Top Daycare in Columbus Recommends Methods for Children’s Chores
In our last blog, we talked about the benefits of assigning age appropriate chores to your children as early as three-years-old. These benefits have lifetime significance. As one of the top preschools in Columbus, Little Buckeye Learning Center has lots of experience with teaching children to do chores. We have two very good suggestions to help you make doing chores a successful and beneficial activity at home.
Method #1: Keep Track of Chores on a Chart
It’s amazing how gold starts on a chart can motivate children. So, keep a chart of your child’s chores that you mark daily with a gold star.
Get your child’s “buy-in” on the idea by letting your child help you create the chart. We have found that hands-on activities (like we do in our learning center) build confidence and automatically create interest.
Method #2: Set a Time Limit for Chores
Time limits are a good way to get your child into the spirit of doing chores. The beauty of this system is that you’re not constantly nagging your child. Instead, you’re just keeping time.
Introducing Chores to Toddlers
For a very young child that you are just introducing to the idea of chores, you could say, “I’m going to try to put all your toys in the toy box before the bell rings on my phone. Can you help me?” This introduces the child to doing a chore and promotes cooperation and a spirit of working together.
Lear more about our Infants and Toddlers Program.
Keeping It Fun for Preschoolers
Preschoolers love a challenge. You can say, “Let’s see if you can put all your toys back in the toy box before the bell rings on my phone.” It’s fun because it’s a race against the clock. But’s It’s also a way to help a child, who has a short attention span, focus on the task.
Learn more about our Preschool Age Program.
Keeping Older Children Involved
If your child is older and more used to doing chores, the timer can be a “stick or a carrot” (a punishment or a reward). But just remember that the “carrot method” is generally preferable to the “stick method.” The carrot method is more exciting and stimulating for the child. So, it gets better results and avoids negative feelings.
Learn more about our School Age Program.