Just like the title of this post says, “Yes, children can and should do chores.” Bryan and I have always been firm believers that chores are beneficial in more ways than one. Keep reading to check out the chores our children do (even the 3 year old), and snag a free chore chart to use in your home.
Benefits and Importance of Chores for Children
First, let’s just do away with the notion that children doing chores is equivalent to slave or child-labor. This is not that and it’s actually quite ludacris to think such. I don’t want to negate the fact that those things do happen around the world; however, in most families, there’s no “child labor” going on by simply teaching your children how to care for things.
Chores teach children responsibility.
If there’s one thing that’s never too early to teach, it’s responsibility. As adults, and especially as parents, we understand that responsibility comes no matter what. Giving children chores introduces them to some of their first lessons in this area and provides them with a solid foundation for later in life.
Children learn important life skills.
Being able to intentionally teach important life skills is one of the biggest perks to homeschooling. I see my children having chores as one of the easiest ways to teach several life skills all at once. Whether they are having to learn how to work the vacuum cleaner or understand how much cleaner is needed to be added to water before tackling their chore, there are usually multiple facets.
There are developmental benefits to children doing chores.
Children are always learning, even if they are not being instructed. So, when it comes to chores, they can be used to help enhance their cognitive development and processing. Most chores come with multiple steps, which means they’ll have to use multiple parts of their brain in order to do the chore correctly and completely.
Everyone doing “their part” helps alleviate stress.
Let’s be honest. Trying to do all of the cooking, cleaning, homeschooling, working, and so on can be pretty stressful. Instead of trying to do everything all the time, find comfort in giving every member of the family something they can do to help. Whether it’s help with meal planning, preparing meals, cleaning, and the like – every little bit helps.
Children Can and Should Do Chores: A List of Chores by Age
Toddlers – Preschoolers
- Picking up toys
- Take dishes to the sink after eating.
- Picking up trash.
- Sort laundry.
- Water plants and flowers.
- Sweep the floor.
- Check the mail.
- Wipe down tables and chairs.
- Help put away groceries.
- Making their bed.
School Age
- Sort and do laundry.
- Help prepare and make a meal.
- Load and unload dishwasher.
- Vacuum and mop.
- Help with grocery shopping.
- Dusting.
- Cleaning the bathroom.
- Making the bed and keeping room tidy.
- Rake the yard (and bag leaves).
Tweens – Teens
- Meal planning.
- Cooking full meals.
- Setting and clearing the table.
- Cleaning entire rooms (bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room, etc.).
- Doing laundry.
- Feeding and taking care of family pets.
- Raking and mowing the lawn.
- Washing the family vehicle.
These aren’t exhausted lists, but certainly give you a good starting point for assigning your children age-appropriate chores. Plus, you can plug them into the free printable chore chart template below.
How to Use a Chore Chart for Your Children
We’ve been chore chart users for several years and haven’t deviated much from our routine because it works! Our children wake up everyday and know exactly what is expected of them. Below are tips for how we use a chore chart for our children.
Make a list of chores we want completed each day.
Bryan and I sat down and made a list of chores we wanted our children to complete each and every day. They ranged from cleaning the bathroom and sweeping to cleaning the windows and doing laundry.
Each child is assigned a certain chore to complete each day.
Once we made our list, we began assigning chores for each child to do every single day. When looking at each day, each child was doing something different. And when put together, most of the house would be cleaned every day. For younger children, we would pair them together to tackle a chore (which adds another life skill of working together).
Side note: We only assign chores for 5 days a week. We do a family-wide cleaning day for Shabbat prep. And we do not worry about cleaning on Shabbat.
A chart is made, printed, and hung on the fridge.
I would then make the chart, print it, and hang it up for all to see. It only took about a week before the children could read the chart themselves and were in the habit of waking up and getting started on their chores.
Our children are held accountable to get their chore done by the end of the day.
Accountability is pretty easy and is generally done by asking the simple question, “Did you do your chores today?” And if they didn’t, we’d remind them to have them done before bed. There are also times when some chores need to be completed a few times throughout the day. Sweeping is one that is done multiple times, especially after eating. Wiping down the tables and chairs are also done several times.
We reward consistency and integrity.
Children LOVE to be rewarded and it give them motivation to continue doing their chores. Our younger children love stickers and getting new coloring books and crayons. The older the child, the less they’ll want but even my teen likes being rewarded, even if it’s just money or screentime. Establish a reward chart so your children will know what they can earn and what’s expected of them to receive the reward.
Free Chore Chart
Create your very own chore chart for your children using our free template. There’s space to write each child’s name and then you can assign them a chore to do each day. You can have them do the same chore for a set amount of days or weeks or give them a different chore to do each day, rinsing and repeating each week.
If you have multiple children, giving them a different chore to do each day will guarantee that you have a clean home every single day (this is what we do). Don’t forget to reward their hard work and consistency!
Final Thoughts About Why Children Can and Should Do Chores
In all transparency, early in my parenting journey, I didn’t see the importance of having my children learn a variety of life skills, especially when it came to doing chores. In fact, I’d do everything for them, even if it stressed me out. It wasn’t until the hubby and I had an important talk about training our children in the way they should go… and yes, this meant teaching them how to care for themselves and the world around them. Do your children do chores?