Age appropriate household chores for children

Do you involve your children in household chores?

The answer to the above question will be Yes/No depending upon each family. And there is always a strong debate on whether or not we should involve children in household chores. Many parents think the tiny tots who can’t take care of themselves then how they will do the chores. They think kids are to have fun and enjoy their childhood. Yes, kids should enjoy their childhood but also need to learn all the aspects of life which will help them to be more successful in life. The only thing we need to ensure there should be right balance between work and play.

In this post I will help to get a clear concept of :

• Why is it necessary to involve children in household chores?
• What are the benefits of that?
• How to involve children in daily chores?
• Age appropriate chores for children.

Now one thing I must add that teaching household chores should not be gender specific. Theses are the basic skills that each individual need to sustain a good and healthy life.

Why is it necessary to involve children in daily chores?

We parent love our children and want to give our children as much comfort as possible. And so we keep doing every task for them in which few of them kids can do by their own. In this way we are doing no good, but it will harm them in their future. They will not understand the responsibility and accountability of each member in a family. They will be remain unknown from all the basic life skills required in our lives. As a parent, we are very much concerned for their early education, preparation and scheduling homeschooling in their early ages. We focus on teaching them alphabets and numbers in a fun way as much as possible. The same way we need to explain the benefits of learning little daily chores to be more responsible and independent in life.

You may like : 5 Important Tips To Homeschool A Preschooler

Benefits of involving children in household chores

Children have immense energy in them. So utilizing this surplus energy by engaging them in daily chores can result in more constructive and productive way. It is better to do daily chores rather than sticking to television or video games. Parents need to understand that the important thing here is not to complete the chore but to develop a habit among the children to do the chores regularly.

So let’s see the benefits of chores for kids:

1. Self- sufficient : It helps children to be self-sufficient and self dependent. A person should learn everything to be self-sufficient and this learning process should start from early childhood not while staying away from home during teenage.

2. Develop sense of responsibility : Assigning a particular chore to kids according to their age develop a sense of responsibility among the kids. Like setting dinner table everyday before meal makes them feel responsible for that particular task. They feel themselves as an important member of a family. On accomplishment of each chore they feel extremely happy and it helps in creating a sense of self-worth.

3. Teamwork : Family means living together and doing together too. So when we engage our children in any little chores, we know initially they need our help to complete the assigned chore. And this helping each other to complete any task will teach them to work together, listen to others and motivate them to work in team.

4. Respect : When we engage children in household chores, they realize the effort of other people to get that work done. They will be aware of the hard work of other members of their family doing to run the home. When they have to cleanup their mess they will get to know how easy it is to create a mess and how hard it is to do cleanup. And this will teach them to give respect to their family members and home.

5. Keeps them busy : Children are proactive, they don’t like to remain idle. So engaging them in little daily chores will help them to remain busy in a productive way. They won’t nag about feeling bored frequently.

6. Development of fine motor skills

Little things the children do as chores, helps in their fine skill motor development. Engaging small children in household chores will help to strengthen muscle that is required for motor skill development. Holding and grasping things while doing chores will enhance their strength. Let them count vegetables and fruits, it will increase their mathematical skills too!!

How to involve children in household chores

A parent knows well what is good for their kid, but sometime it is very difficult to manage kids to do that. As kids are not aware of all the surrounding things, they don’t know the difference between good and bad. They engage themselves where they find fun and something interesting. That’s not their fault , they are the innocent tiny tots. It is our responsibility to create a healthy mindset for them. And we should do this in a fun way that is appealing to kids. Praise them and motivate them on their minor accomplishments.

Yes, I know sometimes we think lets do it by ourselves, it will be easier and quicker but be patient theses are the lifelong lessons we are teaching our kids. And once children realize their responsibility, we don’t need to nag them to complete any task rather we will be happy to see their efficiency.

Children always expect appreciation and love from parents after completing something. So you should always give them a little token of appreciation after their accomplishments. This will highly motivate them to do again.

Age appropriate chore charts for children

A child of 3 years can do a little things but a child of 6 years is more able than 2 years and same a 10 year kid can do many more things. So the chores depend upon kid’s age, talent and ability. In addition to age we need to think about physical ability of a kid while selecting the right chores for our kid.

Chores for Ages (2- 4 years)

• Cleaning up toys, books, colors and place it back on proper place.
• Brush their teeth.
• They should drink water from their bottles and put it in proper place.
• They should be enable to remove shoes/slippers and keep them inside shoe rack.
• Put the clothes that need to be washed in laundry bag.

Chores for Ages (4 – 6 years)

• They should arrange their school bag by seeing time table.
• Set dinner table before meal time.
• Set their own bed before sleep.
• They should change their clothes by own.
• Encourage them to bath on their own, though initially parents must supervise them.
• After coming back from school they should keep their all belongings at proper place rather than throwing here and there.

Chores for Ages(7 – 12 years)

• They should be enable to take care of plants such as watering them regularly.
• Take care of pets.
• Clean their study table and book shelf regularly.
• They should fill their own water bottles and others too.
• Help grandparents at home.

Chores for Teenagers

Teenagers are capable of doing most of the chores of house if taught properly from early childhood.

• Help in preparing meal, if required should able to prepare the meal also.
• They should laundry their own clothes.
• Fold their clothes and put inside their closet.
• They should help in cleaning and dusting.
• Help in grocery shopping from nearby stores.

Teenagers are capable to help their parents whenever they need help. Being engaged in household chores from beginning, they are very much organized and participate in each activity of their home to help their parents.

” It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves; that will make them successful human beings “

Ann Landers

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