Ultimate Montessori Household Chore List for Children

Children are capable and can contribute to their families and households. Here is the ultimate list of household chores for children. Starting at a very young age through high school, even young toddlers can begin to help and contribute. Not only is it helpful to family life but it is also good for a child’s development to have these opportunities for practical life activities and to learn responsibility through a chore routine. We can start instilling this idea that at an early age children are capable of hard work. A child reaches their fullest potential through work. Here is a list of age-appropriate chore ideas.

Chores vs. Practical Life

Household chores for children like putting away laundry, folding towels, washing dishes, and taking out the trash are all commonly referred to as chores. Chores are routine tasks, typically household tasks that need to be done. In Montessori environments, these tasks are often referred to as practical life activities. The name is exactly what it is. They are the practical activities we do in our daily lives. The outcome may be the same, but the meaning of the word and phrase seem to hold different meanings.

Chores sound laborious and burdensome while practical life is just the basic tasks that need to be accomplished in a day. Children need opportunities to develop a sense of responsibility. A child develops this responsibility by doing tasks that help build confidence. When we see children as capable beings, we can open up a whole world of involving young children and older kids in the work of the home.

Tips for Success and Fostering Contribution in the Home

We want to foster a love of work in our homes. We want to show our children that they are valued and contributing members of the family. Younger kids tend to enjoy these tasks naturally, they don’t feel like chores to them but are enjoyable tasks. There are a few things to keep in mind to help the household chores for children to go more smoothly that make it possible to have a 3-year-old wiping down the table. 

Don’t force your child to do these things.

The best way to find success in these daily chores is to do them alongside your child. Especially at a young age, we want to keep it enjoyable, not a drudgery. At a certain age, we will need to have the expectation that certain things get done but then we can offer a list of things and offer both daily and weekly tasks to our child. 

Be a Model

Model, model, model! Your child will learn more from watching you do something than you telling them how to do it. Model the tasks slowly and deliberately. Limit the amount of talking, as it can actually distract them from watching what you are doing. 

Scaffold the Skills

Focus on individual skills and simple tasks before putting it all together into complex tasks. Offer appropriately sized tools like a child-size broom, mop, shovel, and rake. You can offer skills in isolation. For example. a young toddler can have many opportunities to pour water from a pitcher before doing that task in a baking task.

Don’t expect perfection

A child will most certainly not do things as well as you could, but that’s okay. This is how they are learning and growing to be more capable. Especially when it is things they have never done before, it would be crazy to expect them to do it perfectly. We need to resist the urge to step in and help before it is truly needed. 

Offer Repetition

Offer lots of opportunities. We can create an atmosphere and environment of meaningful and purposeful work. We show our children that we work together as a family to take care of our environment and our needs. As tasks are repeated, a child will develop more skills and become even more capable. 

Young Toddler 12 to 18 Months

My twin boys just left this stage and it was so fun to do these simple chores with my young toddlers. One of the most important things when doing practical life activities with young toddlers is to model how to do things and expect it to be a little clumsy to start. A child will have greater success the more opportunities they have to try. At this age, we don’t want to force a child to do any of these tasks. We offer them options, if they don’t want to, then we can model to them how to do it and do it ourselves. These moments of our day can be built into a child’s routine and don’t need to feel like extra work. It is simply getting them involved in their day!

Toddler – 18 Months to 3 Years

So much growth happens between 18 months and three years old. The good news is, at this stage children still really love to be helping. We can help develop essential life skills and foster independence through these chores. We want to continue to model how to do these simple household chores and daily tasks for our children. Giving them many opportunities to complete simple jobs. In addition to all of the previous practical life activities for young toddlers, you could try out these additional chores. 

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Ages 3 to 4

Household chores offer a sense of accomplishment for children. A lot of the chores at this age are really just learning the process of tasks. For example, when getting up in the morning we get undressed, put our clothes into the dirty clothes hamper, get dressed with clean clothes, make our bed, brush our teeth and hair, and can contribute to some aspect of breakfast. These tasks don’t need to be in isolation from the other parts of our day, they are just part of our daily routine most of the time. 

Ages 5 to 6

We can prepare our environment to be accessible for children and give them things they need at their level to better complete household chores. For example, we can have the dishes in a lower cabinet so it is easier for them to put dishes away. We can make their closet and wardrobe accessible to them fostering more independence in the dressing and laundering process.

Elementary Ages 6 to 9

Elementary-age children are so capable but have a shift developmentally. They are entering the 2nd plane of development. In the first plane of development external order was very important, now that order has moved inward they are less concerned with external order. However, external order is still an important and necessary part of life. Even for elementary age children who are working to order their mind in a new way, they still will have specific tasks in household chores in the day that need to get done. Keeping expectations clear and consistent routines will help this age group.

Middle School – Ages 10 to 12

10 to 12-year-olds are very capable!

Teenagers – 13-18 Years Old

A teenager is capable of just about any household chore that needs to be done. They are gaining more and more freedoms as they get older and with this freedom comes responsibility. A good way to support adolescents is by offering them meaningful work that develops new skills and shows them they are capable. They will love and need to be out interacting with those in society so opportunities to run errands and contribute to the family in that way will be some of the best chores for the teen years.