Should your preschooler be required to do chores? At what age are chores appropriate for your kids? And how do you go about delegating chores to your preschooler? These are all questions that parents often face as they try to teach their kids about responsibility in the home. Parents should know that dealing with these questions is something that other parents are going through as well and that you’ll find the right answers for your family.
Here are some of the basic things to know for getting preschool kids started on chores:
- Chores help your child to develop a sense of responsibility but also have other important functions. They increase a child’s self-esteem because he or she is rewarded by a job well done. Chores also help the child to feel like a participating member of the family.
- Children are developmentally ready to handle small chores around the house starting around the age of two.
- You should start with asking your child to do only one daily chore. Allow him or her to master that chore before adding additional chores. For example, you may want to start with having your preschooler pick up his or her own toys. If it is the child’s chore to pick up the toys before bed, then this skill can be done daily and mastered before a new chore is added to the routine.
- Let your child pick new daily chores as time goes on. You can have an activity with your preschooler in which you work together to identify the chores that he or she can do. These may include laying out clothes for the next day, picking up toys, stacking books in the family room, helping with pets, wiping down tables or other small age-appropriate chores. Letting your child choose form a list will help your preschooler to feel like the chores are part of being in the family.
- Have realistic expectations about what chores your preschooler can do. Remember that he or she needs to have specific instructions and may need reminders. Also, know that your preschooler isn’t going to do the job as well as you are; that’s not the point. The point is for your preschooler to do the job to the best of his or her ability.
- Use a reward system. Children are more interested in doing chores when they can see their accomplishments. Having a chart with stickers marking completed chores can make the daily chores a fun thing to do.
- Use a step-by-step chart for detailed chores. As your child adds new chores and gets into the older preschool years and has the ability to do more complicated chores, a step-by-step chart showing what needs to be done can help your child with chores. The child can look at a pictorial step-by-step chart to figure out what to do without your assistance, making him or her feel more important and self-reliant.
| When chores are introduced in the early years, using a positive reinforcement or reward system and are considered to be part of what your family does together as a family unit, your child develops a healthy attitude towards doing chores and helping around the house. How you do this will differ depending on your family’s needs but know that preschool chores are certainly a positive part of your child’s development of both self and sense of responsibility. |
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
My preschool-aged boys responded very well to a chore chart and reward system. Their chores are getting dressed, making their bed, putting their dishes in the sink, picking up toys, putting pajamas on, and brushing teeth before bed.
It all comes down to channelising their energies that contributes to a happy and healthy childhood. And what better way to get them do their chores by giving them responsibilities and rewarding them with cash or kind.
My kids are 7 and 3. When it came to chores, I just browsed the net and found some chore charts (my kids liked the designs in the website kidrewardzone). We filled up the chores and columns to mark a star in each chore. There is a minus for each negative behavior, like tantrums, not using dustbins for trash, and so on. They would get bucks for each star minus each negative mark. A trip to the park on Saturday, if BOTH get all the stars (here I don’t count the negatives)for the week. Now, there are no arguments, yelling, and shouting. Its only “YAAAAYYY…”