Parents may have great intentions of getting their
children involved in chores around the house, but life can frequently get in
the way of even the best of intentions. Here are a few simple things you
can quickly teach your children to do around the house to foster their
involvement.
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Set the table. Getting the plates, cups and
silverware out is a great way to not only get your child to help out around the
house, but also to be invested in family meals at an early age. You can
utilize one of the lower cabinets in your kitchen for the plates and cups that
you use for normal everyday meals so that your child will be able to have easy
access to them at mealtime.
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Clear the table. Taking the dirty dishes to the
sink area is a very simple task, and one that is important to get your child in
the habit of doing. As he gets used to this, you can teach him how to
scrape off all the leftover food into the trash before placing it next to the
sink.
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Wipe off the counters and table. Wiping the
counters is typically a favorite of a child’s first “jobs” because it is simple
and fun. For some reason, kids love the idea of cleaning off the gunk and
making the table shiny – almost as much parents like to have clean tables and
counters.
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Put clothes in the washing machine. Laundry time is
often a chore for moms and dads. You can help your child begin to learn
to do her own laundry by getting her to help out early on. It should be
very simple to have your child put the clothes in the washing machine if, as
you sort them, you put the first load on the floor next to the washing
machine. If you have a top loading machine that she cannot reach, you can
get a small stool for her to stand on, but if you have a front loading machine
it is that much easier.
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Sort socks. This is a great way to help your child develop
matching skills, which is a very important beginning math skill to
acquire. Lay all the socks out on the floor and let him find the “pairs.”
You may need to help with some of the socks that look “similar,” but if corrected
in a gentle way he will pick up on this quickly. You can even encourage
him to look for the socks with holes in them.
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Feed the pets. If you child gets a great amount
of joy from her pets, she should learn from an early age that the pets need to
have their needs met. The most basic of these needs is food and
water. Keep your pet food in an accessible place to make it easier for
your child to feed the pet. To ensure the animal gets the right amount,
keep a serving cup that holds just the right amount near the food. You
can develop a chart that your child can check off when the animal is fed to
help her understand that the animal needs to be given food at certain times
during the day.
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Put his toys away. This should be a no brainer, but
it is often far easier to pick up a child’s toys at the end of the day than to
coax him to do it. However, it is worth the trouble to teach the valuable
life lesson that if our things are important to us, we need to take care of
them.
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Take garbage out of the car. It is so much
easier to keep a car clean when it is child-free because you simply take
everything into the house at the end of a car ride. But add children to
the mix, and sometimes multiple children, along with all their garbage, toys,
backpacks, and who knows what else and you will have a much harder time keeping
the car clean. Building the habit of keeping the car clean with children
is not easy, but it can be done. Try keeping a few small canvas shopping
bags in the car. Then every time you have a lot of stuff to bring in you
can have your child put it all in the canvas bag and carry it in herself.
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Get the mail. Kids love mail, even if it is not
all for them. With younger kids you can do this task together. To ensure
that your important mail always gets to you, have a designated spot that your
child can reach and teach him to place the mail there.
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Pull weeds. Finding tasks for your toddler to do in the yard can
be hard, but pulling weeds is one that little hands are capable of doing.
If you get him a pair of small gardening gloves to protect his hands and teach
him what the weeds look like, you will find that pulling weeds may be one of
his favorite things to do with mom or dad outside.
Your child’s mastery of each task will come over time.
While it can be tempting to focus on perfect execution, instead focus on the
important lessons you’re instilling in your child as you encourage him to take
an active role in helping out around the house.
Source: Go nannies
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