less over three years. For an Apple household that wants an iPad on the counter plus chores and meal planning, an app is usually the better value. Our digital-family-calendar guide compares them side by side.
No. Any tablet from the last few years — an old iPad is the classic choice — works as the household display when you keep it plugged in. A dedicated touchscreen is nicer to look at, but you're paying hundreds of dollars plus a subscription for a screen; the calendar itself is just the app running on it.
It updates itself. Subscribed school and activity calendars fill in automatically, everyone can edit from their phone, color-coding makes it readable at a glance, and it sends reminders. A paper calendar only shows what someone remembered to write down — and only to people standing in front of the fridge.
Bring the calm home.
30 days free. Then $12/mo billed annually, or $14.99/mo. Your whole household, on the iPad and iPhone you already own.