erinMakes

resources & thoughts for your home and school

Archives October 2023

Celebrating Hard Choices

We have so many arguments in our family these days! I need a way to acknowledge each child when they “do something hard to help our family” – by giving in instead of arguing, by cleaning up a mess that wasn’t theirs, by pitching in with the sad toddler when Mom’s hands are full. It’s easy to wonder if anyone notices when we help out in these small ways!

This simple chart hangs on our fridge for each kiddo so that they can show us when they’ve made a hard choice to help our family. Mom and Dad notice the stickers and ask them to tell us what they did! It’s a simple way for them to share their choices and get a bit of kudos from their grown-ups.

Sign up for my email list to get access to this Google Slides document so that you can edit and print this simple document yourself, or purchase the file here on TeachersPayTeachers. I’ll only email a few times a month (never more than once a week!) to let you know what new files I have available for your home, homeschool, or classroom.

Gamified Chore Charts Get Kids Excited to Help!

Simple? Yes. Easy to Use? Yes. Effective? Yes. This chore chart comes without a lot of bells and whistles, but because of its simplicity it’s the one I actually USE!

I have tried so many things to keep myself encouraging the kids to help with chores around the house. But I’ve found that anything that relies on ME to remind them fails pretty quickly; I just don’t have the brain space to remember all the things! While my kids still need some prompting, keeping a simple chore chart on the fridge has been one of the most effective ways that we keep going with chores in our house. Tracking points and working toward a goal makes it a game; kids are excited to accumulate points and celebrate together!


CHART FEATURES:

– blank banner at top; write in YOUR child’s name!

– blank lines to write names of chores (print and laminate for dry-erase!)

– gray boxes at the end of each row to add up chores completed each week

– “Total” lines at the bottom to count how many chores were completed. Set a goal for your children to reach, and celebrate!

WANT TO PERSONALIZE WITH YOUR CHILD’S NAME? Download my Google Slides version which you can personalize yourself.


I often keep the chores the same from week to week, but wanted a way to change them when I like, so I decided to make a chart that I could laminate and edit using dry or wet erase markers for each week. PRO TIP: I use wet erase to write the actual tasks, since I often want those to stay the same, and have the kids mark their progress with dry erase, so that they can erase each week without wiping out the chore names.

If you’re interested in downloading this blank chore chart to use in your home, head to my TPT page to download this file.


Do Your Kids LOVE Charts?

If your kids love the thrill of checking a box or peeling off a sticker, check out some more kid-targeted trackers to keep your little ones on task: