It's Potty Time! A Hybrid Tutorial

A few weeks ago I made a chore chart for my 7-year old. His little brother has been a little envious, begging for one of his own. If only he knew! Older brother would gladly hand over his chart and responsibilities if I’d let him. Ben doesn’t need a chore chart yet, but I’m hoping a potty chart will motivate him. When he completes the entire thing, whether that takes 1 day or 1 week, he’ll earn extra computer time.

Potty training this little guy is promising to be a challenge, but at least Lyndsay has the perfect kit to make creating the chart easy! I used her Squeaky Clean Collab with Ziggle Designs to create this potty chart. The alpha is from Talkin’ About Boys.

Finished Chart in use:

Squeaky Clean:

Talkin’ About Boys:

I’m paper and scissors challenged, so I kept it pretty basic. My chart is magnetic, but you could also make a paper version, laminate it, and use dry erase markers on it. Here’s how I made mine.

Supplies: Magnet paper (see below for Note on Magnetic Products), Magnetic Backing for Business Cards (optional), printer, scissors

1. Create a new 8.5x11 image in your graphic software.

2. Open the paper you want to use for your background. Resize it to 8x8 and drag it onto the new, blank image.

3. Create your chart on top of the background sheet. Use the rest of the space for the tokens that you’ll place on top of the chart. (Note: Dry erase markers won’t work on magnet paper, so you need something magnetic to mark the boxes.)

4. Print.

5. Using a scissors or paper trimmer, cut everything out. If you use your trimmer, just be aware that my limited experience has already taught me that magnet paper wears out your blade much faster than regular paper.

6. Reinforce the tokens if needed (see Note About Magnetic Products below). To reinforce, I placed strips of tokens on the adhesive-front magnets and cut the tokens out.

Have fun creating! If you make a chart, link us up so we can leave you some love.

Note About Magnetic Products: When I went to get my magnet paper, I really wanted an 8.5x11 magnetic sheet with an adhesive front. I’d been planning to print on paper then adhere to the magnetic sheet. I couldn’t get to the craft store to see if such a product existed, so I used the closest thing I could find at Staples, which was magnetic sheets meant to be run through the printer. In order to fit through the printer, it has to be flimsier than I wanted. It was fine for the background of the chart, but a little too flimsy for the small tokens that we use to mark off boxes. They’re hard to handle, and in such small squares there isn’t much staying power. Because of that I reinforced the tokens with a stronger magnetic product, business card sized magnets with an adhesive front. Once reinforced they work perfectly, but I hope you’re able to find thicker magnets to start with!