As your children age, they become more able to help you around the house with small household chores. Working together, you can take some of the pressure off of you and your spouse, and begin to delegate tasks to your children. The best way to dole out responsibility is to take into consideration the skill set of the children and assign age-appropriate chores on a chart so that each child can clearly see with words or pictures the chores that he is responsible for. A child as young as 2 years old can help around the house easily.
Toddlers
A 2-year-old will happily clean a surface with a rag, notes FamilyROI.com. That makes her ideal for dusting non-breakable surfaces like table tops. She can also put dirty clothes in the hamper, feed the family fish with supervision and complete simple tasks. Remember to give instructions in short steps. Instead of saying, "Clean up your clothes," say "Pick up your shirt and put it in the basket."
Preschoolers
Your 3- to 5-year-old is well capable of cleaning up his own toys. Set him to work in the toy room, and make sure that he organizes as well as puts toys away by instituting a basket system where each toy has a home. He can also help measure while preparing food, and can put away outdoor clothing items like hats, coats and boots at the front door. You can also teach him to fold dish towels to help you with the laundry, notes WorkingMom.com.
Elementary School Students
An elementary school student can help set the table before dinner, bringing all of the necessary plates, silverware and drinks to the table. A quick lesson in place setting can help her accomplish it in an organized way. She can also assist younger children in their chores, making sure that they do them properly. A smaller dog can be walked by a 5- to 7-year-old, along with an older child to supervise. She can also do light yard work, according to EduGuide.com, like raking and weeding.
Middle School Students
As your child becomes a preteen, you can assign him more responsibility. He might do well taking out the trash each day, or making sure that the mail comes in. He can take the dog for a walk on his own, and clean up after the dog. He can help with heavier loads, like bringing in the groceries and putting them away, carrying laundry to the laundry room and washing dishes or putting them into the dishwasher.
High School Students
A high school student should be able to clean up after herself, including cleaning her own room and bathroom, and doing her own laundry. You can also assign her food-preparation tasks, like cutting up the food for a stir fry or putting chicken in a marinade. She may be responsible for getting younger children to extracurricular activities, or maintain the house so it's clean when you arrive home. If your teen drives, she should be responsible for keeping the interior of the car clean.
