Quick and Easy Ways to Make Your Own Potty Chart

A Potty Chart is an essential and fun tool to help get your toddler off to a great start with potty training. Making your own Potty Chart can be a quick and easy task that both you and your child can enjoy decorating together!

A Potty Chart is simply a table that has a bunch of empty boxes arranged in rows and columns. Each time your child successfully goes potty, your child places a sticker in one of the empty boxes. You might also draw a smiley face, a check mark, or some other fun shape in the empty box. The potty chart allows both you and your child to keep track of his or her potty training successes!

How to Make Your Own Potty Chart Using Word

Making your own potty chart using Word is as simple as inserting a table and finishing up with some quick formatting.

Open a new Word file.

Go to File, Page Set Up and change the page orientation to Landscape layout. Next, change the margin settings. The Bottom Margin should be 0.5" and the Top Margin should be 1.0" and the Left and Right Margins should both be 1.0" each.

At the top of the Word document, type your child's name followed by "Potty Chart" in a Bold 36pt Font and center it on the page. Feel free to use Times New Roman, Arial, or another more fun looking type that you like. Personalizing with your child's name is important as this helps your child begin to recognize the letters in his or her own name in addition to feeling ownership over his or her potty training accomplishments.

To make the Potty Chart, Insert a Table.

Format the Table with 9 columns and 7 rows. Leave the Fixed Column Width setting on Auto.

When the Table appears in the document, highlight or select the entire table. Go to Table Properties and under the Row tab, check the box and change the row height to 0.8" and under the column tab, change the column width to 0.9" - these settings will create 63 appropriate sized boxes. While the Table is still highlighted, center it on the page.

Voila! Your potty chart officially looks like a potty chart and you're ready to print it out and hang it proudly near the potty or your child's special potty chair!

If you prefer, before you print out your potty chart, insert some fun clipart or friendly images that your child likes. This is also another great opportunity for your child to help you design the chart. You can also print out the potty chart and let your child decorate around the chart with either crayons or stickers.

If you like, you might label each row with a day of the week, but if you are just beginning potty training you will probably find that any time your child goes you'll be thrilled.

In our house stickers are definitely the reward of choice for decorating the Potty Chart! The small round reward stickers or round stickers on a roll are inexpensive and are the perfect size for a Potty Chart. Be sure to stock up in bulk! You'll need them!

How to Make Your Own Potty Chart Without a Computer

If you do not have a computer and a printer, the simplest way to make a Potty Chart is to draw a table on a blank piece of paper using a ruler. This is also great in a pinch or when you need a new chart and your printer is out of ink! (Yes, it happens!)

Let your little artist lend a hand and help personalize his or her potty chart in a way that makes your child feel special.

Learning to use the potty is a big accomplishment for your child and a very special Potty Chart is sure to get your child excited about becoming a big kid!