How to get kids involved in household chores
Helping out with household chores can be a great opportunity for your kids to learn about participation, organizational skills, and showing them the importance of helping out family. Here are a few ways to help motivate your kids to help out around the house.
1 – Work together, and plan to include everyone in your family to help out with house chores. It’s important to emphasize that all family members take part in these chores, whether it involves doing laundry, washing and drying dishes, taking out the trash, organizing clothes, or clearing the table after dinner.
2 – Begin with simple tasks! This of course all depends on the age of your child or children. You can have your 3 year old put away all of his/her toys, placing them in a toy bin every day after he/she is done playing. Other easy chores to get your child in the habit of helping out around the house, are: helping to wash the car, watering the plants, or putting dirty clothes in a basket. Older kids can help to do tasks such as making their bed, collecting trash around the house, putting away groceries, or helping to bake cake or cookies.
3 – Do your best to make chores fun, or turn them into a game. You could play music that your child enjoys and dance while cleaning the house. Or dump out all of the clothes from the dryer and have your child match as many socks as he/she can. Make it entertaining!
4 – Consider using a reward system to let your child know how proud you are of them for helping out around the house. Place a number of age-appropriate tickets that your child can pick out at the end of the week. Some examples are letting them stay up an extra 30 minutes at night, choosing what to cook for breakfast, or earning a movie night with friends. Another idea is giving your child an allowance for completing household chores.
5 – Choose timing wisely. Don’t ask your children to help out with chores when they are overtired, if they are sick, or hungry! Wait until after they have eaten breakfast, are well-rested or after they have finished all of their school work. They will be more productive and more motivated to complete what they are asked to do.
6 – Create a household chore calendar that your child checks off every day when tasks are completed. At the end of the month you could reward them with something such as – spending an afternoon at the park, taking them out to the movies, or going to the beach.
7 – Be patient! It will take some time to teach your children about taking more responsibility around the house and your ultimate goal should be establishing a routine for them!