What child likes to do chores? Not many I think but chores are an important part of growing up and taking responsibility. They teach children that dinner doesn’t magically appear on the table or there is no special fairy who washes the dishes, makes the beds or puts out the rubbish. The person who normally does all the chores is mum or dad but, given doing chores is so useful, parents can start to get their children involved in helping out around the house. From experience, and from the feedback I receive from the children I see, they don’t like doing chores as they find it time consuming and not fun at all. So how can we make chores fun for them?
Top 5 Ways To Make Chores Fun
1. My favourite way is to use a bit of music. Put some music on and your child can dance or sing whilst they clean their room, make their bed, wipe up etc. Preferably put the music on in the room they are in otherwise it could get very loud.
2. Run a challenge. Perhaps your child could do their chores against a chore you are doing at the same time and see who finishes first. I like this idea as it is less competitive than if you get two children challenging each other.
3. Put the timer on and see how long it takes them to do the chore. They can record their time and then next time see if they can do it quicker. The chore has to be done well otherwise parents have the authority to add on a few seconds/minutes. Another way to use the timer is to give them x amount of time to do it and see if they can before the buzzer goes off.
4. Do the chore together. Children like working together with their parents and like to feel part of the team. Whilst you are doing the chore you could banter, tell jokes, be silly – using humour they like.
5. Mix it up. Maybe have a week of one chore and then they do something different the following week. I don’t mean chores like making the bed, as once your child is doing it you don’t want them to stop. I was thinking more of being in charge of recycling one week and laying the table for dinner the following week.
You could even use my ‘Contributions Board’ to keep the chores going and your children could try different chores to get different stickers every week or maybe I could work with your child to see what ideas they could use that are personal to them.
What other tips do you have to make chores fun? If you are stuck for ideas maybe get some more from here.
