Coupon Chore Book

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A few years back, I created an illustrated chore chart to get my kids to do their chores. I really liked the concept behind this hands-on, velcro driven chart. My kids liked it too. However, my design had one flaw. It didn’t account for my laziness. Having to setup their charts EVERY day just took to much effort. We fell off track within a couple months. I really think this coupon-style chore booklet is going to fix that problem.

The idea for a coupon chore book occurred to me around Valentine’s day when I was seeing lots of ideas for coupon books. Mostly, they were ones that people could give to their significant others. Those coupon books made me think, “Man, wouldn’t it be great if my kids gave me one of those.” Then I thought, “Hey, why not just make that happen?”

I decided to use the chore images I created to make coupons that my kids can rip out of the book when they complete a chore. Initially I was thinking that I would make them each a booklet that would last a week. However, I decided that was too ambitious for both my kids and myself. I settled on creating a chore book for the month.

For the first trial month, I only put in one of each chore (so about 20 chores total). Some of the chores, like “make your bed” and “put away toys,” are supposed to be daily chores anyway. However, since they don’t actually get done daily, I included one of each. I figured if they could focus at least once this month on making their bed really well and thoroughly putting away all their toys, it would be good practice.

To make it easier for my younger kids to know which book was theirs, I added different colors to the front of each of the four books. Then I placed them on a little end table in our house so the kids would see them regularly.

It is now nearing the end of the month, and with very little prompting, most of my kids’ books are almost empty. Since I also only give them an allowance once a month, I think they assumed they wouldn’t get their allowance if they didn’t finish their book. I recently explained that I didn’t want chores to be tied to allowance. Chores are not optional. They cannot decide to not do them in exchange for not being paid.

Since they now know that they are expected to their chores out of the goodness of their hearts, we’ll see if they get done again next month. I figure as time goes on, I will make their monthly books a little thicker. During our trial run, 2 of my kids completed nearly half their chores in one day, because they were motivated to get them out of the way. As long as they are doing work without me having to nag them, I’m not complaining.

Using checkmarks to note completed chores

The way I have been using them, the kids rip out the pages from their books as they complete them. This means I will need to create new booklets at the beginning of each month. If you wanted to save time, you could initial in the booklets or write the date the chore was completed, so they could be reused over several months. Hole punching is another idea that would allow them to be used longer. It might also work to make permanent ones by laminating the pages and checking them off with a dry erase marker.

Using hole punch to note completed chores

Coupon Chore Book Info

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary
Time Required: ~30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Free printable

Materials

Paper for printing chore coupon book (Note: you may or may not want the all the “available chores.” Print the ones you want and extras of the blank page to add your own.)

Supplies and Tools

stapler (not shown)
scissors

Instructions

Print the desired pages of the chore coupon book and cut them out.
Assemble the booklets and staple them together.
Explain to your kids that after they complete the chore, they can rip the page out of their books. (Or have you sign/check/hole punch it.)