Guest post from Leigh Ann Dutton
When should children begin to take part in daily chores? This is a common household question. We all want to teach our children responsibility, but more than that we want to teach them to work joyfully with glad hearts, right?
I have a 18 month old running around my house like a crazy kid. He’s literally a tornado on steroids. It is amazing how a perfectly clean living room can end up looking like a pigsty in zero-point-two-seconds flat. Please, tell me you can relate!
In the hopes of creating a heart that not only loves to destroy, but to mend as well, I’ve implemented a few chores into my 18 month old’s daily routine to help teach him a little bit about responsibility and work. My motto is, “If he’s old enough to pull it out, he’s old enough to put it back…or at least try.” Of course, this means more work for me right now, but I know this will pay off in dividends in just a matter of months. I try to have him help me with at least one or two chores a day.
Before I share chore ideas with you, I want share a few tips that I have learned along the way.
3 Tips for Getting Your 18 Month Old to Help with Chores
1. Keep it simple. Don’t expect them to be able to do a complete job of dusting, or even a remotely half way decent job. They are children with very short attention spans. Give them simple tasks that can be completed quickly and easily.
2. Be joyful. If you want your toddler to work with a joyful heart, then you first have to emulate joy for them. Make work fun. They’re already happy that they get to help Mommy, but add in something extra special like music and dance your way through the chore. Then, praise them with great fervor when they complete a task!
3. Be consistent. Consistency is the key to any toddler’s life. They like routine, and they like to test their boundaries. They are learning at amazing speeds. Be consistent with chore time, and don’t give up. It will pay off, Mama! Your efforts are not in vain. They understand so much more than we give them credit for.
18 Chores Your 18 Month Old Can Do {with assistance}
1. Hold the dust pan. When I sweep the floor, my boy waits eagerly, and yes, sometimes walking through my pile of dirt, to hold the dust pan for me. He then dumps it into the trash can.
2. Dust a section of furniture. Spray a section of furniture, or give him a damp cloth, and let him wipe away with you as you dust your furniture.
3. Water plants. We have a garden so this is a fun way to be outside while we work.
4. Unload silverware. He pulls the silverware out and hands it to me, or I help him put it away.
5. Put books on shelf. We’re not perfectionists when it comes to our book shelf. He has two shelves that he can reach filled with his favorite children’s books. We just get the books back up there right now. I don’t care which way they face.
6. Put toys in toy bins. We’re working on sorting, but for the most part, he puts things wherever he sees fit.
7. Mop. I give him a damp mop and let him go at it. Be sure the mop isn’t soaking the floor because that’s just slippery and dangerous. Just use a little common sense, but really, this is quite helpful, and I can let him go to town with it.
8. Place groceries on conveyor belt. I hand him items that are relatively light and can’t be damaged like celery, carrots, avocados, baby wipes, cheese, etc. Eggs are not a good idea, in case you were wondering. And no I don’t know from experience. I’m naive, but not that naive.
9. Put away clothes. We have a drawer for shirts and drawer for pants. I don’t fold children’s clothes, so it’s easy for him to put the item in the appropriate drawer.
10. Put wet laundry in the dryer. I hang wet laundry over the dryer door and let him put the items the rest of the way in.
11. Put away groceries. Putting cans of beans away is a fun treat. Unloading produce into the drawers means something will be eaten along the way. Other times, he just hands me the items from the bags.
12. Feed dog. He helps Daddy feed our dog twice a day. Daddy scoops while the he dumps. Then, he sneaks a few bites. It’s sort of gross.
13. Throw away diapers/trash. I hand him simple items to throw away.
14. Pull weeds. This one is loads of fun. I put him in a section where it’s all weeds and let him pull for all it’s worth.
15. Put away shoes. When we take off shoes, we put them in the basket.
16. Put dirty clothes in laundry basket. Helping with laundry is great fun.
17. Put dirty dishes in the sink. If you’re like my family, your child’s dishes are probably shatter proof so it will be safe enough to add this to the list.
18. Help cook and prepare simple meals. My little one makes a mad homemade pizza. He loves putting the cheese and pepperonis on our pizzas. Of course, a lot ends up in his mouth, but he absolutely squeals with delight. Just choose an easy meal and let them help.
What do you think? Any chores you can add to the list that your 18 month old can do?
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What a great post, Leigh Ann! I have a 14 month old that is not quite ready to do all of these tasks, but could certainly complete some of them. He is fascinated with the dust pan, so some gentle training would probably teach him to hold it in place while I sweep the contents of the kitchen floor into it. Thanks for the tips!
I think the key is just involving your little one in what you do. It has been so neat to watch my boy get excited when he completes a task I’ve given him. Right now, we’re perfecting taking the dirty linens from the kitchen to the laundry room and put it in the basket. He can now do this unassisted. At first, I’d find them in the living room floor, discarded and forgotten. But persistence has paid off and he rarely gets distracted going to the laundry room anymore. He’s just turned 18 months. Oh the smiles of joy when he makes it all the way! It’s worth it just for that! 🙂
Can I just say that I totally loved this, even though my “toddlers” are 21 and 25? We did some of these same chores together, if I can remember that far back, and it really did pay off.
Thanks, Janice! I’m glad to hear we’re on the right track. 🙂
Good job! As a homeschooling mom of eight, it has always been important that we work together to get things done. My favorite first chore to assign to the youngest children was to fold washcloths and hand towels. You knew your were graduating to “big kid-ness” when you started to fold bath towels.
We hope to have more children someday. The thought that we will need to work together has crossed my mind. As the first child, he gets a lot more attention, but hopefully, he’ll be teaching his brothers and sisters someday. 🙂 Right now, he hands me laundry from the basket to fold. I think he’s getting very close to being able to fold on his own. It’s been fun to watch him grow developmentally even! Not to mention, having someone to take laundry to the basket while I finish the dishes just warms my heart!
Wow. I can’t even make my 4 year old do all this! But this has given me a chance to think about age appropriate tasks for him… The thing is the whining – how do you overcome this?
Oh whining. I was THAT kid. 🙂 The hardest part is teaching our children to work with joy. Try to find a way to make it fun for them and for you. Turn on some music, be silly, and make it an enjoyable task instead of drudgery. Maybe change up the chores they do each day so it’s not juts monotonous work. A commenter below also mentioned a sticker chart with rewards. I only have an 18 month old, and I just try to be consistent with asking him to do something and making sure he does it. Some days getting laundry to the laundry room is a quite the task in itself. But when he does complete the task, I jump and cheer like a crazy woman. 🙂
Great ideas! I am in the midst of making a chore chart for my 3 and 5 yr old girls. I bought inexpensive Spider Man and My Little Pony stickers at the store and each chore completed earns a sticker. When the chart is full we will do a fun activity. This is how we potty trained too and they are super motivated by their charts! (I just use a ruler and make my own on sketch paper.) I’ve been trying to think of appropriate and helpful chores they can do and added a few from your list to my list 🙂 I also have a before lunch and before supper 10-min tidy-up on my list. And if they want to earn the sticker, the chore has to be done with a good attitude. Complaining does not earn a sticker.
Also something we just started this week, that works well for my slightly older girls, is we have a Morning Meeting during breakfast. We make sure everyone is dressed and has their hair done and then we do a short kid’s Bible reading and prayer (and the girls like to pick a song or two to sing), go over our plan for the day(ie. we have t-ball tonight) and then I send them off to do their assigned chores for the day. It helps me get them started on the right foot and not wait until almost lunch time to get them going and it helps them know what is expected of them and they don’t feel like I’m suddenly springing something on them.
These are great tips. Thanks so much for sharing! I have found routine and expectations does wonders for my little boy.
What a fabulous list Leigh Ann!!! I can’t wait to put these into practice!! 🙂
I can’t wait to see you put these into practice! Whoo hoo! 🙂
Chores are a big part of our life too and I find that if you engage them when they are young, a lot of the whining never happens. I love to use baby wipes to help the really little ones get involved. Just give them a baby wipe to wipe couches, coffee tables, baseboards, etc. Anything they can reach.
We also moved some things around to make it easier for them to help. For example, we just use a big enamel pot on a low shelf to hold our dish towels. One of their very first jobs was to put them away in the “bucket.” It doesn’t really matter if they stay folded or not. You can’t really see them and they all fit without any problems.
We also got non-breakable pet dishes and dog/cat food containers that the kids could reach and open easily with a cup or scoop that little hands could use and they are usually feeding the pets twice a day by themselves by 2 yrs old. Sometimes there’s spills, but the dog takes care of them! 🙂 Emptying pockets while sorting laundry is another easy one–my kids loved finding “treasure” in Daddy’s pockets. We put a “change jar” out where they could reach it (a giant old molasses jar with a narrow mouth) and trained them early to put any money they found into it. I think this early training also helped head off a lot of things going into their mouth instead.
Great ideas! I’ve recently been training my 18mo old to put his dishes in the sink when he’s done with them. It’s so cute watching him stand on tip-toe to put the plate or bowl or whatever over the edge of the counter into the sink. Nine times out of ten I have to help him, but I’m hoping to get the habit developed early!
I’m glad that I do some of these chores already with my son. the dust pan one is a good idea. I usually play around with him when I’m sweeping, but getting him to help is a great idea. The thought never even crossed my mind. Will try more of these…
thanks
At the daycare I work at we hand them a wet washcloth after meals and they clean thier own faces and hands and even the table. Of course we go around the table checking and helping each child before they can get up, but they really like to help. We also have them help us fold thier blankets after naptime. They love it.
What great ideas! Thanks for sharing!!
I LOVE this post! Thank you so much for writing it. These are wonderful ideas. I love that you don’t fold children’s clothes. I would have never thought of that. My little guy is always trying to help with chores and instead of looking at it as a nuisance I need to include him. He likes to put his foot on the vacuum to turn it on and I’ll let him push the buttons to turn on the washing machine, dishwasher, etc…
Yes! Include him now. Then it won’t be such a hassle to teach him later. Let him be involved in all aspects of homekeeping. 🙂