My children actually do chores around the house easily. Recently my son has learned about allowances. Great. So I made up a chore chart that are things he can do towards his weekly allowance. I decided to try out a recipe I had for homemade scratch off paint to make this chart a little more fun. 
Supplies needed:
- cardstock (this is 65 weight cardstock)
- Marker
- Masking tape or painters tape
- Metallic acrylic craft paint
- Dishwashing liquid
- Paint brush
Cut strips of masking tape and let your child place them on the paper. You can guide them or draw some lines for them to place to the tape on. The tape does not have to be lined up perfectly (as you can see). This is about making something extra fun. 😉
Write down different chores your child can do in each box. Other than the folding towels one above, all of these can be done at any time and without my help. So whenever he feels like scratching off a chore and doing it he can. Good choices are cleaning light switches, wiping off doorknobs, wiping off the front of the fridge, oven, or dishwasher, etc. 
Now it is time to mix the scratch off paint. The ratio is two parts paint to one part dish washing liquid. I used 2 tbsp of paint and 1 tbsp of soap. It made a LOT! I would recommend doing a teaspoon ratio instead of tablespoon. Let your child pour in the ingredients. It is really fun to watch them come together. 
Next have your child stir it up thoroughly. Don’t go too fast, though. This is dishwashing liquid and it will make bubbles if stirred too fast.
It is time to paint. Fill in each box with the paint mixture. If this gets on the table or on the skin it is super easy to clean up. It has soap built right in it! I love this stuff.
Let it dry and remove the tape. As you can see, you might want to press down the tape to create a nice tight seal after your child makes the tape grid. Ours is a tad sloppy, but it isn’t getting hung in a museum, This baby is getting used.
Don’t be surprised if the first thing your child wants to do is scratch off a square so they can do the chore. I swear, why didn’t I think of this earlier?
I may never dust again. At least I am hoping. 😉
Kim is a contributing writer for No Time For Flash Cards, a mom to a toddler, a preschooler, and a foster parent, too. She juggles her day by trying out fun activities and crafts with the kids. After all, she is just a big kid herself. See what she has been up to over at Mom Tried It.
Tara says
This is one of the best ideas ever! Sometimes, when the house has been neglected too long or we are having special company, we will have an “all-day cleaning day”. This would be great idea to keep the children motivated to help throughout the day.
I love this! Thanks so much.
admin says
We do cinderella days – we work like crazy then get dressed up and go for dinner or to a friend’s house for the “ball” part.
Kristi says
This is great fun! I think I’ll try it when we move into our new house!
Kristina says
Very cute idea!
Janel says
My son’s teacher used a similar idea to encourage them to practice sight words. She wrote a bunch of their sight words out on a piece of paper and then put scratch off stickers over them. Worked like a charm. My son loved scratching off the stickers and shouting out what word he found.
Shauna says
Another way would be to cover the paper in contact paper before you put the scratch off paint on, but that’s an awesome idea! 🙂 Never would have thought of that before. Thanks!!
Echoe Camacho says
As an adult, I think the best part of scratch offs are the prizes. So when I making one today for my son I think I’ll do 1 section for chores and then he gets to scratch off 1 prize for each sure that he completes something small like a little piece of candy or extra 10 minutes of TV.
Bill at FamZoo says
Cool! Pinned a picture of it to our Creative Chore Charts board on Pinterest:
http://pinterest.com/pin/30047522483853349/
Michelle says
This is really creative!!!
Apples and ABC’s
Kristen says
I think this would be great idea for making an advent calendar too.
admin says
oh that is genius – I will be doing that for sure! Love how ideas evolve.
Jen says
I am a teacher and use this scratch off paint as a reward system. The students get so excited over this. If I pull their name, they get a reward scratch off ticket card. I could use you idea of a surprise chore chart as a surprise way to “show how you know.” Thanks for sharing.
Jen says
As a teacher, I have used the scratch off paint to create reward scratch off tickets. The students are motivated to earn a scratch off ticket! I laminate the paper before I paint, so I can reuse the tickets. Seeing your chore chart, my new idea is to create a similar chart, but a “show how you know,” with ideas such as using the dry erase board, our “4 corners method”, draw a picture, etc. Thanks for sharing your idea!
Kaylee says
I am going to design a scratch-off card for our relatives to read to reveal the gender of our baby! I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks for the idea!
admin says
I love that – awww that is so special.
Kaylee says
Here is my “gender revealing!” It was SO fun!
http://raisinglittledisciples.blogspot.com/2012/03/scratch-off-paint-gender-revealing.html
Sean says
Your scratch-off paint is a genius idea! I could think of lots of ways to use it…no, nothing mean-spirited (like those mock “winner” novelty lottery tickets) or illegal…it would definitely make a self-made “coupon book” for a spouse, friend, or family member so much cooler and more fun. 🙂
Kimberly says
Ok, just did this, and the metallic showed through, so I added one drop of black paint. But they were hard to scratch off. I’m now going to try it with the contact paper underneath. That may be the way to go, plus maybe I could paint them again? (Though they’d remember a little bit where some of the chores were listed.
My kids weren’t as thrilled about the work itself, but they loved the scratch off idea, and my 7 yr old was the most excited.
admin says
I heard the contact paper really helps- so happy your kids liked the concept.
Angel says
I love the idea of contact paper over the chores and agree that kids will remember where the chores are. Reading this gave me an idea what if you made up say like 5 or 6 different charts with the jobs being in different squares then after your done you can use a different chart that you have already made up for the next week. I am going to try this…thanks for the ideads…
Johana says
I love it!!!! I’m going to try it today!
Thanx