10 Best Chores for Your Children To Do

As a parent for over 20 years, and now having a new "family" of little ones, as well as preschool administrator I have found that there are some tried and true chores that you can introduce to your children from a very young age. Try any one of these, and you will find that your children enjoy participating in the family responsibilities as well as are very very proud of their abilities to do a task that they see as a "big girl or boy" task.

1. Empty dishwasher: I put away the glass and breakables, leaving her cups and bowls as well as utensils. She can put away all the utensils and putting her cups together with their lids makes for a fun matching game.

2. Mini Sweep Up: My daughters love to sweep the floor and follow mom around trying to take the brook away from me. So, I purchased two small hand held brooms and dust bins so they can practice sweeping up messes. They miss a lot, but their effort really counts.

3. Trash Time: As children may be changed from their diapers, are done with their napkins or have used paper towels to clean up messes help them learn to put their trash in the trash container. My children also help with recycling, I fill small plastic bags with the recycling and each of us carry a bag to the recycling container.

4. Clean Up Clean Up: Everybody everywhere, this song can be played on your computer through playlist.com. Just type in Barney and set it on repeat. It repeats as your children clean up their toys. Some helpful hint: use this song to indicate that toy time is ended, or to transition to the next activity whether it is moving on to coloring, or just to put toys away and move on to blocks. Soon, when the children hear the song, they know to start cleaning up their toys, and parents and caregivers can use that instead of their voice to instruct.