Chores and Your Younger Children

Two of my children are younger and I want them to have some independence with helping with chores around the house. One of my daughters is five and my other daughter is three. I wanted to make this fun for them as well as rewarding, so I made up a chart on a piece of Bristol board with their names and the list of chores.

Because of their age, I made the chores simple and basic, such as feeding the cats, putting away the toys when they are finished with them, brushing their teeth at night, not fighting with each other , keep their room tidied and so on.

On the top of the chart is the chores to accomplish for the day and then coming down the side is their names. Above their chart, they each have a page of stickers with stars.

Each night, after supper, we go through the list to see what they accomplished for the day. They place a sticker on each chore that they accomplished for the day and then I count how many stars they earned and they receive a penny for each star. Because of their age, they are very excited about receiving the little bit of money for the work they did for the day. If they accomplish all the chores they receive ten cents, which to a small child, seems like a large sum of money.

At the end of each month, we count up how much money they earned and they are allowed to go to the store and buy a treat for their themselves. Something they want and something they have earned for themselves.

I have found since I started this chart, they are more eager to help out around the house and at least try to get along during the day, in hopes of getting their star. I have noticed they are more excited about placing the star on the chart then the money they have earned for the day.

 All in all, this has worked wonders since I have started and for this reason, I thought I would share it with all of you interested in finding a way to have your younger children help out around the house.