I’m not going to pretend that I am not THRILLED that my kids are old enough to do REAL chores! We are now in a place with my oldest where he is doing a great job with his chores. He doesn’t need to be trained or directed much with the few he has been doing for a while.
However, the main thing we run into is DISTRACTION. He is easily de-railed and needs me to tell him what to do next. We need help with our chore system!
So, I’ve been on the search for some “chore packs“. There are many great chore pack ideas out there to get kids involved in the chores around the house. I have heard great things about the Mangers of Their Chores method, by the Maxwells of Titus2.com, and I liked the idea of giving the kids their chore list as something they wear which tells them what to do next. But I’m not sold that the name badges used will last long, or will stay on my rowdy little ones as they do their chores.
I loved this idea by Courtney over Women Living Well to use name badge lanyards, which seem like they would last much longer and would be more difficult to lose.
We headed to Target to see what we could come up with for our chore packs. We quickly had to change our plan, as Target did not have any sort of name badges. So, I started scouring the aisles for inspiration…and I think we’ve come up with something that will out-last any chore pack out there!
How to Make Your Own Chore Pack
This is what we purchased:
- A pack of binder rings
- Scotch Self-Sealing Laminating Pouches “for wallet size items”
- Letter Stickers
- Decorative stickers
- Pair of shoelaces (on clearance!)
This is what I used, which I already had at home:
- Card stock
- Paper cutter
- Hole punch
I cut out little cards to fit perfectly in the laminating pouch. (3 1/2in x 2 5/8in) A scrapbooking paper-cutter makes the cutting easy, but if you are looking for super-simple, just take some non-ruled 3×5 cards and cut them in half. They will shorter in width, but will still fit in the laminating pouches, and you can trim them down after you’ve sealed them.
Each of the kids made their own cards, using the letter stickers to spell out the chore and the decorative stickers to add to the cute factor. I think the words are adorable, all crooked and mis-matched.
Once they finished each card, I laminated them according to the directions (super-easy!) and we punched a hole at the top.
Once the cards were done, we put the cards on the ring…
…and the shoelace on the ring.
It just so happened, that we had some left over beads from another project which matched Anna’s stickers perfectly! So, her set of cards is super-cute!
Aren’t they cute?!
I’ve created a free printable DIY chore pack instructions, just for you!
Feel free to use it and share it on Pinterest, Facebook, etc. If you end up making your own, I’d love to see what you come up with! Enjoy!
Katie – this is such a great and creative idea!! Thanks so much – I see a Staples run in my future!!
Thanks, Aurie!
Share pics, if you end us doing them!
So cute…and a great way for me to teach my son how to read a few words.
Yes! I wrote the words down, and they got to find the letters and make the word. My 4 YO really enjoyed that! My 6 YO didn’t need much help with it.
Ooh, I do like this idea! I love that we could do all these chores (each child individually, plus mom!) together at the same time before we move on to other activities. Bookmarking this post! Thanks, Katie!
It was a fun project to do together. I plan to make more cards, with extra chores I can throw in there, or maybe fun things like “go grab a treat!”
I love this idea! That is so cute! My kiddos are all bigger now, the youngest is 11. So don’t think I need this anymore, but this sure would have been something I would have used with them. Great idea.
This is cool, I like it! I, too, have been wanting to find lanyards/name tags. I never thought about wallet-sized pouches. My plan is to make a tag that shows a stoplight with green, yellow and red. I’d like my daughter to be able to point to which color to describe what she’s feeling, as a way to monitor her emotions. (It’s not my own idea, believe me.) She has autism, so this is something she needs help with.
But I could also extend it to adding chore “name tags”! Cool!
I love these pouches! They have different sizes, and are easy to use. Many fun projects you can do with them!
The color chart sounds like a fun idea. I wonder if you could do different faces, too. Like a happy face, mad face, etc.?
What great looking chore packs!! We’ve had wall charts for a while and they’re getting raggedy from the changing out, and some of the cards are getting lost. I knew I’d seen “wearable” book-type ones to make for each child and was trying to brainstorm how I wanted to do it. I think you just saved me a lot of brainstorm activity! Thanks a bunch! Once I get ours done, I’ll try to remember to share a link with you :0)
Yay! Would love to see pictures! The kids had fun putting them together. I
‘Ve been taking some off on certain days, and want to add some more special tasks on it.
My 6YO is loving it. 4YO, not so much!