Hi friends! Thalita here again from The Learner Observer! With two growing toddlers at home, we quickly realized we wanted to be able to see how tall they were getting, and have that quintessential childhood memory for them of one day looking back at how tall they were when they were younger.We started out by measuring on their closet trim, and even though this is hopefully our forever home, we still wanted something a little more mobile! I also wanted something that wouldn’t take a huge amount of effort!
How to Make an Easy Jumbo Ruler DIY Growth Chart
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What you’ll need:
I used my Cricut machine for this project, but you could definitely do this with other materials!
- 1 – 1x6x6 cedar fence board
- 2 screws
- a pencil
- measuring tape
- numbers cut out on sticky outdoor vinyl using a Cricut or pre-made ones like these
- contact paper/vinyl to cut out tabs with
How to make your own growth chart
To start, I lightly sanded my board to make sure there were no rough edges, and to make sure the stickers would hold well. I used outdoor vinyl (made for things like mailboxes) to make sure the numbers would stay on properly.
I started the measurements at 6 inches for the first number in order to make sure all 6 numbers would fit on the board. This also ensured that I could put the measuring stick 6 inches above the floor onto the wall without running into issues with the baseboard. This angle makes it look like I measured wrong, but that’s just because of how the tape warped as I tried to take a picture of this on my own!
I added large tabs along every 12 inches, and smaller ones halfway between each of those bigger ones to give us a rough idea of height. I didn’t want this to be a super precise ruler, but rather just something simple that we can keep around for a long time.
As you can see, we used the measuring stick right next to the closet, so we still have those pencil marks there.
I simply wrote on the measuring stick with a ballpoint pen, as the wood isn’t stained or treated at all. Super easy to do!
We simply screwed the wood into the wall, one at the top and one at the bottom, in spots that won’t affect our ability to write anything at all.
This is one of the simplest and easiest projects I have tackled for the boys, and I love that it’s something they’ll love looking at for years to come, to see who’s taller and whether one twin always stays a little taller than the other!
Have you ever tried a project like this for your kids? Or do you stick to door frames for your measuring?
Until next time!
More easy ways to commemorate kids’ milestones:
First and Last Day of School Photo Signs
This is an amazing/beautiful idea. Thanks for sharing.