Friday, October 10, 2008

Checklists: Chore Charts

morning chore cards in pink, for a girl

Checklists of all sorts are useful tools - everything from packing checklists for travel to housekeeping checklists. For children, checklists often come in the form of chore charts.

It's easy enough to make your own - but here are some products which might catch your fancy - or inspire you if you do want to make your own. I've only listed ones that don't have the idea of a reward (beyond possibly a smiley-face sticker or magnet) built into the system - in case you agree with the ideas Alfie Kohn put forth in his book Punished by Rewards.

The chore cards above come from Rise and Shine Designs. The have four sets: Good Morning, Off to School, Good Night, and Pet. The first three come in either pink or khaki; the pet chore cards have cat and dig options.


responsibility chart

The Melissa and Doug Responsibility Chart shows up all over the internet; this is the newer version, which only a few sites seem to have so far.


Make Your Bed chore card

The Chore du Jour Kit has some of the cutest chore cards I've seen, but it's not entirely clear what's in the kit. (What exactly is a "clean room check list"?) And many of the cards seem designed for older kids: mow the lawn, wash the dog, etc.


Chore Chart - I Did My Chores

The I Did My Chores system does involve reward tokens, but I think you could use the board without using the tokens, if you wanted to. [Available many places, including Rainbow Resource Center, Inc.]


chore chart shaped like a house; chores are in the windows

This chore chart wallhanging comes from Pockets of Learning.


chore magnets

And another option would be the Fridgelife Chore Magnets.


wood chore chart - close-up of one part

If you want to go upscale, there are these wood chore charts from Craftcuts.com. Each one is totally customized with the chores and names you want - as well as the color for the board, the color for the lettering - and even the font!

To see some pretty neat chore charts that other moms created, take a look at
- Creative Organizing, by Aby Garvey
- Balancing Everything, by Jessica
- Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers, by Kris
- Raising Five, by Katherine
- Let's Explore, by Amy [via ohdeedoh]

Update: See even more chore charts here and here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been looking to get one of these for my kids. I didn't know that there were so many to choose from. Thanks!

Jeri Dansky said...

Glad to help, Anthony!