Creative Chore Chart

I tried to think of a fun way for my son to remember his chores as we begin to give him responsibilities around the house, and designed this fun chore chart.

You will need:

• Assorted Colored Felt
• One 12”x18” Sheet of Stiffened Felt
• Glue Gun (or Sewing Machine)
• Popsicle Sticks (Colored Sticks Work Well)
• Scissors (Strait-edge and/or Decorative-edge)

Good to have:

• Magnets
• Ruler
• Sticker Labels
• Writing Utensil

The Project:

Cut assorted pieces of felt into squares or rectangles to represent each day of the week and each chore.  Glue, or sew, the squares on the large piece of stiffened felt, leaving the top of the square open so you can slide the popsicles into each felt pocket.  Label the pockets according to its use.  Place the popsicle sticks into the appropriate slots at the beginning of the week, and you are ready to keep track of your child’s chores.  Every day, after a chore is completed, encourage your child to move one popsicle stick from the appropriate chore’s slot and place it in the pocket for current day of the week.

Tips:

• Think about what you would like to include on your chart, and use this as a guide when designing your own chart.  I suggest color coding, one color per chore, making the pocket for that particular chore’s popsicle sticks the same color as the sticks.   You could also write the chore or glue fun cut-outs that represent the chore (such as a tooth, for brushing your teeth) on one end of the popsicle stick.  The nice thing about marking them like this is that you will be able to look back later in the week and see what your child did and didn’t accomplish on certain days, as opposed to just seeing that three out of four tasks were completed.
• The size of the pockets depends on your design and how many sticks you are planning on keeping in each slot.  More popsicle sticks require a larger pocket with more room.  Fewer popsicle sticks allow you to make smaller pockets.  The entire project should be based on your personal design and the use you have for the chart.
• I spent a little time cutting out letters for the days of the week at the bottom of our chart, but you could use a marker, sticker label, felt/foam letter stickers, or anything else you can come up with.
• Put magnets on the back so you can hang it on your fridge.  Simple, available, and pretty.
• I doubled up on felt for aesthetic purposes, but you certainly don’t need to.  I think the felt will do just fine for the basic purposes of this chart and should last you quite a while whether you use one layer of felt or two.
• If your child is old enough, let them design the chart on their own.  Perhaps you could come up with a few designs of your own to get their ideas flowing, but this would be a great way to get them interested in their chart.
• You could easily design a reading chart (one stick per section finished or per time spent reading), homework chart (when they finish, you give them a stick to put in the day’s pocket), discipline tracker (one color for time-outs or offenses, another for good behavior), or other chart for whatever tasks you might be working on with your children. 
• The background felt comes in different colors.  You can make each child their own color of chart(s), or make each subject (discipline, homework, chores) a different color if you needed to.  If you want to use one chart for multiple children, assign each child certain colors of popsicle sticks or write their names on their popsicle sticks.  
• Customize it any way you can so that you will be more likely to use it!