Chores For Young Children

I was looking through the binder that I use for school planning and checking out the chore lists for my children to make sure that everyone was getting their stuff done. I then did a double take when I noticed that the chore list had nothing written for my two youngest children who are 7 and 5 years old.

I am pretty sure that my oldest child by seven years old was running the house, or at least able to cook lunch, change a diaper and clean the bathroom, but these youngest two have had so many older kids to pick up the slack that they have been able to act like a couple of slackers. Not really. Just super- creative, making messes all over the place, and seldom remembering to clean up all that they played with, sweethearts.

                                   

I did a lot of Montessori From The Start stuff with them when they were younger; washing dishes, folding laundry, preparing snacks and polishing furniture, but now with more pressure to do real school with them, my one on one time has been spent instructing them on school subjects, or reading aloud, which has left the chore teaching, sadly lacking.

The New Chore List

To her credit, my seven year old does help out whenever asked. She collects eggs, vacuums, clears the table and unloads the dishwasher, but without a chart, it is more haphazard and there is often some resistance to the more tedious of those chores.

Just when I was looking at my sad chore organizing system this morning, I happened upon a link to Riddle Love's latest post on chore planning. She shares some good resources and information about how they are doing chores which I am excited to research. She also talks about one of the most important aspects of any successful chore system. Training your workers. This is why for really important chores like cleaning the kitchen, I make a detailed list of what that entails, and post it somewhere prominent.

I am hoping that with the new chore charts that I just created for the younger two, I can get them helping out with a bit more consistency and excitement.

                                  

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