DIY chore chart

At 4, 2 and 0 (ages of our kids), while they might not be SUPER helpful (as in, "go take out the trash, go mow the lawn"), but we do think they can be doing things around the house.  Obviously we make them do stuff, but after getting some birthday money, Charlie kept asking to go back to Target and buy more cars.  Ummm.  Sorry, we don't just go to Target whenever and buy toys for you.  He then told Jimmy he wanted to earn some money to buy cars.  On the way to school, Jimmy called me and asked if I could come up with a chore chart for him.

Oh, yes I can.  So after browsing Pinterest and contemplating the easy option of buying a poster board and drawing on it, I decided to do it Brittany style and go completely over the top.  Because, I'm on maternity leave and I can.  I never have time to do fun stuff like this - so why not?  

I decided to go with the magnetic chore charts on Pinterest that the kids move the icon to "to do" to "done" when they are completed.  Easy enough.  After gathering the materials for all that, I had to figure out where to hang it.  While it would be easy to put downstairs, I thought it would be better upstairs, since a lot of the tasks take place in the morning/night (get dressed, brush your teeth, make your bed, etc.).  And I had the perfect wall.

While Charlie is the one that wanted the money, why not get everyone involved??  Maddie can do most of those tasks and I'm sure she'd like to earn some dough too, right (they don't have to know we are talking cents here...).  Mikey - well, poor kid.  He's a little helpless right now - so his "chores" consist of basically surviving through the day (sleep, eat, poop, nap, burp, pee - enough said) but I couldn't leave him out because someday he will be able -and hopefully willing - to help out!

I had these done for a while (along with the super easy DIY picture ledge I built), but on Friday, my dad showed up at my house in the morning after some miscommunication - and I asked him if he would help me hang these up.  Of course, he said yes, and then pretty much did the whole thing perfectly while I took care of Mikey.  Have I mentioned how awesome my dad is???

And I'm in love with the final product - so in love!

Charlie is pretty into it - Maddie is clueless, but I'm confident she will get there soon - and Mikey, well, he's only 5.75 weeks old.  So yeah.

Here's a closer look.  I love the picture ledge shelf and just used some items that I already had that weren't being used but I had stored in the basement.  Everything else is from Walmart.  And the chore chart icons were from this website I found via Pinterest.  

Charlie and Maddie have a goal of completing 6 of the 10 chores they have on their each day.  Then you move the little circle magnet at the bottom as you complete each chore until you get to 6.  Then you get your money for that day.  If you don't complete at least 6...no money.  We have still yet to determine how much per day.  I'm thinking 25 cents?  Maybe?  That would be $1.75 per week - sounds reasonable for a 4 year old?

I also got some jars from Target's dollar spot around back to school and there are 3 for each kid - Mikey did not get these because I'm not paying him for these tasks :) - but one will be to spend, one to save and one to give.  After studying finance and working in it for almost 10 years, I know the importance of having a good understanding of finances and your personal finances, so I know they won't understand, but I'm hoping that they can somewhat.  At least the giving part because at church each week they have an offering at Kids COR.  So we will see how it goes!

It was a fun and easy project (however, as Jimmy mentioned, yes, a poster board and markers would have been WAY easier and less expensive...) and I love the look of it.  Like I said, only one day in and Charlie just loves it and picked up his toys and put Toby away so he could move some over...so we will see if it sticks.  Anyone have any tips to making it hold?

Happy DIYing!