Fastest DIY Harry Potter Inspired Chore Chart. Plus a Chore List Freebie!

*Note: Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts characters, names and related indicia are trademarks of and © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Harry Potter, Fantastic Beasts and Pottermore Publishing and Stage Theatrical Rights © J.K. Rowling. All Rights Reserved. The use of Harry Potter here is for entertainment only and not for sale or profit.*

I have turned my entire family into Harry Potter fans. Josh took some convincing, since most widely popular teen novels aren’t something he would be interested in, but he finally read the novels and was won over. Isabella read them and is a new fan- I would even use the word obsessed. Hunter hasn’t read the books yet, but feels like he has after listening to our conversations and watching a couple of the movies with Isabella. In my early twenties, I related to Hermione Granger, hard. I even had her unmanageable hair growing up! (The book hair, not the prettified movie hair). Now that I am a mom, I identify with Molly Weasley. She is the best mom! Who else could’ve kept that family in line? I can’t believe she kept the twins out of prison!! I aspire to be as good of a mom. Every mom who agrees, say, “hell yeah!”

 

When it came time to do a chore chart, it made sense to use Harry Potter as inspiration. One of the reasons we need a chore chart is order and expectations. I kept telling the kids to help out and they were angry at how vague that was- which is fair. They wanted solid guidelines- both of them begged me for a chore chart and allowance. Josh and I fully agreed that it was important for them to learn to manage expected jobs and money.

“As the kids do things throughout the day, I get to shout out “two points awarded to Gryffindor” or “two points taken from both houses”, which is cool and fun for me. I’m a mom- simple things make my day way more fun, especially if they are nerdy.”

Now- we DON’T give allowance based on chores. When they grow up, no one is going to pop in and pay them for doing the dishes or making their bed! I wish this happened- I would be rich. It just has to be habit and their own standards creating the need for action. However, we do give points for completed chores. Yes, like house points awarded at Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardy. These points are added up for the week and can be “spent” on the weekend for video game time. Every child is different: Our kids get keyed up and anxious after playing video games or watching a movie, so we don’t allow those during the week. Instead, they can save up house points and play or watch on the weekend, when sleep and focus don’t matter as much. Of course, school programs that use screen time don’t count as extra screen time. Their online math games and spelling practice are okay during the week and are termed homework.

Allowance is based on good behaviour. Lying, cheating, hitting, etc will result in little or no allowance given that month. We have never had a problem. They get a TINY amount compared to other kids, but we do what our budget allows. Plus, I find that the longer they have to save for something, the more that they appreciate it. Most of the time, Hunter realizes, halfway through saving, that he didn’t want it in the first place. We have also told them that part of their allowance must go to saving and part must go to charity. Once they reach $100 in their charity fund, they pick a spot to donate it to. For saving, Isabella has started a future travel fund and Hunter is saving for school. Sometimes they resent having to split up their money but it’s a good learning experience.

“Now- we DON’T give allowance based on chores. When they grow up, no one is going to pop in and pay them for doing the dishes or making their bed! However, we do give points for completed chores, which can be spent on screen time.”

The chore chart system is a really simple one. I use a peel and stick chalkboard from Chapters like THIS ONE  and it is the perfect size to put on the wall in the pass-through to the kitchen. I wanted something flat so it didn’t jut out and take away from walking space. (I’m clumsy and knew I would always be bumping into it if it stuck out). I applied those to the walls and then used a chalk pen to divide it into “points” and “$”.

We took the Pottermore quiz and had ourselves sorted into houses. Each person got a different house(!!) but we all got a house that suits us. Isabella got Ravenclaw (which she was hoping for), Hunter got Gryffindor (I thought maybe Hufflepuff), Josh got Slytherin (but wanted and expected Gryffindor, which we had all guessed, but this suits him too cuz he is so clever and critical), and I got Hufflepuff (I was gunning for Ravenclaw but think this does suit me the best). What house are you in? I would love to hear about it in the comments.

With the houses sorted, I used those as my basis for the charts. As the kids do things throughout the day, I get to shout out “two points awarded to Gryffindor” or “two points taken from both houses”, which is cool and fun for me. I’m a mom- simple things make my day way more fun, especially if they are nerdy.

So, in the end, our chalkboards look like this:

 

 

 

You can arrange it however you like, but I found this allows the most room for points. I add the money in the next line each month and make the kids do the addition themselves- same with the points. So I will have to add “Travel: 20+10”, and so on, and make Isabella or Hunter write the totals. (Sneaky math practice! A-ha!). When we run out of room, I will erase it and put the total at the top, like you see here, and we can keep adding to it. As you can see, Isabella is REALLY good at spending her money. She just bought a few writing supplies and is back at zero.

So how do they get the points? Chores and behaviour! Our list is constantly changing as we perfect it for our family. The current one is close to perfect and I it have posted to the fridge. I am also going to use a typed up and laminated version upstairs to keep the kids on task. The fridge version looks like this:

 

 

If your kids are younger or older, you will probably have some other ones to add on to it or ones that don’t apply yet and you would delete from this list. Here is the FREE PRINTABLE of the House Points List, slightly modified.

Now, the chores. My kids are 9 years old and 7 years old, so I tried to keep the chores suitable for both of them. I used plain index cards that cost less than a dollar at Walmart and my favourite gel pens  and wrote a bunch of chore ideas on them. I colour-coded the chores based on room or floor. Pink is the kid’s room or area, blue is the kitchen and purple is living room and playroom.  I just love colour-coding and sorting. It also makes it easier to pick out chores for the kids so I can have them in different areas and not distracting each other. I keep each colour separate with oversize paper clips.

I know that thinking of chore duties is tedious, so you can use my FREE PRINTABLE of the Chore Cards! Here is what my index cards end up looking like:

 

All that is left is to hang them up so that the kids know what chores are to be done after school. Since they have such limited time between school and dinner (often followed by after-school activities), I only put a few up at a time. Some days, there are only two tasks to complete. There are a lot of different ideas out there on the internet: from magnets, to velcro, to felt, but I found that just a string and paperclip system worked best for us. I used a cute string and cat paperclip system I already had and cut the string in half so there was one for each kid. I put their names on index cards and taped those beside the strings. The best part is, if I move it, I just need to fill in two tiny holes. Each day, I take a few cards from my chore card stacks and post them on the wall, like this:

 

This whole setup is hidden in the tiny wall passageway that connects our kitchen to our living room, so we pass by it everyday but we aren’t staring at it as we are eating or relaxing. In total, the chore setup looks like this:

 

 

And that’s it! Simple, nerdy, engaging and fun.

Here are your FREE PRINTABLE HARRY POTTER CHORE CARDS to use on your own board. I hope they make chores more fun for your kids.

And if you want, here is the FREE PRINTABLE HOUSE POINTS LIST. I have a couple of printed and laminated copies around the house. 🙂

 

Let me know if you try out this Harry Potter Chore Chart! I would be excited to hear about it in the comments or tag @babblingpanda_wynne on IG so that I can see your creations.  I would love to see what you come up with!! 

Read more here:

Brainwave: How I Saved My Mornings.

Organizing Collections and Letting Ideas Flow.

 

Isabella’s Room Redecoration