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Involve your child in daily household activities

Involving children in the daily household activities is one of the best ways to teach them the importance of responsibility and also to instill strong work ethics in them. By taking part in household activities, children learn how to work as a part of team and help others to achieve a common goal. Further, they develop the good habit of keeping themselves and their surroundings neat and tidy, which helps them to maintain orderliness in their lives, as they grow up. Moreover, through household cleaning, children improve their self-sufficiency and become more independent. They also learn time management, which is highly essential in adulthood.

Parental Role

Most of the parents keep their children away from such tasks, thinking that they are too young to take up the responsibilities. In fact, parents do not realise that by doing so, children might grow up as lazy, ignorant and dependent individuals. Therefore, parents should involve their children in daily household activities by assigning them simple & age-appropriate tasks. Also, they should make the tasks a fun experience for the children because they might not show interest if the tasks are boring.child in daily household activities

How to get children involved and motivated!

Sit and talk with your child

Tell your child that as a member of the family, she should contribute towards keeping the home clean and well organised. Explain her that she is responsible for a share of work that needs to be done by the entire family to maintain cleanliness at home. After making your child understand the need to get involved in the household activities, discuss about the tasks she would like to do. Divide the tasks for your child into two broad categories – her personal cleanliness and those she should do along with other members of the family. Make sure that the tasks are manageable for your child. Also, provide her with enough time for study and play.

Start from her room

Instruct your child to take care of her room’s cleanliness first before getting involved with other family members in cleaning the home. For instance, tell her to clean-up the mess in her room after play; ask her to put her toys away; tell her to sort the dirty clothes & put them in the laundry basket; instruct her to take her plate & glass to the kitchen sink after finishing her meals; tell her to fold her bed sheet after she wakes up in the morning. This will not only make her responsible for her work, but also inculcate a sense of self-discipline in her.

Assign more tasks to her

Once your child starts doing her personal cleaning tasks on her own, involve her in household activities that are appropriate for her age. For instance, you may ask your child to keep the dustbin out;arrange the center table and keep fresh flowers in the vase at the table; fill water bottles; wash vegetables for the dinner; water the plants in the garden etc. By involving her in various tasks, you will be able to know what all she is capable of doing at home.

Suggested tasks for different ages

2-3  year-olds

  • Pick up toys and books
  • Put dirty clothes in the laundry basket
  • Help in making their own beds

4-5 year-olds

  • Set the table for meals.
  • Help put clean clothes into piles for each family member, ready to fold
  • Help with grocery shopping and putting away groceries

6-8 year-olds

  • Fold the laundry with supervision & keep it in their drawers
  • Water the garden and indoor plants
  • Make their own beds

Create a daily/weekly chart for household activities

After short-listing the tasks you can involve your child in, prepare a daily or weekly chart for the household chores and display it at a central location in your home for the access of everyone in the family. In the chart, mention the household chores which each member of the family should do in the day/week. Convert this into a fun activity by involving your child in colouring and decorating the chart with glitters, crayons, sketch pens etc.

Make the process enjoyable

Make the process interesting and engaging for your child, so that she does not hesitate to do it. For this, play peppy music in the background while she does the work. By doing so, your child will look up to the household activities as another form of entertainment and will also take interest voluntarily. Also play time-limit games with the entire family. For this, involve all the members of the family to work together in a team for accomplishing a task within a specific time period. You may also divide the entire family into two teams and assign each team a particular area of the home to clean-up. The team which cleans the area first wins the game. Reward the winning team with attractive prizes.

Make household work as a routine work

Make household work as a part of your child’s lifestyle so that as she grows up, she gets habitual of establishing and following a routine. Also, assign specific time limit for each task you ask your child to do, once she learns how to finish it properly. This way, she will be able to learn time management and also understand the importance of creating a routine which she should follow sincerely.

Check your child’s progress

Keep a track of your child’s progress in learning and doing the household activities. For this,place a reward chart in your living room’s wall. On the reward chart, mark different tasks which you have assigned to your child. Add stars or smiley stickers one by one, as and when your child finishes the tasks successfully. When she finishes all the tasks written on the chart, reward her with a weekend outing, toys or a lunch treat at her favourite restaurant as a token of appreciation. This positive reinforcement will keep your child motivated to get involved in household activities.

Set yourself as a good example for her

Above all, remember that you should be the role model for your child, whom she can look up to at all times. So, be clear with the rules that you set for your child and make sure that you follow them as well.By showing your enthusiasm and willingness to keep the home clean, your child will also grow up with a positive attitude, which in turn will develop self-motivation in her to lead a life of orderliness.

In the end

Keep in mind that your child may not have the fine motor skills to finish the household activities with the perfection and timing with which you can do. So, do not finish the tasks for your child in the pretext of saving time or helping her to accomplish the work assigned to her. Be patient to wait for your child to finish the household activities at her own pace, especially when she learns something new. Also, praise her from time to time, as rewards will keep her motivated to get involved in household activities. Further, provide your consistent support until your child is old enough to master the tasks. Remember that with the passing time, if your child gets involved in the household tasks and also manages to accomplish them successfully, she will gain the self-confidence to take up new tasks, learn new things and excel in other areas as well.

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Meenal Arora
Meenal Arora
Mrs. Meenal Arora is the Executive Director of SHEMROCK Preschools & Founder Director of SHEMFORD Futuristic Schools – one of India’s leading education groups, which manages over 425 Senior Schools & Preschools across India and Abroad. As Head of the school curricular division, Mrs. Arora’s responsibilities extend to designing, innovating and developing educational systems. An enthusiastic writer as well, she has been consistently providing articles on parenting and many more topics related to children, which are regularly published in some of the leading newspapers and monthly magazines like Responsible Parenting, Parent’s India, Curriculum, Child, Grehlakshmi, Grehshobha, Bindiya etc. She is also on the advisory panel of Parent’s India Magazine - one of the country’s leading magazine.
https://www.shemrock.com/blogs

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