LEARNING FROM CHORES

You are probably wondering why your child should be doing chores around the house? Why, when, as parents, it’s our job to manage the house.

It's very fair to think let the kids be, what with their hectic hours at school, play, and then tuitions. And, you’re also worried that it might just end up becoming more work for you. 

However, assigning a few chores to your child could help him/her learn responsibility, life skills, and enable a better understanding of what life would demand in their later years. 

Need more convincing? Here are a few reasons: 

Skills that can only be learnt at home 

The school takes care of teaching your child the names of countries, maths, and the foundation of the world, but it doesn’t teach them how to do their laundry, clean up after themselves, cook a meal. 

These are life skills they can only learn from you, the parents, at home. 

Teamwork meets family time 

Finishing the countless chores around the house often ends up being the reason to not spend time with your kids. Bringing in your children to share chores with you can help build shared memories, be fun, and teach them valuable team skills along the way. 

Build cleanliness & good hygiene habits

Cleaning their desk, sweeping the floor, clearing the dining table, changing bedsheets on a daily basis will help them realize the significance of hygiene in everyday life. 

Facts about Hygiene:

• Your remote control is a top carrier of bacteria.
• Nearly 80% of illness-causing germs are spread by your hands.
• Germs can survive for up to three hours on your hands.

Manage their time well 

Every child has a busy routine with school, homework, playtime, tuitions & extra-curriculars. All of this is scheduled. With chores, they get to judge their deadlines, priorities, and make decisions, a skill essential for the later years. In an era of over-parenting, laying the foundation for making their own decisions is a precious skill you can help them build. 

Sense of competence and achievement

Mopping the floor, putting their toys away, organizing their own cupboard - these might seem very mundane but doing these gives the young ones a great sense of achievement. They idolize you, being able to do some of the things you can do boost their confidence.

Respect & Responsibility 

Assigning your child chores such as cleaning the room, folding the blankets, clearing the desks can help your child become self-reliant, while also helping them understand and respect the effort that goes behind in maintaining the house. 

Now, with all this in mind, the question is how to start. 

Here’s how:

• Consider the age and the abilities of your child before assigning any chores to them, since it can be too monotonous, or tough for them to adjust with. 
• A family discussion would do wonders to reinforce the contributions of each and every person, building a team, building trust. 
• On assigning a chore to your child, simple tasks like clearing the table, picking up toys etc, do it with your child till they get a hang of it 
• Write down the chores for better clarity - this would serve as reminders too!
• Explain the reason behind each chore, and how it further helps maintain the entire house
• Compliments when the task is done well, done on time, help them feel validated and proud 
• Keep having conversations on how your child is doing the task - get them to explain it to you, so it could get them be clearer about their work 
• Reward chart work wonders - for each task done, they can get a star, and a whole of 5 stars could get them their favourite cookie!

What kind of chores are appropriate for your child? We’ll break it down according to the age: 

Toddlers (2-3 years) 

• Picking up toys 
• Picking up books

Tiny tots love being appreciated with claps and happy smiles!

Pre-schoolers (4-5 years) 

• Setting the table for dinner
• Serving food (under supervision) 
• Cleaning up desk 
• Help with groceries and clothes

They feel the need to follow the parents, to do what they’re doing, and this can be used to teach them small tasks.

School age children (6-12) 

• Help with meal preps (under supervision) 
• Feed pets 
• Water the plants
• Put away crockery & cutlery
• Choose meals 
• Sweep the floor
• Cleaning the room 

Even though school tires them, they feel responsible to help around and they can share most of the household tasks with parents under supervision and if time permits!

Teenagers (13-18) 

• Washing the dishes
• Cleaning the bathroom
• Cooking food
• Shopping for groceries 

We hope this was useful for you! If you're showing your child how to clean, use the non toxic, kid friendly range of cleaning products by Koparo.