Chores your kids can do

DEVELOP A HAPPY HELPER: TEACH IN STAGES AND ALWAYS BE PATIENT

Cultivate motivation rather than taking a reward/ consequence approach.

This stage-by-stage guide to chores for kids will help your little one develop into a happy little helper, but feel free to add in appropriate tasks as they come up in your household.

Toddler

This is the first and last time you’re likely to have to beg or demand that your child help you around the house. Your little one is bound to show enthusiasm for helping with everyday tasks and will relish the time together and the sense of accomplishment. But patience will be essential since tasks are likely to take longer and may even produce more mess than there was to begin with.

Nadia Khan, a preschool teacher at FastTracKids preprimary in Johannesburg, says although this can be frustrating, “the child should never be criticised for not doing it right, or the way the parent would. This will just discourage him and prevent him from developing the skills to do the chore well later on”.

This is also a way to develop self-motivation. “However, make sure you show your child how to perform the task. You won’t have much luck simply telling your child to tidy his room. He needs to be shown how to categorise his toys into the different compartments.” be learning self-awareness and how to care for his own needs,” says Khan. Your child will be developing a sense of responsibility, too, and he is likely to take his tasks seriously.

“Your little one will still be unlikely to be doing chores with precision, but if you refrain from criticism, he will have mastered most of them in no time.”

Primary school +

Khan explains that if you have encouraged your child over the years, you may be surprised at how adept he is at certain tasks. However, you may notice some resistance to helping out around the house.

While you may be tempted to offer carrot-and-stick rewards and consequences, these will only work short term. Soon the novelty of receiving a sticker for each task wears off. “What you really want is to cultivate self-motivation.”

In his book, Drive, Daniel H Pink offers advice on how amplifying intrinsic drivers results in long-term success whereas punishment and reward results in short-term adherence.

Daniel suggests the following methods:

Offer autonomy

This means allowing your child to choose a few tasks he actually enjoys doing. This could be using the spray bottle and squeegee to clean windows or helping to prepare family meals.

Find you child’s ‘Goldilocks zone’

Your child should feel challenged, but not overwhelmed, so work on finding tasks that aren’t too easy, but still challenge your child. For example, once he has mastered hanging up laundry, he could teach his sibling how to do it too.

A sense of purpose

For adults and children alike, this is a huge motivating factor. Ensure that you praise and thank your child for the tasks he is completing and never tell him he didn’t do it “properly” or well enough.