Activities For Kids Easy crafts and printables for kids, preschool and older. You'll also find Birthday Party themes, Holiday crafts, Kids recipes and Classroom prtables.
Getting started with household chores for kids – perhaps the best thing you can do for your children as well as your family. The benefits are great. Children learn important life skills as well as being a productive member of the family.
There is no reason that families shouldn’t enlist all members of the home to help out with the household chores. In addition to providing a little help to mom and/or dad, doing chores teaches kids about responsibility. Shared chores keeps the home running smoothly and takes the burden off of just one or two family members.
Starting children early with household chores will help them to understand that it is a group effort as well as a group benefit. Even the messiest of us, deep down, really want to live in a clean home. The best way to get your kids involved is to start giving small tasks to them as toddlers. Have them clean up after themselves. This is an important step to introduce personal responsibility into their lives.
Once children get the knack of cleaning up after themselves, they can move on to sharing the household duties with the rest of the family unit. It may not be apparent at first, but sharing in the household chores makes a child feel needed as an important contributing member of the family.
So then, when is the right time to set up Household Chores for Kids?
Chores: Ages 2 – 4, Preschool
Have Them Pick up After Themselves
Give children the necessary tools and guidance that will help them to keep their toys organized. Have easy access to storage baskets, boxes, bins or bags for their toys. Without designated storage containers, the task simply won’t get done. Imagine if you were asked to put your clothes away, yet you had no closet? Where would they go?
The more a child understands what is expected, the better chance they will succeed.
A teaching moment here is limit the number of toys out at one time. Too many out on the floor and it’s immediately overwhelming for them to put away.
Putting their dirty clothes in the hamper. After bath time, children can get into the habit of picking up their dirty clothes from the floor and putting them into a basket. Soon they will even be able to carry that hamper into the laundry room. And then one day even do their own laundry!! {perhaps I’m getting ahead of my self here, but wishful thinking}
A place for everything and everything in its place.
Chores: Ages 5 – 7
If toddlers have had a little exposure to household chores, it’s now time to give them more responsibility as they grow. Coordination and attention span are working in your favor now, so add chores that you feel are age appropriate for your child. All children are different, so here are few suggestions for household chores for children ages 5 to 7.
Making Their Bed
Keep in mind that we are still a long way off from perfection here. For some younger children it might be a bit of a struggle, but this is still a good time to start. Pull up the sheet and blanket. Put the pillow and any stuffed animals in place. There are so many benefits for making your bed. Besides, a straightened bed is the start to a clean room!
Clean Their Bedroom
Ok, now that the bed is somewhat straightened, take it a step further and clean the room. Again, you need to have the necessary spaces and containers for their stuff. If they are to hang up clothes, make sure the closet rod is easy to reach. If clothes are taken out willy-nilly, they need to be properly put back.
Some independence and self-sufficiency will already be seen by the age of 5 or 6: getting their own drinks, snacks and even breakfast or lunch. Now is the time to have children do more for the family, rather than just meet their own needs.
Setting the Table
Presentation is such an important part of the meal. Sitting down to a nicely set table can make any meal feel like a special event – which is what family time together is. With a printed placemat, even younger children can learn to set the table.
Dusting Low, Hard to Reach Places
You take the high road, let the little ones take the low road. Make dusting a team effort. Let younger children know that this is a special task that they are much better at than the adults. They might even do a doubled up effort to show you up.
Some chores done at this stage aren’t as much a benefit to the family as a teaching lesson for the child. A quick run with the vacuum may not do much for cleaning the carpets, but it does expose a child to another household task that needs to be done. With patience and time, they will eventually get it right.
Chores: Ages 8 – 12
Children can continue doing the chores above, but bringing them to a new level. Give older kids a little more freedom in the kitchen with making meals from start to finish for the family.
Simple, easily defined household chores like taking out the trash and emptying the dishwasher are easy jobs to delegate.
Older children can now start doing even more for themselves like changing their own bed linins, using the washer and dryer and even cleaning the bathroom.
Cleaning an entire room start to finish. Dust, vacuum, straighten up. If done on a regular basis, it shouldn’t take too much time. Let the child own that room. If it is a regular chore for a one child, you may find they tidy it on a daily basis rather than wait and do it all at once.
Not all schedules work in all situations. No one knows your family needs more than you. The best advice I can give is start early and give lots of praise and encouragement.
