Giving your child a chore, like sweeping the floor or feeding the family pet, helps them cultivate a sense of responsibility to their home and community. And once they understand they can be a positive part of a group dynamic, they can grow and thrive.
But what chores are appropriate for what age? In this article, we give you suggestions for chores, broken down by age, as well as how to choose specific chores for your child and tips for a successful chore routine.
Helping your child learn ways to contribute to your family allows them to develop tangible skills, confidence, and a sense of belonging. Plus, even though it may take work on your end at first, soon your child will be truly helping you!
Key Takeaways
- Kids can start doing simple chores as soon as 12–18 months, when they can hold a toy and put it away.
- Framing chores as acts of love and gratitude toward the home and family (and doing them together) can help get kids interested in them.
Table of Contents
- What Is a Chore for a Child?
- Big Jobs vs Chores
- How to Choose Chores
- Tips for a Successful Chore Routine
- What Are Some Age-Appropriate Chore Ideas?
- Should I Pay My Child for Chores?
What Is a Chore for a Kid?
If we think about “age-appropriate chores” in the broadest sense, they can be anything your child can contribute to help your family and household function. This means your child can begin helping (a little!) as soon as they’re able to move independently while holding a small object.
Most children are ready to start helping out between the ages of 12 months and 18 months, when they can carry a toy and place it back into the bin or toy box in which it belongs. (But “priming” your child for chores can happen even earlier! See below!)
Self-care is also a great way to introduce chores to your child. The smallest unit of family is self, and if your child can understand that brushing their teeth or taking a bath is a way to take care of themselves, you can expand that idea of care to include more of your family.
When it comes to talking about chores with your kids, you might consider framing all chores as things we do to show our love for each other and gratitude for our home, as opposed to tedious responsibilities we can’t avoid.
That doesn’t guarantee the chores will always feel that way (for them or you!), but it can go a long way.
Big Jobs vs Chores
Before we dive too deeply into the idea of chores, let’s talk about how they differ from “Big Jobs.” How are the two distinguished from one another?
Chores tend to be built into your family’s daily and weekly routines. Think setting the table for dinner or putting away toys. Big Jobs are more like one-off responsibilities, such as raking the leaves on an autumn weekend or getting your home ready for grandparents to visit.
Big Jobs are typically collaborative. For example, your whole family might spend that autumn weekend together raking leaves. Through this kind of focused work, your child has the chance to build their collaboration skills, as well as practice compromising and problem-solving.
And maybe most importantly, no matter what the age of your child, Big Jobs allow them to feel like a valuable part of the family.
How to Choose Chores
Now onto chores! What’s the best way to choose what chores your child takes on? (And everyone else in the family, for that matter!) Deciding together is key. You might try talking informally at the dinner table, or you could schedule a specific family meeting.
Brainstorm a list of all the things that need to be done around your home. Be sure to include personal self-care responsibilities. Then discuss dividing the chores together. Which ones are age-appropriate for which family member? Who has free time when a chore needs to be done?
Once you divvy up the list, get to it! You’ll probably want to have another conversation at a later date to assess how the chores are going. Don’t be afraid to modify them (even multiple times!) if you need to.
Tips for a Successful Chore Routine
1) Choose Chores Together
Just as we suggested above, try to make choosing chores a collaborative process. This will help your child feel a sense of ownership of their contributions to the home, which will, in turn, motivate them to do their part and allow them to feel pride in their work.
2) Make a Chart
To keep chores straight and help everyone follow the schedule, you may want to make a chores chart. Depending on the age of your child, you might use words or pictures (or both) to delineate responsibilities. Hang the chart where everyone can see it.
And if your child enjoys checking things off or adding a sticker every time a task is completed, you can incorporate that kind of interactive activity, too.
3) Show Your Child the Power of Working Together
As a general rule, tasks are finished faster when people work together. While that may not always be true (especially if your child is just learning how to do something, such as setting the table or doing the laundry), it’s a good idea to reinforce the idea from the get-go.
One effective way to do that is by making a point of giving your child extra play time with you as a result of doing chores together.
4) Be Flexible
Like all things child-related, don’t worry about perfection when it comes to their chores. Some days might be too full to squeeze them in, or your child may not be feeling well. It’s perfectly OK to skip tasks on those days.
And if your child gets tired of doing one particular chore, try changing it up. Swap with them. Or create a rotating system to keep the chore routine fresh.
5) Play Music During Chore Time
Chore time doesn’t have to be a head-down, full focus, all serious affair! What would make it fun for your child? (And you!) You might want to play music while you work, or maybe sing together.
Add in a little creative play: “Can you put away that toy, hopping on one foot?” or “Want to race?”
6) Practice Gratitude
Finally, give your child honest praise for what they contribute to the family when they do their chores. Be specific. You might appreciate how cheerful they are when they work, or you may feel grateful for their thoroughness or their impulse to help others.
Real praise goes a long way.
What Are Some Age-Appropriate Chore Ideas?
Chores for Kids Under 1 Year-Old
- Raking leaves (putting leaves in a pile while you rake)
- Folding laundry (putting clothes into the laundry basket and taking them out again)
- Watering plants (pouring cups of water)
Can a child under the age of one really do a chore? Well, no…but also yes! Of course, a child that young can’t actually rake leaves, fold clothes, or maybe even put away a toy, but they can “prime” for chores later down the road.
For example, your child may hang out beside you while you rake leaves and “help” by adding some to the pile with their hands. Or they may be able to pour a cup of water over a plant (or close to it!) while you garden.
If your child is curious about the chore you’re doing, let them participate. This will build their sense of contribution (even if they’re making more of a mess!) The idea here is that your child is learning the rhythm of doing chores and having a great sensory experience at the same time.
Chores for 1-Year-Olds – 2-Year-Olds
- Picking up toys after play and returning them to their designated spots (bins, toy box, shelf)
- Helping match clean socks after they’ve come out of the dryer
- Pushing the “Start” button on a dishwasher or washing machine
- “Sweeping” with a short-handled broom or a child’s broom
These are one-step chores that are fun to mimic (children love sweeping for some reason, even though they may end up making more of a mess) or have immediate payoffs (hearing the dishwasher turn on after they’ve pressed the button), which is great for children in this stage.
Chores for 2-Year-Olds – 4-Year-Olds
- Setting the table at mealtime (with non-breakable items such as cutlery and plastic cups)
- Supporting cooking and baking with simple responsibilities such as washing vegetables, gathering the right spices from the cabinet, or counting the potatoes
- Sorting clean laundry into bins for each member of the household
Kids in this age range can also keep doing the chores appropriate for younger kids, as well as one- or two-step tasks involving anything they can reach, carry, and lift safely.
As with younger children, kids in this age range often desire to help, so making the activities fun, praising them for their efforts, and modeling language of gratitude can all work to reinforce the experience and make it more likely your child will want to help again in the future.
Chores for 5-Year-Olds – 6-Year-Olds
- Making their bed
- Folding laundry and/or putting laundry away in the correct drawer or bin
- Light yard work, such as picking up outdoor toys and raking leaves
- General tidying
- Dusting and wiping reachable surfaces
Recognizing effort over perfection for kids this age is key. There’s a strong chance you’ll need to redo some of your child’s work, but the fact that they’re engaged and pitching in, and that they’re learning the required skills, is what’s really important for their development.
Chores for 7-Year-Olds and Up
- Light meal prep and collaboration (such as mixing a salad, buttering bread, stirring sauces) with support and supervision
- Cleaning up their room
- Emptying garbage cans
- Helping to make their school lunches
- Pet care, such as walking the family dog with you, or putting cat food in the bowl
- Sweeping and mopping the floor
By early elementary school, your child will likely be able to contribute to more complex responsibilities and even “own” them regularly, which helps to establish a routine and expectations.
Should I Pay My Child for Chores?
A natural extension of the core belief that chores are a way families show love for one another is that it doesn’t make sense to pay your child for those chores. Everyone contributes to keeping their home running, and no one is compensated for that work. Chores are lifelong skills.
That said, payment for tasks completed is absolutely a personal choice. Each family ticks in their own unique way, and if something works, why change it? Compensation may be a great incentive in your home, or you might need it as a temporary measure. Both are great choices.
If you do offer your child compensation for chores, or if you want to give it a try, here are some “payment” ideas:
- Stickers
- Baking a dessert together
- Coupon for a “date”
- Dance party
Age-Appropriate Chores Are Only the Beginning!
Giving your child age-appropriate chores does more than give them useful life skills (although that would be more than enough!). It also helps them develop relational skills, such as compromising, problem-solving, and resilience, which are critical for thriving in school and life.
And if you want to continue growing your child’s social-emotional skills (and cognitive skills, too!), don’t forget about our educational apps. Homer, Learn with Sesame Street, Little Passports, and CodeSpark are fun and effective tools for inspiring your child to learn!
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I do if my child doesn’t do a chore properly?
If your child is young or just learning how to do a task, they may not initially get it right. And that’s OK! Don’t worry about perfection at this stage of the game. Instead, try to focus on your child’s effort. The two goals to aim for are ownership and confidence.
If your child has the patience and energy to do it again, you can use the mistake as a teaching moment. Give your child a quick lesson in the task at hand, and then let them try on their own.
If they don’t want to try again, but they still have some focus, ask them to watch as you do the task so they can learn by observation.
How many chores should I give my child?
Start small. Give your child one chore to start and see if they can get into a routine with it. Once they’ve established a good rhythm, you can add another chore to your child’s list. You can build from there.
Ultimately, a few daily chores instead of a long list is going to allow your child to be more successful. Assess how many is a good amount depending on your child’s enthusiasm and ability to focus, as well as the size of each particular chore.
Should I “manage” my child’s chores or let them do the chores on their own?
Both! Ideally, you want a combination of structure and independence, especially when your child is just learning about chores and how to do them. You want your child to know how to do a task and what’s expected of them, but you also want them to feel ownership and autonomy.
The particular balance of structure and independence will depend on the age of your child and if they’re trying to do a new chore or cruising through one they’ve mastered. It will ebb and flow over time.
