Projects › Family › Chore chart

Free chore chart and reward chart, and how to make your own

Try it with the example family: tap a day to give a star and watch the bar fill towards the weekly reward. Then clear it and add your own children and jobs. It saves on your device only, and prints for the fridge.

Easy 40 to 60 minutes Free · nothing to install Nothing leaves your device
You're looking at an example family.
Stars

Tap a square to give a star, tap again to take it back. Stars clear every Monday. Everything saves in this browser only; nothing is sent anywhere.

Watch it come together, start to finish
What you'll build

A chart that fits your family

You'll describe the chart to a free AI assistant, paste what it writes into a file, and open it in your browser. Your jobs, your rewards, and characters your children choose.

  • A weekly chore chart that runs in your web browser
  • A column for each child, with their own jobs and colour
  • Tap-to-award stars or stickers for each day of the week
  • A weekly goal and a reward to work towards
  • An automatic fresh start every Monday, with last week's total kept
  • A printable version for the fridge
  • Your own rewards, pictures and rules

Good for: parents who want help around the house without nagging, families trying a reward or sticker chart for a new habit, and co-parents who share a tablet.

Before you start

What you need

An AI chat assistantClaude, ChatGPT or Gemini. The free version is fine. Most AI assistants are for adults or teens only, so the grown-up does the chatting.
A plain text editorNotepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac; choose Format then Make Plain Text first).
A web browserAny one will do, ideally on a device the family can all see, like a tablet on the kitchen counter.
First time? Read How to save and open an HTML file. It takes two minutes.
Keep it private. Build the chart with made-up names like "Child 1" in your AI chat, then type your children's real first names into your own copy. The chart saves on your device and never sends anything anywhere.
Step by step

Build it in six steps

  1. Ask for the chart

    Copy this prompt into your AI assistant:

    Copy this prompt
    I don't know how to code. Please make me a weekly chore chart for my children that runs in a web browser.
    
    Requirements:
    - ONE single HTML file (HTML, CSS and JavaScript together), no external libraries, no internet needed. I will save it and double-click it.
    - I can add up to 4 children, each with a name and a colour.
    - Each child has their own list of chores (e.g. "Make bed", "Feed the cat"), which I can add, rename and delete.
    - A grid with the chores down the side and Monday to Sunday across the top. Tapping a square gives a star; tapping again takes it away. Highlight today's column.
    - Show each child's star total for the week.
    - Save everything in localStorage on this computer only.
    - Bright, friendly design with big tap targets that work on a tablet.
    
    Please give me the complete file in one code block, then tell me in simple steps how to save and open it.

    Copy the code, paste it into your text editor, and save it as chore-chart.html. Double-click it, add a child and a couple of jobs, and give out your first star.

  2. Add a reward to work towards

    Copy this prompt
    That works, thank you. Please add a weekly goal for each child: a number of stars and a reward (e.g. "20 stars = pizza night"). Show a progress bar that fills up as stars are added, and a big celebration with confetti made in CSS when the goal is reached.
    
    Send me the complete updated file.
    Always ask for the complete file. Replace everything in chore-chart.html, save, and refresh the tab (F5 or Cmd+R).
  3. Start a fresh week automatically

    Copy this prompt
    Please make the chart start fresh every Monday: clear the stars, but keep the children, chores and goals. Keep a history of each child's weekly totals, and show the last 4 weeks as a small bar chart for each child so they can see how they're doing.
    
    Send me the complete updated file.
  4. Make it printable

    Some families prefer paper on the fridge, with real stickers.

    Copy this prompt
    Please add a "Print" button that prints a clean A4 landscape chart in black and white: the week's dates, each child's name, their chores and empty boxes for stickers, plus the goal and reward at the bottom. Hide all the buttons when printing.
    
    Send me the complete updated file.
    Tip: in the print window, choose Save as PDF to keep a copy you can print again every week.
  5. Let the children choose the look

    Ask each child what they'd like, and fill in the brackets.

    Copy this prompt
    Please let each child pick their own star style from a few options: a gold star, a dinosaur, a unicorn, a football and a rocket (use emoji). When they earn a star, make it pop in with a little bounce and a cheerful sound made with the Web Audio API (with a mute button).
    
    Also add a "character" for each child that grows as they earn stars this week, for example an egg that cracks and hatches into [their choice, e.g. a dragon] when the goal is reached.
    
    Send me the complete updated file.
  6. Add a parent lock

    Stops eager children awarding themselves stars.

    Copy this prompt
    Please add an optional 4-digit parent PIN. When it's turned on, children can see the chart but tapping a square asks for the PIN first (and stays unlocked for 5 minutes). Adding or deleting children, chores and rewards also needs the PIN. Store the PIN in localStorage on this device only and make it clear this is a gentle lock, not real security.
    
    Send me the complete updated file.
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If it goes wrong

Quick fixes

The stars disappeared

The chart saves in the browser it was opened in. A different browser, a private window or clearing your browsing data starts fresh. Ask the AI to "add Export and Import buttons that save all the chart data to a file and load it back", so you can keep a backup.

It doesn't fit on the tablet

Tell the AI:

Copy this prompt
On my tablet the chart is too wide and I have to scroll sideways. Please show one child at a time on small screens, with big buttons to switch between children, and keep the whole week visible. Send me the complete file.
The week resets on the wrong day

Ask the AI to "start the week on [Sunday / Monday] using my computer's local date".

It opens as text

Re-save as plain text with exactly .html at the end, not .txt.

Something else is broken

Press F12 (Cmd+Option+I on a Mac), open the Console tab, and paste any red error text into the chat with a short description of what you expected.

Make it your own

Twist it into something else

Change the first prompt and the same chart becomes:

A potty training sticker chart

one big sticker per success, a prize every 10

A pocket money tracker

each chore is worth an amount, and the chart adds up what's owed on Saturday

A bedtime routine chart

pictures for bath, teeth, pyjamas and story, ticked off in order

A reading log

minutes read each day, towards a book-shop treat

A screen time bank

chores earn minutes of tablet time

A family chore rota for adults and teens

jobs rotate automatically each week, so nobody gets bins every time

Why build it yourself?

No accounts, no subscription, no nagging

Chore apps usually want an account for every family member, send notifications, and sometimes charge a subscription. Printables are fixed and end up covered in crossings-out. Yours fits your family's actual jobs and rewards, keeps your children's names on your own device, and can change as they grow up. Making it together also gives children a say in the rules, which is half the battle.

Keep going

What to build next