Project Review: Gulrot.is

Every child has things they could do with a bit of encouragement in. Chores, yes, but also the first sleepover away from home, the injection at the doctor's, or sticking with a sport past the point where it stopped being fun. Gulrót gives that encouragement some structure: a list of projects to do, and a set of prizes to work towards.

Ingvi Gudmundsson built it together with his son. They had been talking about how he and his siblings could take a bigger part at home and at school, and were inspired to create an app.

Together, parents and children create projects and give each one a point value. When the child completes a project, the parent approves it and points are added to the child's total. Parents also set up prizes, giving the child something to aim for.

A project can be anything you'd like to see your child take on. The everyday ones are there: waking up on time, homework, reading, walking the dog or cooking together. But it works just as well for the one-offs and for whatever it is your particular child finds hard. If it would help to have something to aim for, you can make a project of it.

Prizes can be small and frequent or something bigger that takes a while to save up for.

It keeps a daily tally and a streak count, so there is a reason to keep at it every day rather than catching up on a Sunday evening.

The framework is one that we've seen great success with outside of the home. Part of the scrum methodology is about building a sense of ownership and responsibility by staff selecting what they're going to work on in the backlog rather than it being assigned. Gulrót brings the same idea home: the child chooses their own projects and takes ownership of them, and the household becomes a more collaborative place for it.