Sticker chart vs app
Both can work. A paper sticker chart is cheap, sits on the fridge where everyone can see it, and needs no screen. An app like Little Streaks does the counting for you, keeps each child's stars and rewards separate, and doesn't need a new chart every week, so it suits families who find the paper chart hard to keep up.
What does a paper sticker chart do well?
- Everyone can see it. On the fridge or the bedroom door, the whole week is there at a glance, for your child and for you.
- Putting the sticker on is the fun part. Choosing a sticker and pressing it on is a small reward in itself, especially for younger children.
- No screen. Nobody needs a phone or tablet to hand in the middle of the morning rush.
- It's cheap and quick to start. A pen, a sheet of paper and a packet of stickers, and you're going tonight.
Where does a paper chart get hard?
- It needs a new chart every week, and someone has to remember to draw or print it.
- Counting is up to you. How many stickers this week, how many saved towards the reward, and whether last week's count carried over.
- Stickers run out or go missing, and a chart that falls behind the fridge takes the week's progress with it.
- Several children means several charts, and keeping it fair between them.
- It stays at home. On holiday or at the grandparents', the chart usually doesn't come along.
What does an app do differently?
In Little Streaks, each routine is a checklist of up to six tasks, each with its own icon. Your child holds a task to tick it off, and gets a celebration for every one. Finishing the whole routine earns a star, and the app keeps count.
- Stars save up on their own. You set up rewards and decide how many stars each one costs. When your child has enough, they ask for it, and a grown-up approves it. See grown-up controls for how that works.
- Each child has their own routines, stars and rewards, so there's no comparing charts on the fridge.
- Streaks show how many days in a row a routine has been done. A missed day ends that streak, and no stars are taken away.
- Every routine has its own moving scene and celebration, like a night sky for bedtime or outer space for homework.
- It goes where you go, on iPhone and iPad, and syncs between them with your own iCloud account.
Little Streaks is free for one child, with up to two routines and one reward. Little Streaks Family (monthly or yearly, shared with Family Sharing) adds more children, routines and rewards, plus reminders and each child's history.
When is a paper chart the better choice?
If you'd rather keep screens out of the morning, if your child loves the stickers more than anything the chart is for, or if you want to try a routine for a week before deciding, paper is a good fit. Every routine in the Routine Library has a free printable weekly chart, with a box to tick for each task and a star to colour in for each day, like the Before School chart (PDF).
How do I move from a sticker chart to an app?
- Copy the tasks your child already knows. Start from one of the 31 ready-made routines and change its tasks to match your chart, keeping it to six or fewer.
- Keep the same reward. If your child was saving up for a trip to the park, make that the first reward in the app.
- Rethink the star cost. Many sticker charts give a sticker for every task. Little Streaks gives one star for each day a routine is finished, so a reward that cost 20 stickers might be fair at four or five stars.
- Carry over what they've saved. You can give stars yourself, with a note to say why, so stickers already earned on paper aren't lost.
- Let your child tick off the first few tasks with you, then step back and let them run it.
Can we use a paper chart and the app together?
Yes. Some families keep a printed chart on the fridge as a reminder of the steps and use the app for stars and rewards. Every routine in the Routine Library has a printable weekly chart to match.
Is there a free printable sticker chart?
Yes. The routines in the Routine Library have free weekly charts (PDF), with a box to tick for each task and a star to colour in for each day.
Does my child need their own iPhone or iPad?
No. Your child can use your iPhone or a family iPad. Anything that changes the app, like settings, routines and rewards, sits behind a grown-up check, so handing it over is safe.
Little Streaks is a routines and rewards app for kids, for iPhone and iPad. Free to start, with up to two routines.
