How To: Creating Your Own Chore Chart

On the heels of some questions and discussion recently having taken place here about chore charts and with a little encouragement from another minti member (thanks for the push Donna, I think you're right), I've decided to share this here on Minti, it is slightly modified and cross posted from my personal blog. So, if you think you've seen it elsewhere you probably have - don't worry the copyright is mine. ;)

The following is just an example of how you might (and how I did) go about creating the perfect chore chart to fit your family's needs. The suggestions are just that, suggestions and the steps are fluid, let it work for you! The rigid aura about charts can scare many parents off, but it's important to remember that they don't have to be used rigidly. As you read through what we've done for instance you'll quickly see how a chart can even help to make rules less rigid and give a child more freedom. Helping them to learn how to largely police themselves from even a young age, thus reducing battles in the home and helping to foster a positive parent-child relationship by reducing tension and stress.  

When we found out we were expecting our younger daughter we realized, for simplicity's (and sanity's) sake, we were going to need to have a place to combine all the systems we were currently using with our older daughter to track chores, privilages, treats, and more into one. We scoured stores and online retailers to no avail. There were literally hundreds of available products out there, but none that really fit our needs. So, with that we decided to design our own. The beauty of it? It's adaptable so it can grow with us, it's huge so it's easy to display all of the information we need on hand in one place, it fits perfectly on the inside of our coat closet door which keeps it in the central area of the home but hidden from guests when we're entertaining, and of course it works for us. Below you'll find how we made it and how we use it. Pick and choose. Use what you can. Toss what doesn't sound relevant to your family. Most of all enjoy it! This should make chores and other tracking fun, not add another thing to dread to the list.

Materials:
Magnectic Dry Erase Board
Printable Magnet Paper
Electrical Tape
Utility Knife
Ruler

Step 1: Assess your needs. For instance, I knew I needed two columns or areas, one for each child. I also knew what all I wanted to track, chores that needed to be done, and ones that were, infact, already done. Privilages that were both available and unavailable at any given time, as well, and I wanted a small area to keep any notes relevant to the child at the time. I also knew I wanted to be able to have it grow with the kids, so it had to be a flexible design.

Step 2: Make a plan. I sketched mine out several times, laying it out differently, considering size an materials before I purchased anything.

Step 3: Once you have your plan complete, purchase your materials and construct your chart. I simply used a magnectic dry erase board and electrical (black) tape. I used a utility knife to cut the tape lengthwise into varying widths to help distinguish one area from another. For instance I used full width of the tape to divide the board in two down the center, one side for the princess one for the Pea. Half width tape was used to divide the sub sections of their sides from one another and quarter width tape was used to divide the subsections into 'to-do' and 'done' or 'available' and 'unavialable' areas.

To make it flexible and able to grow with us we decided to print the chores and privilages on printable magnet paper. Each chore is in the shape of a star the background is pink for The Princess and purple for The Pea and for chores they alternate half pink and half purple. This way as they grow and aquire new chores we can simply print new stars to add to the chart. In the morning all stars start in the 'to-do' area and are moved to the 'done' area as they are completed.

Likewise, the privilages area contains magnets, also printed on the printable magnet paper, shaped like cookies that can be redeemed for a treat. As well as magnets shaped like television sets that can be redeemed for 30 minutes of media time, which could include watching TV, playing a video game, or playing on the computer. The number of these magnets you give each child will be dependant on what will work best for your family. Once they have redeemed the magnets for the day they are moved to the 'unavailable' section of the chart.

And the notes section? It's come to be used, for us, to help track behavior throughout the day. We use a red dry erase marker and any misbehavior warrants a red mark (we just make check marks). If there are three red marks earned in a day we take away a privilage, their favorite toy, or going over to a friend's house to play are good examples, and write it in their 'unavailable' privilages section. To earn the privilage back they have to have a 'zero red marks day'.