I’d like to introduce a new idea to help organize your home: the Interactive Kid’s Chore Chart Cards! I was previously using a handwritten chore chart, but I kept forgetting to pay my kids for their chores, and they would forget to write down when they completed one. I needed something more visual for everyone, and got this wonderful idea from a woman at my local homeschool mom’s night this month!
Click here to download the Chore Chart Cards
Supplies needed:
- Cardstock (for my printable cards, tickets, etc)
- Pocket Chart similar to the one in the photo.
- Reward Stickers
- Small Prize box (you can make this anything you like)
- NOTE: Pages 24-29 are black and white images if you prefer not to print color.
Instructions for Slots:
1. Card with child’s name
2. – 6. Mon – Fri Chore cards to be completed
7. Reward tickets earned, Sticker Sheets, Best“ Bee-havior” awards
8. Extra Cards can be kept in the bottom slots
Directions for Use:
Put the assigned Monday – Friday task cards in the 2nd – 6th slots. When a task is completed, your child can turn the card backwards and place behind the remaining task cards for the day. (I used one color for each day just to try and keep things straight)
At the end of the day, look to see which tasks are completed and switch them out with reward tickets. At the end of the day or week, allow your child to spend his tickets on items in a small prize box (gum, candy, erasers, pencils, 5 Minutes iphone time etc). Instead of a prize box, you could also choose to let your kids exchange their tickets for money, we pay $0.25/ticket. This way they can save their money for something they want to buy, we also encourage them to tithe and save some of that as well.
If your child completes all the assigned tasks in a day, they receive a sticker on the reward card in the 7th slot. Once that reward card is full, they can exchange it for something more special like larger prize box, I use things like mini-Lego sets, Pet-Shop’s, Polly Pockets, computer time, TV time, Wii Time etc. Really the prizes are up to you.
I also included “Best Bee-havior” cards that you can reward when your child has displayed a good attitude for the entire day, helping others, being kind to siblings, or anything else you deem as outstanding behavior. These are very special for our family and are handed out only for very good behavior. They can be redeemed for something fancier like a trip to ice cream, a sleep over, etc.
If a task is not completed, the child does not earn tickets or stickers. Since my kids are still young, I do not force them to do any chores, it’s fairly optional except for the feeding of our animals.
My Chore Chart download includes all the cards you need for chores, tickets, sticker reward sheets and “Best Bee-havior” cards. I had some friends help me come up with common chores for their households so hopefully there are plenty to choose from. There is also a blank set of cards included so you can write in your child’s names, or specific chores that apply to your home.
I also have a Chore Chart for younger kids that is a little less intimidating and easier to use.
For this one, I just put the chore cards in slot #2 and when your child completes them they move the cards to slot #3. At the end of the day I change the cards out with tickets and put the chore cards for the next day back in slot #2.
Again, if they complete all their tasks for a given day, they get a sticker on the rewards chart in slot #4. They also can earn Best “Bee-havior” tickets as well. This download includes less chore cards, a blank sheet for you to add in your own, Best “Beehavior” cards and colorful tickets.
You can find the small Tabletop Pocket Chart at Lakeshore Learning.
Hope the chore rewards idea works for your family!
Click here to download the Chore Chart for Older Kids
Click here to download the Chore Chart for Young Kids
(TIP: If you are having trouble getting the file to open in your browser window, RIGHT click on the download link, then select “SAVE LINK AS”. You will be prompted to save the file to your hard drive.)
Here’s a great idea from Shining Our Lights for setting up the chart for little ones!
I love how she uses velcro to put the cards on, then replaces them with tickets as chores are completed! Great idea!
I’ve gotten some great emails from you all and would love to see how everyone is using the chart, if you have pictures, make sure to link up so we can see other ways to use it!
Idea for someone concerned about plastic… I am planning on using this with a cork board. I don't have big enough card stock to print out everything on so I'm just going to tape/glue the chores I want to index cards with enough space to use a push pin with.. I'm not sure how long the cards will hold up, but this is my idea for now until I can find a cheaper plastic option.Thanks so much for this idea, I've been trying and trying to make my own for so long and it was so tedious to search for clip art for the chores that I wanted (my daughter is just starting to read).. and I wanted a reward system as well. THANKS!
I am loving the idea of your system. We've tried so many and really hoping this one works. I'm having trouble thinking of prizes and how much to assign each reward. Could you give some advice and suggestions? How many bee cards do they have to get to earn a big thing?Thanks Wendy
Anonymous: In our prize box I have small sets of legos ($3-$5 range), bakugan balls and zoobles (girl bakugans) lip gloss, gum, CHEAP barbies ($3-5), polly pockets and pet shops. I got most of my prizes at the after Christmas sale.I think just whatever your kids are into and can be motivated by!I used to have a bunch of things like pencils, erasers, balls but nobody seems to want those so i upped the price. My kids earn an average of 25 tickets/week so 1 toy in my box is 25 tickets. They can also trade the tickets in for .25cents if they want to save money for something else. But this way there are toys in there they actually want and I don't have a bunch of little junk floating around.I only have them earn 1 bee card to do something like ice cream, but I only hand them out if they're above and beyond on kindness! We've only had 1 so far sadly…sigh.
I love this chore chart; Thank you! I downloaded it and found that pages and found that pages 21-25 have black and white chore cards, but there aren't any tickets in black and white. I would really like the tickets in black and white so I can just print them on colored card stock. I hope that's not a ton of work, but I saw other people asking for the same thing.Thanks for all the hard work you put into this blog.
Love this! Thanks for sharing! I purchased your Letter of the Week curriculum & totally love your site! You are fabulous! Being a homeschool veteran, I absolutely appreciate a person (you) who has done all the hard work behind the scenes, so I can focus on the FUN w/ my kids!~Sheri
This is fantastic! I tried something like this a couple of months ago but this is way more simple and right there all put together for me. I'm going to give it one more go with my three boys and we can add our princess in a couple years when she's old enough. Thanks so much for all of your hard work!
Thank you!!!
This is AWESOME!! Thank you! 🙂
I purchased my chart and made one almost like yours about 2 years ago! It was such a life saver. Great minds must think alike…PS… I have 11 kids so my chart was 3 times the size of yours! LOL!
WOW you are so awesome for sharing THANK YOU so very much!!