Growing up, I loved to visit my Grandpa and Grandma's house on a farm. There was no end to the places we could explore. We "built" a schoolhouse in the attic and a maze in the barn. We would race through the basement to avoid the monsters, and walked "forever" through the fields. There was also one other special place - the pantry. No, not because of the food, but because of the measuring stick that was against the wall. My cousins and I marked our height with our name as we grew through the years, eager to see who had grown the most.
Those memories from my grandmother's house came flooding back each time I saw the wooden growth chart rulers found everywhere on Pinterest. So, I planned to make one of the beautifully varnished wooden charts for our house so that our children could enjoy those same fun memories I had as a child. The problem was that I could not imagine marking up the beautiful wood. So, we came up with an alternative. A chalkboard growth chart! Now we can keep track of the kid's growth without feeling like we were destroying the chart.
We started with a 1x10 board that was 6 feet long. The wood cost about $10 and we already had a quart of black chalkboard paint left over from an earlier project. The other items that made this growth chart a breeze to make were a square, a paint pen and printed-out numbers. After painting with the chalkboard paint, I took the square and created the lines of the ruler with a pencil (easy!). The lines were exactly 1" apart. The 3 lengths of lines were each 1/2" longer than the other. In other words, the foot line is 3 1/2" long. The half foot {or 6"} is 3"long; and the 1/4 foot {or inches 3 and 9} were 2 1/2" long. The 1/8 foot line {or inches 1,2,4,5,7,8,10,11} is2" long. After I drew the lines with a pencil I went over them again with the white paint pen.
Now for the numbers. Each number measures just under 2" wide and under 2 1/2" tall. If you would like to use these numbers you may download them to print here. The trick for the numbers was to cut out the printed number and trace it onto the wood with a pencil. The tracing caused a perfect indentation in the wood which made it easy to see for painting. Now, take the paint pen and draw the outline of the number. Finally, use a small paint brush and some acrylic paint to fill in the rest of each number.
There you have it! At our house, the tradition of keeping track of growth has begun. So far, Mommy and Daddy haven't shrunk {Whew!}, and the kiddos are growing like weeds.
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