Track your child’s growth with a personalized height chart featuring their favorite soccer legends. Our guide walks you through making a DIY height chart and lists the supplies you need.
A height chart offers visible insight into whether a child’s growth is following the normal pattern. A customized one can be an engaging and exciting way to track your kid’s development. In addition to tracking your child’s growth through the years, a personalized DIY height chart helps you create fond memories to be cherished years into the future.
Convert this summer’s big tournament into a lifelong memory by making a soccer-themed growth chart using high-quality products from Loctite, the Official Partner of the U.S. Soccer Federation.
Ready to turn this simple tracking tool into a fun and beautiful keepsake of your child’s story? Read our detailed guide on how to create a DIY growth chart.
Making a personalized growth chart with your child engages them in their growth journey, fostering a sense of accomplishment and pride.
Looking for exciting DIY height chart ideas? Create a one-of-a-kind soccer-themed chart with the following steps.
1. Gather supplies: For this project, you will need:
- Adhesives – Loctite Super Glue Ultra Gel Control plus Loctite FunTak Mounting Putty[1] [2] [3]
- Measuring tape
- Pencil
- Permanent markers
- Custom soccer-themed numbers
- Scissors
- A six-inch wide, six-foot-long warp-resistant board
- Green paint
- Paint brush
- Drill with ¼-inch marker (optional)
- ¼-inch dowel rod (optional)
- A one-inch diameter pre-cut wooden circle (optional)
- Loctite Power Grab All Purpose (optional)
2. Prepare the board: Make sure the board is the right size. The front should be about six inches wide, which gives you enough space to work with. A six-foot-long board ensures you can track growth through adolescence.
3. Paint the board green: Paint the front face of the board green to resemble green soccer turf.
4. Draw field markings: Use a white marker to draw a couple of simple two-dimensional soccer goals facing each other at both ends of the board. Identify the center of the board, then draw the center circle and the halfway line. Complete the soccer field design by adding the remaining markings.
5. Mark the chart: Use a pencil or marker and a tape measure to mark every inch and every foot along the base material. Make larger marks at each foot.
Note: If you intend to hang the chart against a wall, consider the height of the baseboards. Since most baseboards are about six inches tall, you will want to start your chart at the same mark, meaning the first foot mark will be six inches into the board. The top of the chart will be 6 feet 6 inches as a result of this adjustment. Optionally, you can also drill holes with a 1/4-inch bit at the half-foot and foot markers.
6. Color the marks: Use a white marker to permanently and visibly mark the foot, inch, and a half-foot points along the length of the chart.
7. Create soccer-themed numbers: Instead of using regular numbers to mark the chart, make things fun by using soccer-themed versions. You can download them online and print them, or draw them on some paper and then make cut-outs. Some fun DIY growth chart ideas include recreating numbers and fonts worn by famous current and past soccer legends. For instance, you can use a famous goalkeeper's number to mark the one-foot point, and so forth.
If you are up for it, give the numbers an in-game look by drawing them on tiny soccer jerseys in national team colors.
8. Attach the numbers: Use Loctite Super Glue Ultra Gel Control to attach the name and number cutouts next to or on the lines you drew. Follow the product instructions for best results.
9. Create soccer-themed markers: For added detail, use a soccer-themed marker to track your child’s growth. Your options:
- Dowel method: Draw a soccer ball pattern on the pre-cut wooden craft circle and attach a 1/4-inch dowel to the back of the ball with Loctite Super Glue Ultra Gel Control. Move the ball up the chart (soccer field) as your child grows.
- Sticking a marker on the chart: Keep things simple by making a simple paper cutout and drawing a soccer ball pattern on it. You can then stick it onto the chart using Loctite FunTak Mounting Putty. This makes it easy for you to move it up the chart as needed.
10. Hang up the chart: Once you finish creating your DIY growth chart, hang it up on a wall. Remember to perfectly align the bottom of the chart to the top of the baseboard for the most accurate height measurements.
Given the weight of a six-foot wooden board, consider hanging it up on a wall stud. Alternatively, you can permanently attach the chart to the wall using a strong construction adhesive like Loctite Power Grab All Purpose.