Oh, chores for my kids! How I love and dislike having my kids do chores! I love when chores get done happily and quickly and how it helps me around the house, helps me feel like I’m teaching my kids to work, and actually helps my kids feel good about themselves, if all goes smoothly.
And then I dislike having my kids do chores. I dislike the struggle, and I don’t like enforcing them when when no one feels motivated and reminding them until I am blue in the face to get them done, and I don’t like the time investment it takes me sometimes to make sure they do them right.
HOWEVER, I will stick with it, because it’s good for all of us. They will eventually be able to do a bit better job on some of them, and I really don’t mind helping them learn beside me as I show them how to do it properly. That’s time well spent if we keep it positive! That’s the trick, isn’t it? To stay positive and help them along and help them be cheerful while they do their tasks.
What you’ll need:
-magnetic sheets (found in 8”x12” sheets at home depot by the gutter materials)
-one” circle labels and printer
-mod podge and brush
-magnets. You’ll see here the magnet strip, but I changed to the button magnets because they had a stronger hold
-wooden circles from Hobby Lobby (you’ll get about 30 large circles per package, for about $2.99 a package—use a coupon to get an even better deal!). *I think if I had known, I would order some better quality ones off of Etsy!
-spray paint if desired
-frames (these are from Target, on sale for $3.29)
-print-offs of charts
DIY:
I don’t have a whole lot of pictures for the steps since it’s pretty self-explanatory. I painted my wood chips and put my labels with the printed chores on them, then mod podged over the tops. I made sure the paint was very dry before doing this. 
I cut my metal sheets with scissors and just about killed my hands, but I survived, ha ha! I mod podged the charts onto the boards, making sure to let it dry between coats, and framed them. 
To hang them, I bought some of the nail-less hanging sticky tabs, which I made sure to follow the instructions to a T, so they wouldn’t fall and break!
And now, each night before bed, I choose which chores I will have them do. I rotate some of them and find it will be helpful to keep a paper for my reference which days and which child should do certain chores. But they actually have done pretty well with these and LOVE to move them to the DONE section. In fact, they choose which one they’ll be doing next and put it on the line, so it’s almost done.
A few words on my materials and methods to take note of:
-I left my second batch of chore magnets unpainted and liked them better. Basically I chose a yellow so close in color that you can hardly tell the difference on the boards! So skip this step unless you want a fun color behind the labels.
-I used Avery circle removable labels and had a heck of a time figuring out how to print them. Good luck ;). I mod podged over the tops so the labels were no longer removable and cute little kid fingerprints wouldn’t ruin them, either.
-I created my chore charts as 8x10 in picmonkey and used a background from Design House Digital (thank you for posting about these both, Cheri!). The background on my charts is from THIS set. I sent them to be be printed at Costco, making sure to not allow autocorrect for color!
-when I bought the wooden circles a couple years ago, they were $2.33 and the circles were thicker than the package I bought recently. We have had one chore magnet break in half, which is a bummer but the kids are more careful with them now.
-I mod-podged the backs of the magnets because they were leaving black marks on the chore charts. I also mod-podged over the tops of the charts as mentioned, after watching THIS YouTube video for good tips. And it worked! No bubbles.
-I do have a problem with the magnets sticking to the boards sometimes, which is frustrating and I’m sure it’s what caused the wood to break on one of the chores. Especially if they haven’t been moved for a while. I didn’t mod podge the backs of the magnets until after I noticed the black markings, but they stuck before that as well. I’m not sure what you can do to stop that apart from skipping the mod podge step, but I was too worried about fingerprints ruining the charts. I wonder if brushing the surface lightly with baby powder or something would help??? I made sure to dry thoroughly before coats, and made sure to dry overnight before using the boards with the magnets. If anyone has tips for how to stop the magnets from sticking so strongly because of the decoupage, I’d love to hear it!
-This, like all other chore systems I do, will likely get old. I plan to counter that by offering different reward systems rather than changing the whole chore system. So weekly I’m thinking each chore will earn something different, like a jelly-bean, or a nickel, for example.
-I’ve made all sorts of chore magnets, and they actually like to have such a variety. And I can choose the ones that need to be done!
-Obviously Poppy doesn’t read yet, but she just chooses a chore, runs to us and asks us what it is, then runs and puts it back. The rule is they STAY on the boards so they don’t get lost! You could use pictures instead of words, which I have done in the past, but decided I wanted this to last a while so I’d use words. And really, what picture would I come up with for scooping the dog poo? Just kidding.
-And finally, but definitely the most important, I found my inspiration for these charts on pinterest, HERE!
Here is our very long list of chores!
-clean room, make bed
-get dressed, brush teeth, comb hair
-practice piano
-read 20 minutes
-read scriptures and pray
-water flowers
-feed hermit crabs
-feed dog
-scoop dog’s poop
-homework
-piano lesson
-empty garbage
-help with laundry
-take dirty clothes downstairs
-vacuum front room and family room
-pull weeds
-pick up trash in yard
-sweep kitchen
-straighten family room
-mow lawn
-take dog for walk
-dust bedroom
-dust family room and front room
-straighten front room
-vacuum stairs
-wash mirrors
-wash windows
-wash walls
-wash baseboards
-help make dinner
-set table for dinner
-help clear table after dinner
-empty dishwasher
-vacuum couch
-write thank you notes
-wipe down bathroom
-clean out van
-wash cupboards
-wipe down microwave
-take out/bring in garbage can
-shovel snow
-rake leaves
-sport practice
-load dishes
-pick up toys
-surprise chore!
Hope you are all having a great week! This is our last week of summer. :(
I’m sad but we’ll be having a fun week, so that will be good!
27 comments:
Thank you so much for this post. I want to let you know that I posted a link to your blog in Creative Busy Bee Craft Inspirations, under the Page 1 post on Aug. 14, 2012. Thanks again.
Thank you so much for this post. I want to let you know that I posted a link to your blog in Creative Busy Bee Craft Inspirations, under the Page 4 post on Aug. 14, 2012. Thanks again.
Ah...love this!! Functional and pretty..perfecto!!
Looks so great! I really like this idea for when my kids are older.
This is so cute Christie! I think it's my favorite chore chart that I've seen yet :).
This is absolutely beautifull Home
This is absolutely beautifull Home
Thanks for the information... I really love your blog posts... specially those on Celebrity corporate club
Dozens of free printable chore charts at lemonsqueezyhome, behavior charts and reward charts you can download and print for free. Or, download customizable blank chore charts for ...
Try spraying with varnish after you modpodge. I use that for tole painting to keep wood pieces from sticking and then lightly sand with brown paper bag to smooth the surface. That might work for you.
What a clever idea and so appealing to the eye! I love it! :))) TFS!
Best Business Brands... thanks for the spam! :-(
These are great! For the stickiness problem, spray with a couple coats of acrylic sealer. Mod Podge makes some, but any brand would work.
What about contact paper over the board instead of modgepodge? You'll get a bit of a "frosted haze" but it won't be as sticky. You could even just use cutout pieces of contact paper to make the charts and attach the childs name plate.
Microsoft Word has templates for the Avery labels which should make it much easier to print on them. Great charts!
Perhaps using a fabric covered cookie sheet would work better? Of course, it would not be so easy to clean, but it would not be sticky either.
Love this! It's so cute. I just bought some from Target because I was desperate but the magnets are lame, etc.. Maybe I'll find some time to do it right!
Implementing this idea!
Acrylic sealer or varnish will both work to prevent the stickiness. I learned this from making photo coasters. Our drinks kept sticking to the modged podged coasters! I did a few coats of varnish, and now all is well.
These are awesome. I've just got to find somewhere here in Australia to get the magnetic sheets. It's tough to find supplies here. Thank you for sharing
Ha ha! "Scoop dog pooh" on he fridgie just doesn't sound very appetizing when helping ourselves to brownies in the kitchen. I disguise our dogs fertilization with the nic name "Doggie Diamonds". Cleaner way to make a picture out of it too lol. Great idea though. My children are grown and out of the house but I have tons of notebooks filled with my daily chores lists going back 12 years. This is an epic way to save on paper.
I love this idea! I just came over from Pinterest.
As far as the magnets go, I order mine from Ebay and they're super strong and tiny - but you can get them in different sizes. They come in bulk and you can get them at great prices! Not sure what they're called specifically but they're silver and won't leave black marks or smudges. I just did a search on Ebay for "tiny strong magnets" and found some - and "strong magnets" and found some that look to be the size you used. Hope that helps someone out!
~Jennifer
Love these! I didn't have a chance to read the whole post, but I'm pinning it to come back to later!
Love it great idea I have 5 kids always need good ideas we are a very bizzy family all my kids play sports and one does dance so hard to all be home at once with this choir list no one can say I don't know what choir is was to do
Hello, I am curious what font (the cursive) you used. Adorable chart!
Good question! The font is called Lobster.
You probably already answered this, but I was trying to find the form for the actual chore chart to mod podge. Would you mind posting a link to the form? Thanks in advance.
Rae, I just mentioned the program I used to create them--I used picmonkey but also Digital House Designs to get the background. Hope that helps!
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