Last week one of our blog regulars messaged me. She asked me for ideas to set up an ‘appreciation corner’ in her kids’ room. She said she would like to set targets for her kids, motivate them as they move step by step and appreciate their achievement. I thought this was a great idea. I’ve done posts on boys’ rooms and girls’ rooms. Both are among the most popular posts on this blog. But neither of them discuss an appreciation corner.  So I jumped right at it. I’ve been reading up and researching all of last week, and here are my favourite chore-reward ideas for children (with links to all the pages I found them on).

And these are the reasons I love them.

(1) They’ll easily fit into any room, big or small.

(2) They’re colourful, interactive and easy for the kids to use themselves. Which makes it more likely that the kids would want to use them.

(3)  As a designer, I would happily use them as room decor in any kid’s room.

Chore-Reward Ideas for Children’s Rooms:

(1) Cookie Tray Chore Chart

Cookie trays spray painted to match your child’s room decor, washi tape to make columns, little personalized magnets with tasks on them. The child moves the magnets from the ‘To-do’ column to the ‘Done’ column as she finishes her task.

There is a little progress chart at the bottom which takes the child from ‘Start’ to the reward she’s aiming toward that week. Hang these up on your wall at a height your child can reach. It’s easy to use, reuse, and to change the task magnets as your child grows up and can take on more responsibility. (More details here)

(2) Post-It Chore Chart

Can it get any easier than Post-Its? Add as many kids, chores and colours as you like. The chores are printed out the Post-Its. You could also draw them or use stickers, or put in an outline and get younger kids to fill in the colours.

There are 7 boxes under each chore, 1 for each day of the week. The kids tick off the boxes as they complete their chores. At the end of the week they remove the completed Post-Its and put them in the pockets on the side. (More details here)

(3) Clothes Pins Chore Chart

Wooden clothes pins with a chore written on each one, clipped on to a separate bucket for each child.

The kids drop the pins into the bucket as they complete the tasks. So simple! (More details here)

(4) Ice-Cream Stick Chore Jars

Each chore goes on a separate ice-cream stick. It’s easy to add or remove sticks as you change the chores for the kids.

In this one, each child has their own washi tape pattern. So all the sticks go into one jar. The child picks up her colour, checks her chore, and places the ice cream stick upside down back in the jar when she finishes.

In this one each child has their own jar. The sticks have green stars on one end, for tasks to be done and red stars on the other, for completed tasks. As they complete the tasks and turn their sticks around, the green stars tell them how many tasks are still remaining.

(5) Ice-Cream Stick Chore Chart

Ice-creams sticks of different colours, each signifying a different task. Put 7 sticks of each colour in its task pocket, 1 for each day of the week.

The kids put the sticks in the day pockets as they complete the tasks for that day. (More details here)

(6) Paper Printouts

These could be as simple as finding your fave chart on Pinterest and printing it out. I really liked this one for little kids. The pictures are great for little kids who are too small to read.

How many of you can relate to the Summer Rules on this chart? I think I’ll customise one for my kids for their next vacation!

(7) Velcro Star Chart

Little bits of velcro make this one easy to customise. You can change the goals easily as and when required.

I love the little pocket of rewards in the corner.

(8) Cotton Ball Jars

This mom uses these jars for the ‘extras’. Not the chores that the kids are supposed to do anyways. This is for when they go out of the way and do things without being told. Helping a younger sibling with homework, maybe. Or being kind, courteous or thoughtful in any way. Every time that happens, mommy adds a cotton ball into the jar. When the jar is full, it’s reward time!

You could keep the jars simple as in this pic or decorate them in any which way. You could even give each child her own jar to decorate it.

Rewards:

Which brings us to the next step. These are supposed to be chore-reward ideas. We’ve got super systems to set up chore lists for the kids, but what about the rewards? Some of the websites spoke about giving money as reward. Though it is a personal choice, I somehow can’t relate to that. Should I pay my child for laying the dinner table every night? Then should he be paying me for making the dinner? We pay outside help to do work for us. Do we help family and friends and do stuff around our own home only if we’re paid for it? (I should be a multi-millionaire by now!)

(9) Reward Box

I loved the idea of a reward box, especially for really small kids. You can give the child coupons or punch a card as the child completes her tasks. They can then exchange these for goodies from the box. (More details here)

(10) Reward Coupons

I liked the idea of rewarding with experiences even more. You can download these printable reward coupons, along with a few blanks which you can fill yourself, over here.

This rounds up my fave chore-reward ideas for kids. They’re easy, cute and can be totally customised to your child’s age, personality and your family’s lifestyle.

Thanks Roopal, for requesting this post. It was a great opportunity for me to read and learn new things along the way too. I would love to do more such requests, so if you have any decor queries, do send them in. You could post it in the comments below or mail me personally here.

Time for me to go and figure out which chore-reward ideas I’d like to use with my kids…

Until next time,

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