Chores for children

I've had several people ask how I started to teach my children to do chores, so I thought this would be a good place to start.  There are so many ways to do this, but I will share what has worked for us.

My girls, we'll call them M and C, have daily chores and my boys, we'll call them L and H, don't.  M is 6 years old and has been helping out around the house for quite some time now.  C is 4 years old and has recently begun having more responsibilities.  When I found out I was pregnant with H, I knew that I had to get going on teaching the girls more individual responsibility.  I knew my time was going to be spent taking care of a baby, but that certain things were going to still need to be done, and my girls were old enough to help with that.

I started teaching them small tasks such as sorting laundry and putting silverware away.  Once they were proficient at that, I began having them take on bigger jobs.  Some things they have started doing, then I decided it was too big of a job, so I've stopped having them do those things.  For example, I thought M could handle cleaning toilets, but after a couple of weeks of close instruction from me, it was too big of a job.  Another job she began was emptying the dishwasher, and I carefully showed her how to stack dishes on the counter, because she can't reach all the cabinets...job success!  I haven't emptied my dishwasher in over 6 months, and she has learned a great life skill!

Here are some links to great chore charts!

Fab N' Free has an entire post of free chore chart options!  She links to all the original sites in her one post, so I don't feel the need to reinvent the wheel.

All in all, by having my children help with jobs around the house, I am teaching them life skills they will use as adults, teaching them responsibility and being part of a family and lessening my own work load.  I'm not robbing them of childhood fun, they have plenty of time to play and pretend, but I'm preparing them for a successful life.