Three Great Chore Chart Ideas

If you want to use a chore chart to get your kids helping, there are many things you have to consider, such as their age, their attention span, their abilities, and what they will find motivating. For some kids a list of chores on a posted poster will work fine. For others, something a little more elaborate and fun is needed. The following are some tips and ideas for using chore charts:

Idea one: Sticker charts

A sticker chart is a list of chores that need to be done on one side of the paper, and the days of the week across the top. Then there is a grid that has boxes. Basically, how it works is that if on Monday your child makes their bed, they get to put a sticker on the box for making their bed on Monday. Then at the end of the week you can total it up. Many parents will add further incentive for a sticker chart in addition to getting to choose a sticker to put on the chart. For example, if you earn various amounts of stickers in a given week, you get further rewards. Let’s say each kid has ten chores in a day, such as 1. Make bed, 2. Take dirty laundry to room, 3. Put your own clean laundry away, 4. Do your homework. 5. Vacuum living room, 6. Clear dinner dishes from table, 7. Clean downstairs toilet, 8. Water plants, 9. Dust living room, 10. Pick up toy room. This means that in a week they have the potential for 70 stickers. You could say for every ten they earn they get a dollar. You could say for every ten they earn they get a privilege, etc. The rewards can vary, or you can have a bucket of toys, treats, etc. they can pick from.

Idea two: Checklists

A checklist chore chart is about as simple as gets. Basically you have the name of the child, and under their name you have their list of chores. This can be a different chore chart each day, or it can be a list that is theirs for the week. So, they may be on kitchen duty and laundry for one week, living room and bathrooms the next, and yard and dusting the next. You can attach an award system to this sort of chore chart as well. It is smart to create some sort of accounting system for the basic checklist chore charts.

Idea three: Index cards and shoe hanger

This is a great way to set up a chore chart. The way this works is you get an over the door pocket shoe hanger. Then, you assign a row to each child, and you use index cards. You write out the various chores, and you insert them into the pockets. This works equally well for older and younger children as you can do picture cards for little kids, and words for big. This makes rotating chores simple as well. You just have to switch around the chores, or the names. In addition, you can use the additional pockets, if there are any, to house the rewards, whether that is allowance money, toys, good for certificates, etc.