It’s never too early to ask your kids to help you with chores around the house. You can even start as early as two years old. While children mature at different rates, you can still determine what age appropriate chores are best suited for toddlers, kids, pre-teens and teens.

If you have toddlers at home, they can certainly help you by: making the bed; picking up their toys; feeding the family pet; helping you put laundry into the basket; or cleaning up split milk on the kitchen floor. These chores would be most suited to two and three year olds. You can teach your toddlers to do their chores by making a game out of it; or improvising different ways in which they can help. It will give them a sense of pride and accomplishment. Yes, even at that young age.

For four and five year olds, you can ask them to help you set the table; dust around the house; help make cookies; help you carry grocery bags (as long as you make it light for them). Six and eight year old can really get into the chores by taking care of the pet they’ve always wanted; help you vacuum the floor; take out the trash or fold the laundry.
You can even ask them to help you prepare meals. Think of the experience they are getting at this early age.

Your pre-teens will have their work cut out for them. Some of the more vigorous chores can be relegated to outside work: rake the leaves; wash the car; help clean out the garage.
If you need help inside the house, they can certainly help you prepare meals, dusting and vacuuming the house; wash dishes or clean the bathroom. Certainly they would be old enough to make their beds; clear their room of debris; organize their toys, etc.

Teens pose a different problem altogether. Sometimes they are willing to help, and other times not. It depends on how you’ve raised them. If they have been helping out since they were two, you won’t have a problem. In fact, they can do almost anything you ask of them. Be sure they can manage whatever task you assign, however. If you’ve taught them well, they have the ability to prepare meals; clean the kitchen; wash windows; do the laundry; just about any indoor and outdoor chore you need, short of providing close supervision, of course. You wouldn’t want them to feel like a baby, now would you?

After a hard day’s work, we like to come home and engage in something which will take our minds off the day’s events, whether it’s tending to the garden, or finishing a birdhouse for the back yard. Kids need the same kind of release when they come home from school.

In order to help them get rid of the day’s stresses, a great idea would be to assign household chores. Making a list and sticking it on the refrigerator so that whether you are home or not, your kids will be able to determine what has to be done that day.

Chores can range from raking leaves, mowing the lawn, cleaning up their rooms, changing the beds, or doing a load of laundry. If you have a pet at home, walking the dog as soon as the kids come home is not only a great exercise for the kids, but you can be sure your pet will be grateful too.

Perhaps you’ve already taught your kids to begin the preparations for dinner, such as setting the table, taking the meat or chicken out of the freezer, or washing the vegetables to be served that night.

Age appropriate chores for kids not only aids your kids in releasing tension, irritability, and a need to act out, but helps you to keep your house in order as well. Again, depending on the age of the kids, there are a variety of chores they can do to help you and them. In addition, you may wish to add on a reward of some type or a small compensation for their achievement.

School work and tests can drain kids emotionally, and having a few simple household chores will energize them and give them a sense of accomplishment and self-worth.

It’s a common complaint of children all over the country. They cry and whine when mom and dad ask them to clean up their rooms. “Why, Mom? I like it the way it is.” Why is it important for children to clean their own room? Here are some reasons why: Read the rest of this entry

When toddlers see Mom and Dad working around the house, they are often eager to help. They love to try to do the same things their parents are doing. Although it may take longer to get the chores done when trying to teach a toddler how to do them, it can help them learn to enjoy housework and develop good habits that will be an asset later on.

The most important thing to remember when selecting chores for toddlers is to keep it simple. Very young children do not have the cognitive or motor skills to take on complicated tasks. But there are some things they can do that, after some practice, will be helpful to you.

* Picking up toys – Getting your toddler to pick up after himself can be a great help. But it’s usually too much to expect him to put everything in its exact place. A better approach would be to provide a laundry basket or large box for him to simply throw all of his stuff into. Then you can take it to his room and put it where it belongs.

* Feeding the pets – Kids are often honored to help take care of their pets. Toddlers are capable of helping to feed pets, but occasional messes should be expected. To minimize accidents, you could buy pet food in individual packets or cans for small cats and dogs. For watering purposes, toddlers can put the water into a small watering can and then pour it into the bowl.

* Watering plants – Small children usually can’t resist the opportunity to water plants. This is another task that could get messy, so make sure your plants aren’t sitting on or near anything that could be easily damaged by water. It’s also smart to make sure they don’t fill the watering can over half full. This will help prevent spilling the water in transit.

* Cleaning the floors – It may seem like an adults-only task, but floor cleaning is something that kids often enjoy. The trick is to let them use tools that they can easily manage. Cordless floor sweepers are ideal for this purpose. There are also small, working vacuum cleaners and brooms available in the toy departments of most stores. While it might be too ambitious to expect a child to sweep all of the dirt into a neat pile, he can help get the dirt out of the corners while you go behind him and sweep it all together.

* Helping with the laundry – Every mom could use some help with the laundry, and young children are often happy to oblige. Toddlers can help sort dirty clothes, and you can even turn it into a learning experience. You could also enlist your toddler’s help in loading and unloading the washer and dryer.

When your child is old enough to walk and is somewhat verbal, he can start helping with the housework. Getting your child to help with chores will help him develop a sense of responsibility. And that is something that you will be thankful for when he is older and can do more substantial housework.

By Aurelia Williams, author of Getting out of the SuperMom Trap

A few generations ago, children were commonly expected to help around the house. When society was mainly based on agricultural endeavors, children were expected to help around the farm as well. Our society has changed and so has our expectation of our children. Learning to delegate household chores to children can benefit both the children and the parents. Read the rest of this entry