Simple Trick to Empower Kids: Free Printable Charts

It’s more than just a chart. This simple trick will help your kids learn good habits and keep doing them. Plus free printables to get started.

Today we’re sharing a simple trick to help your kids of all ages to learn skills and feel empowered. This simple trick isn’t exactly a secret, and is easy to implement. I wouldn’t call it a “simple” trick if it wasn’t. The FREE PRINTABLE will help make it fun for your kids and easy for you to keep track of.

Hey there!  It’s Alycia from Our Homestead Where My Heart Is.  I’m always looking for ways to make my life more simple?  How about you?  I’m sure I’m not the only one. 🙂  Being a mom is an incredible privilege.  But of course, some of the most rewarding things can also be the most challenging.  That’s why I’m here to share with you something that is working well for me and my family.  It is very simple, but useful.  I have been able to help my kids learn new skills and feel empowered by being able to do things on their own.  This is so important for humans at any age.  I’ve even been tempted to start a chart or two for myself!

So, here’s how it all started.

Every week as a family we have a family meeting where we discuss what has been working well in our home that week.  That is also a time where we can bring up anything we think is not working.  Lately, bedtime has been hard for us.  It would take hours, literally, for our bedtime routine and then the kids wouldn’t fall asleep without us in the room.  We had just finished potty training successfully using this method, so I thought I would give it a try!

It really can be this easy!

First things first.  You have to figure out what is going to motivate your kids.  One of my boys is a candy fiend so any kind of treat motivates him like crazy.  Another will do almost anything to earn a little bit more time playing the Wii.  As adults, we don’t want to work for free, so I don’t expect my kids to either.  Of course there are some things we just have to do because we’re human, and our kids are expected to do some things just because they live in our house.  But this is what we do when we’re asking them to do a little bit more, something extra.  I really want them to succeed, and a little motivator can be a push in the right direction.  For this particular chart my kids decided that they all wanted to earn fidget spinners.  They don’t have them yet but I can say that they are very very close to getting them.  This really does work!

How to implement it in your routine.

It is as simple as printing out the chart, hanging it up, and reminding your children of their goals.  Don’t forget plenty of sticker choices.  For my little one she is more excited about the stickers she gets to put on her chart than she is about the end result!  Every day I would remind my kids when it was close to bedtime what their goal was (falling asleep on their own before 8:30) and asked them if they had done what they needed to do in order to make that happen.  I didn’t have to ask them over and over again to put pajamas on, brush their teeth, or stop playing with toys in their beds. 😉

After they had earned a few stickers the novelty did start to wear off, so every week when we have our family meeting we do the same reminders.  We decided it would be fair to have them fill up this chart twice in order for them to earn a fidget spinner.  You can choose how much or how little they need to do to earn their goal.  However I do recommend having them earn at least 14 stickers because it can take up to 2 weeks for a habit to form, good or bad.  So far this has worked for every habit we have tried!  What are you going to use it for?

Next, I might start a chart for this little princess to motivate her to stop decorating her body with gel pens every day. 😉

Once you have the file, print the charts and you’re ready to get started!

The printable bundle contains four separate charts including:

• Schoolwork Chart
• Sleep Chart
• My Potty Chart
• Make Your Own Chart

Let me know in the comments what chart you think you will be using.  AND, as always, I would love to have you take a visit over to my blog and see what we have going on at our homestead!

Milk, Honey, and Chamomile Anxiety Bath with Essential Oils

Western Farmhouse Design

SERVICE = LOVE

While you’re here be sure to check out other kid ideas and parenting tips on Ideas for the Home by Kenarry® like these tips for taming toddler tantrums, preschool pattern games with magnetic tiles, and these suggestions for encouraging picky kids to try new foods. You might also like this idea for the perfect low maintenance family command center. If you enjoyed this simple trick to help your kids of all ages to learn skills and feel empowered, please share this with your friends or pin it for later:

While you’re here, be sure to check out these other kids’ activities from Ideas for the Home by Kenarry® –

• Washi Tape Bookmarks: A Simple Craft for Kids
• Edible Two Ingredient Silly Putty
• How To Make A DIY Giant Bubble Wand