Growing up I always felt as though we, my siblings and I, didn’t do enough around the house. This was something I was not keen to replicate with my own children.
But the question remains, how do you encourage your children to help around the house from an early age?
I don’t presume to have all, if many, answers, what I have learned from experience though is that young children are generally fairly obliging and it can be very simple to start with small activities and build on them.
We have encouraged our eldest, if they offer, to wash dishes. They see this as water play of course, but often it’s a harmless activity and generally we give them plastics or other less breakable dishes to ‘wash’ in soapy lukewarm water. Of course this is often a messy activity and some mopping up, and a change of clothes, is required afterwards!
Children like to imitate at this age so it’s a good idea to try and capitalise on this where you can.
Some simple chores for 3-5 years
My eldest children are aged 3 and 5 and they have a few chores that they undertake:
- When finished any meal or snack they place their cup, bowl or plate and cutlery in the sink
- After getting dressed they put their pjs under their pillows and then make their bed (this is often not perfect, but that’s not the point. This improves with practice and their age)
- Dirty clothes are put into the dirty clothes basket before bath time or after any extra change during the day
- Shoes removed during the course of the day are returned to their shoe storage boxes under their beds
- Setting the table for dinner (this is a job of power in our house as the person who sets the table determines where every one sits!!)
- Before my husband mows the lawn the children pack up and move any of their toys on the grass into the sandpit or under our pergola.
- Before I vacuum if there are any toys in the way the children pack these up, or mind them until I am finished that area
- They are also starting to make their own simple lunches which was actually at their insistence and not ours.
Chores prior to 3 years
I also have a two year old who is possibly the most obliging when it comes to helping around the house. She doesn’t have any set chores per se but I do encourage her to:
- Put her cups and bowls etc in the sink when finished with them
- Put her pjs under her pillow
- Put her shoes away (she loves to change her shoes throughout the day so if one pair is removed for another a simple ‘can you please put these shoes back in their box’ is generally enough for her to put them away)
- Put her dirty clothes in the basket
Chores after 5 years
Our eldest is approaching 6 and will start school this year. He has started, on occasion, putting dishes in the dishwasher and clearing condiments from the table after dinner. Once again these are not big things, but we are hoping they might become habits and done without prompting in the future.
This year will see him learn to pack his own bag, though I will make and pack his lunch, and I’m sure readers and work will come home from school so I don’t expect we’ll increase his chores much at all.
Of course, once our children are older they will be encouraged to contribute more by loading and unloading the dishwasher, or taking the bins out, but I can’t see that happening a for at least a few years yet.
How do you encourage your children to help around the house?
Originally posted 2014-02-05 20:43:54.