A Two-Year-Old Can Dust Furniture	Age two and three: pick up toys and books help feed a family pet wipe up spills dust chairs, furniture, non-breakables sort silverware clear table with help set silverware at table put laundry in laundry room or basket
Age four and five: all of the above, plus: put away toys set table make bed bring in mail or newspaper clear table independently pull weeds, water garden use hand-held vacuum to pick up crumbs water plants load utensils in dishwasher wash unbreakable dishes in the sink fix a bowl of cereal with milk	A Four-Year-Old Can Wash Unbreakable Dishes
A Six-Year-Old Can Take Out Trash	Age six and seven: all of the above, plus: sort laundry sweep vacuum help make and pack lunch keep bedroom tidy pour own drinks answer telephone properly clean bathroom with nontoxic cleaners take out trash load dishwasher empty dishwasher

Safety is the most important consideration

Many household cleaners are toxic. Don’t give your child a bottle of spray cleaner and turn your back. But there are non-toxic alternatives that are safer for your child and the environment. White vinegar in a spray bottle, straight or diluted with water, will clean almost anything. If you need “scrub” power, shake plain baking soda on the dirt, rub, then follow with the vinegar solution. Your child may really enjoy the fizz reaction of baking soda and vinegar!

Young children can drown a few inches of water. Don’t leave a bucket of cleaning water sitting around. For cleaning up spills, I like to leave a very small pail (like a sandbox pail) with only an inch of soapy water and a sponge. My granddaughter can squeeze the sponge out, wipe up any milk spills, and rinse the sponge. I empty and refill the cleaning bucket as necessary.

Adapt the Chore for the Child’s Age

For dusting, you can put an old sock on your young child’s hand, and have him rub down the rungs of a chair, the top of the coffee table, or the shelves of the entertainment center. Don’t expect him to dust anything breakable for about ten more years.

A two or three year old can dump a scoop of pet kibble in the feed bowl, or can add water to a water bowl using a small watering can. He or she is not strong enough to hold a full pitcher. Only put a cup or so of water in a small pitcher, and he will manage better. Even if he does spill, it’s only water! Give him a towel and he will clean up the spill himself.

A very young child can sort spoons, butter knifes, and forks into the silverware tray. He may make mistakes, but this is a great skill for him to work on. If your knives are the least bit sharp, pull them out before you let him sort silverware. A very young child can help set the table, with your help. He can put a spoon next to every plate. He can put a napkin next to every plate. This sort of activity is called “one-to-one correspondence”, which is an important pre-math skill. A child needs to understand the concept of “one” before he can count, add, and subtract.

A two year old may not be able to clear the table yet, but by three it is something he can help with. He can clear his own plate and cup, at least. If your dishes are not breakable, he might help clear all the plates and silverware. Don’t expect him to clear serving platters and bowls – they are probably too heavy, even empty.

When possible, Make Work Fun

To get a young child to pick up toys, make it easy, and make it fun. Duplos or Legos can go in a big bin. Take a photo of a pile of duplos, and laminate it, or stick it to the bin with packaging tape. Now your child KNOWS where the duplos go. You can print the word “Duplos” on the bin. Knowing where something goes is half the battle. To help your child in picking up his toys, don’t let him have access to too many at a time. You can put half his toys on a top shelf out of reach, and rotate them periodically. Do not let him dump every toy he owns on the floor and mix them all up, then expect him to be able to pick it all up. The two and three year old child is easily overwhelmed and distracted. If he does have a big mess, you’ll need to help him focus. Break it up into smaller tasks… such as, “Pick up all the yellow duplos and put them in here.” Make it a race. You can pick up all the red duplos. Or have him pick up duplos while you pick up blocks. Better yet, spread a large sheet on the floor before he dumps out the Duplos, and then all you have to do is pick up the sheet.

Do not yell, scold, or shame

You want your child to be a willing helper. Keep it fun, and you will be training your child to develop positive attitudes towards work that will last him all his life.

For more information, check out:
Teaching Children to Clean
Children and Chores
Earth Friendly Cleaners

Or, from Amazon.com:

Photo Credits:
Helping with Laundry by Elizabeth/Table4Five
Washing Dishes by Clogozm
Taking out the Trash by Neeta Lind

Chores Young Children Can Do

So, what are some things you can expect your young child to do? ANYTHING! As long as it isn’t dangerous for him to help. He won’t be able to scrub a toilet or bathtub with a toxic cleanser, but straight white vinegar works great for cleaning almost anything, and it isn’t toxic to either your child or the environment. A young child can’t dry and put away sharp knives, but he can dry and put away the spoons, forks and butter knives. Having him sort them into the silverware tray is a great pre-math skill, as well. The young child can set the table, pour milk or water into beverage glasses, fold and put away laundry, pick up his toys, sweep, dust, vacuum and take out the trash. He can feed a pet, make his bed, water the plants. I taught my youngest daughter how to use the washer and dryer when she was just three years old. She needed to use a stool to reach the top-loading washing machine, but it was a chore she did well and willingly. And when she went off to college, she just laughed at all the incompetent Freshmen who seemed stymied by the coin-operated laundry facilities.

How to Get Started

A Toddler Can Help Load a Dishwasher

The next week(or next month, if you or your child need more time), teach him a new chore, but still expect him to do the first one that he learned. Now, he will make his bed every day AND help set the table. He gets one sticker on his chart for doing both chores well – but you will be helping him for several days with the new chore, remember. He really should get the sticker the first three days in a row.

Keep Teaching a New Chore Every Month

A Four-Year-Old Can Help Shovel Snow

Use Child-Safe Materials

Just a few reminders: use child-safe cleansers. You can clean almost everything in your house with either white vinegar, or baking soda. Use sturdy, non-tipping step stools for the young child. Keep cleaning materials that are child-safe, in a low cupboard that he can reach, so he can clean up his own messes once you’ve taught him the right way to do so. Organize his bedroom or toy room so that there is a place for everything and everything in it’s place – with photographs laminated onto sturdy bins, so the child knows exactly where everything belongs. Use positive reinforcement.

Everyone Needs A Helping Hand Once in a While

And sometimes, just sometimes, get down and help your child. Once in a while, he may really be too tired to pick up his mess. Maybe he had friends over who left without helping. Maybe he is under the weather, or maybe his biorhythms are down! But wouldn’t you love to have a child say to you some day, “Gee, Mom, you look really tired. Why don’t you go take a rest and let me finish the dishes?” Any behavior that you want your child to learn, you need to model it first. Who knows, maybe it will pay off some day when you least expect it!

For more information on non-toxic cleansers, check out:
Inexpensive Earth-friendly Cleaning Products

Related Articles:
Children and Chores
Age-Appropriate Chores for Kids

Photo credits:
Top: photo by Tomeppy
Middle: photo by Delta Mike
Bottom: photo by DrStarbuck

My parents didn’t want us to work after school or in the summers. They felt that our school work was our job. I don’t think now, in hind-sight, that was a good idea. First off, my parents managed to do all three – chores at home, part-time jobs, and finish school. There were some basic job skills and financial management skills that I was severely lacking, and it took years (my husband might add “if ever!”) for me to learn them.

Teach Them When They are Young, and When They are Old They Will Not Depart

My son got his first paper route when he was eleven years old. He enjoyed it, and two of his sisters were a little envious that he was getting paid real money - espescially when he went out and bought himself a new bike. He took on a second route, then, and subcontracted the work with them, dividing up the two routes into three. His eight-year-old younger sister took the shortest route that was closest to home - delivering just to the homes on our block.

I can still see them now, sitting in the front hallway (the walls were painted white, dumb color for a home with children). The papers would come about 2 pm, signalling the end of our school day. Then they'd work together rollign the newspapers and sticking a rubber band around them, stuffing them in the big, green canvas newspaper bags. The soy-based ink would rub off on their hands and faces, and leave inky smudges on the walls. As soon as the last paper was rolled, they'd hop on their bikes and go out the door - and I'd have a half an hour of private time with the youngest, before they returned.

I worried a little - hey, I'm a mom! I worried about careless drivers backing out of their garage, not looking for a kid on a bike. I worried about the grouchy customers who snapped at kids if they threw the paper in the wrong place. Some customers want the paper on their front porch, some want it by the garage door, some actually want it ON the grass - and they expect a ten year old to remember one hundred different preferences?

Washing Toy Dishes at Three is Good Practice. One Day She'll Be Washing Your Dishes.

Christmas Day there was a paper to deliver! That shocked me, but the kids didn’t mind. They decided to deliver it after the midnight Mass the night before. A light snow was falling (we lived in Oklahoma at the time, so snow was rare). I drove the pickup truck, and they rode in the back (okay, I’m confessing to doing something that is now illegal, too). And they flung the papers from the back of the pickup, while singing Christmas Carols at the top of their lungs. It is a happy memory, for me as well as for them.

Then they started getting the Christmas Cards. Satisfied customers sent them nice little notes inside, sometimes with a dollar or two for a tip. That was the best Christmas for them, ever. Not just because they had some spending money, but because of the pride they took in their work, and that their customers appreciated them.

Later, when we moved to North Carolina, they had to retire. It is illegal in the state of North Carolina for a child under the age of EIGHTEEN to have a paper route. Children in that state cannot cut grass for the neighbors! Even McDonald’s is not allowed to hire kids under the age of sixteen. And at least in the area where we lived, there was a high rate of juvenile crime. Some kids broke into the school computer lab and trashed it. Even the sheriff claimed it was just because they were bored.

Well, my rambling thoughts are going to draw to a close sometime soon.

The point of this post is, that children can do chores. Whether they should or not is a matter of personal preference. As for me, I wouldn’t have robbed my children of those experiences for anything.

I found several blogs that posted very detailed information on this subject, so rather than “re-invent the wheel” I thought I’d just share those links.

The first is Emomsblog, written by an online friend of mine. Her children are older, ages 10 and 12, so her information may be a little beyond the scope of this blog, where I focus on preschoolers ages 2 – 6. But she wrote an excellent article on summer planning, complete with calendars and chore charts, that I thought you might be able to adapt to your own needs.

Next is More4kids, a blog I don’t really know anything about. But there was a great article that listed a number of jobs very young children could do.

And finally, you might want to read Paying Children to do Chores . This blog seems to be more about saving money than parenting, but I thought this article was well written and thoughtful.

So, I invite all of you to comment below, and share with us what chores your children do. What would you like them to do? Do you pay them or give them an allowance? Thanks for reading! Until next time-

Photo Credits
Top: photo by J. Danvers
Middle: photo by Jennifer Schwalm
Bottom: photo by author

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