Teaching Kids to do Household Chores

It can be a difficult task to get children to help with household chores. The best advice I've ever gotten was to start sooner rather than later. How can you expect your teenager to do chores, if they have never had any responsibility before hand. Getting your kids involved in helping with chores around the house, not only helps to reduce some of your work load, but will also help them to keep a clean house when they are grown and on their own.

Personally I started all of my children when they were babies, before they were even able to actually crawl or do much of anything on their own. For instance, if it was tummy time and we had a few toys laying on the ground for them to try to scoot and reach for, when play time was over I would pick up the baby, take their hand in mine and pick up the toy. While doing this I would say "Okay, it's time to pick up your toys" or "Put your toys in the toy box". The combination of action and instruction helps children to understand not only what they are doing but why they are doing so.

Once your child is a little older you can start giving them more things to do. For instance my two year old helps his older brother take out the trash. The responsibility of the kitchen trash belongs to my older son, 11, he is to take the trash out of the can, tie it up, take it to the dumpster, then put a new bag in the can inside the house. My younger son is responsible for the bathroom trash, either myself or my older son will remove the bag, tie it up and replace it for him, when his big brother takes the kitchen trash out, he takes the little bag from the bathroom trash out. This helps him to learn how to take care of the trash and as he gets older he will then be responsible for removing and replacing the bag as well.

My daughter, 5, and my son, 2, will both help with dusting and cleaning up walls and tables. I personally do not like young children using cleaning products that are stock full of chemicals. To avoid that problem I have old cleaner bottles that I have thoroughly rinsed and cleaned, I then fill them with clean water, I will occasionally add a little bit of dish soap to the water as well. Just give them each a spray bottle and rag, tell them what to clean up and let them have fun.

I will also let the kids help with dishes, I have a dishwasher but they have fun washing dishes, so I allow them to practice washing dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. If you do not have a dishwasher you will most likely have to go over the dishes again yourself, but this is a good activity for children to do while you are busy cooking. Just give them a chair or stool to stand on and have them clean dishes as they get dirty from your cooking.

Laundry is another chore that kids can help with. I have found that towels are the easiest for children, so usually have the smaller children help with those. There are many times that I have to refold any towels or clothing that the kids help fold, but really it doesn't take any more time for me to refold than to fold from the beginning. This is a great chore for helping to develop small motor skills as well.

Another thing that young kids love to do is vacuum. This can be hard for very young kids as most vacuums are fairly large and heavy for little ones. The perfect solution is to get a small vacuum, such as a three-in-one. These are small, come with an extendable handle that can be left in the down, storage position and come in handy as a hand held dirt devil type of vac as well. With a small vacuum such as these your child can enjoy helping vacuum and you can enjoy having a cleaner floor without the hassle of pulling out the big vacuum everyday.