For those who still have children of preschool age – do you get them to help out with the housework? Do they have chores?

Sometimes we underestimate what our little ones are capable of. I’ve found that children can be taught to help out around the house from a very early age. The trick is to give them things they are capable of achieving (since you don’t want to set them up for failure), to make it interesting (yes, housework can be interesting to a child!), and to stop chore time while they are still enjoying themselves (so they will want to help out again the next day).

By helping Mum or Dad from a young age, children learn to think about how they can contribute to the home rather than always thinking about what others should be doing for them.

Of course, when they’re very young, you know that you could complete your chores so much quicker if you didn’t have them ‘helping’ you. But I like to think of it as an investment. By taking the time now to teach them how to do a simple chore, in a couple of months they’ll be doing it all by themselves and that’ll be one less thing I have to worry about. (And plus, you will probably save some time in the long run because if they’re not helping you, they may be off making a mess somewhere else which only makes more work for you anyway).

Having as many children as Scott and I have, it’s kind of a necessity. It would be impossible for 1 mother to clean up after 10 kids during the day. Or even 5 kids. But 1 mother and 5 kids cleaning up after 5 kids is a lot more achievable.

Hyrum, our youngest, is at school now, so I’ve got no preschoolers left. But I think back to some of the ways that I have gotten my kids to help out when they were very young:

Load of washing
Passing some of the clothes to me, so I can put them in the washing machine. Then pouring the scoop of soap powder or whatever, into the machine. Then, as directed, push the right buttons to get it going. After a while they can remember the right buttons to press without help, which makes them feel very grown up. They can help pass the clothes for putting in the drier and again press the right buttons or pass the pegs if you are hanging clothes out on the line.

Handy Hint:  Just relax into it. What’s the hurry?

Doing the dishes
Drying the knives and forks or just putting them in the right place as I dry them. Maybe they could dry the plastic things.

Note: The first few times you have to train them on how to do it and they might only get 2 or 3 dishes done. Some days focus on quality and other days on quantity. All I know is they do get better and quicker before you know it. The most important thing is that they are getting into good habits.

Setting the bed
Never too young to “help” you set the bed.

Handy Hint: To begin with, maybe you can do the sheets and blankets and have them join in for the top quilt and pillow. Gradually you can get them to do more. By the way, if you feel you really must fix up any work they do, make sure they do not see you do so or they could get very upset. Also they very often come back at some stage to admire their efforts and they can tell if someone has tampered with their work!

Checking the mail
A favourite simple chore which they can do “by myself, okay”

Handy Hint: You can keep an eye on them from the windows though, just in case they drop a letter or two, but they’ll think it’s because you want to wave out to them or blow them a kiss when they get to the mailbox.

Baking
Preschoolers are especially good at helping in counting the number of cups of flour that are going into the mix and of course you’ll need someone to lick the bowl afterwards!

Well, those are just some that I can think of at the moment. If you are interested, go to the Resources page and click on the link to send me your email address so I can send you a link to download HomePlay Cards – a system I have used for some of my preschoolers during the day, including chores such as the ones I’ve mentioned above.