Turn the old iPad into the family calendar
Every house has one: a tablet too slow for games, too good to throw away, flat in a drawer. It has one job left in it, and it is a genuinely useful one.
Last checked September 2026.
Why an old tablet is the right screen
A family calendar does not need a fast processor. It needs to be on, at eye level, in the room everybody walks through. An eight-year-old iPad is wildly overqualified for showing a week's agenda and a list of chores.
It is also the difference between trying this tonight and ordering a $300 display to find out whether your family is the sort that uses one.
Five steps, one evening
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1
Find the tablet
Any iPad, Fire tablet or Android tablet will do, including ones too old for the App Store. Charge it and put it on your home wi-fi.
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2
Create your family
Sign up for a free Nido account, add each child and give them a colour. Two minutes.
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3
Add chores and connect your calendar
Set up the repeating chores, then connect Google Calendar and pick which calendars to display.
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4
Open the kiosk link on the tablet
Nido gives your household a kiosk link that never logs out. Open it in the tablet browser and add it to the home screen.
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5
Stop the screen sleeping
Turn Auto-Lock off in the tablet settings and leave it on the charger. That is the whole install.
What it looks like when it is up
The board stays signed in and awake. Tick a chore off on your phone and the wall screen catches up on its own — there is no refresh button and nobody has to log in.
Getting the tablet to behave
Two settings do most of the work. Turn Auto-Lock (or Screen timeout) off so the board does not go dark, and leave the tablet on its charger — a screen that is always on wants power more than it wants battery life.
If the tablet has a Guided Access or screen-pinning mode, turning it on stops small hands wandering off into the browser. It is not required; the kiosk has nothing behind it to wander into.
Questions people ask
- Will Nido work on a really old iPad?
- Usually, yes. Tablets too old to run a modern web app get a stripped-down version of the board automatically — no modern CSS, no JavaScript required — so an iPad stuck on iOS 12 still shows the calendar and the chores.
- Do I need to jailbreak or install anything?
- No. The kiosk is a web page. You open a link and, if you like, add it to the home screen so it opens without browser chrome.
- How do I stop the screen turning off?
- On iPad: Settings, then Display & Brightness, then Auto-Lock, then Never. On Android the setting is usually under Display, then Screen timeout. Keep the tablet on its charger.
- Will the kids be able to get into my email?
- No. The kiosk is a separate link that is never signed in to your account. It shows the board and nothing else, so handing a child the tablet does not hand them your inbox.
- What if the tablet is too old even for that?
- Then use any other screen — a spare laptop, a monitor on a cheap mini PC, or the browser built into many smart TVs. If it loads a web page, it runs the board.
Try it on the tablet in your drawer.
Free for 2 kids and 10 chores, no credit card, nothing to deliver.
Build your nest — free