Age Appropriate Chores for Young Children (5 and under)

If you are wondering what age appropriate chores are for your children 5 and under, I want to show you what chores my children help out with at these ages.

Chores are a good way for children to feel that they are an important part of the household, even at a young age. It gives them a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment to help out. 

How young can children start helping with chores?

It’s amazing how much of a help young children can be for busy moms, even with the simple things such as getting the two-year-old a drink of water or watering the plants.

I have found that by the time my children are two they want to help with some of the household chores. 

I keep a list of age-appropriate chores and what age my oldest child started certain chores, and occasionally update my chore charts so my younger ones learn the same chores at those ages. That way hopefully I will be able to avoid having the younger children all spoiled and the older ones burnt out from too much work.

I was the oldest in my family, and while my parents did a pretty good job of spreading out the chores, I still tend to feel for the older children. It is hard for me to see when older siblings have to do everything, and the younger siblings don’t get any of the chores.

A few years ago I read the tip to always ask the youngest child who can do the job to do it, instead of the oldest as the tendency is. I try to remind myself of that often, and use it as a mothering rule. 

So when I need something, I think if my youngest can get it for me first. If not I ask myself if the next youngest child can, and so forth up the line. 

This frees the older ones to do other jobs that I may need them to do, and keeps them from feeling like slaves. It is also a good way to work on obedience and cheerfulness with the younger ones.

Age Appropriate Chores

Starting your two-year-old with chores.

Around two I start giving my children official chores. I sit them down and tell them they are big enough to help, and explain what I want them to do every day. I want them to know that all the family members are a team, and they are part of the team. They feel so important. 

For these first years I basically try to work alongside my children and give them lots of simple tasks, but at least they are learning. They usually already know how to do small tasks such as taking their dirty clothes to the laundry basket.

My two-year-old’s chores are to help tidy up the living room or some other part of the house as they are able, help rinse the dishes (which at this point is mostly playing with the rinse water and dishes!), and carry away the little slop bucket and dump it.

That last chore is one they can do themselves, and most of the time they are very jealous of their chore. My two year olds have thrown a fit if I ask one of the older ones to take out the slop. Most days they love that responsibility.

Chores for three-year-olds

Once my children turn three I add the chores of setting and clearing the table. Once a day they set the table for the meal, and at another meal clear the table. 

I help them with the bigger stuff, but we work towards them clearing everything and wiping the table without throwing crumbs to the floor. If you start young, eventually your work pays off and you have good help.

Chores for four-year-olds

My four year olds start washing dishes once a day. At first, it might just be five dishes at a time, but eventually they can do more. 

Mine so far do all the plates, cups, and silverware, but if we were a large family it might be just the cups or something like that. I wash the rest in that turn. 

They also start cleaning up their clean clothes once it is folded. I teach them to neatly place it in their drawers at the right place. 

Sometimes they also start helping with simple animal chores like feeding the cat or gathering eggs.

Chores for five-year-olds

With five-year-olds, we worked towards them being able to wash all the dishes themselves at a meal. 

They also start other simple chores such as watering the plants or learning to start the washing machine.

Besides that they started cleaning up the dry dishes in the tray, folding their own laundry, basic floor sweeping, bathing, and dressing themselves. 

They don’t need to do all of those every day, but they are learning. I work alongside them a lot.

Do the Training.

It’s not that my children always cheerfully, quickly do their chores. We are still working on that. I do see that they are learning and growing up. 

For now teaching them is a lot of work, but it is also starting to be a real blessing that they know how to help out around the house.

Sometimes if they are taking way too long with something like cleaning up all the toys, I set a timer for them. This is a great way to get stuff done fast when needed. 

If they don’t finish on time then for a consequence they would have to do an extra chore. I rarely have to assign another chore, because they work amazingly fast once the timer is on!

It might seem like a grind, but I encourage you to do the training. It will pay off!

Time for Work and Play

Children need chores or responsibilities to feel the satisfaction of being needed and being an important part of the household. But young children also need much playing time to learn and grow. 

My children get far more free time than chore time. Remember to give them lots of free play time at this age as well.

A Word About Chore Charts

I love using simple chore charts for our daily chores. They may not be everyone’s style but at our house they help hold everyone accountable to their duties.

It does my children good to have a place to see what they have accomplished each day chore-wise. 

Sometimes I have drawn up a simple chore chart and put it in a picture frame so we can do the check mark with a dry erase maker. Other times we laminate our chore charts to also be able to check mark with dry erase markers so the charts are reusable. 

If you want you could also just make a printable chore chart for each week. They could be used as sticker charts. For young children especially, it can be fun to add stickers to their charts as they finish up their chores for the day.

In my children’s list of chores, I like to leave a space that is called “extra job” so that I can give them any extra chores I see fit. 

Depending on your situation, you could also set up some sort of reward system for your children who do their chores cheerfully or without being reminded. It could be a way for them to earn some pocket money or some other prize they have been waiting for.

Future chores for our children

As my children get older I plan to update their chore charts once or twice a year, adding new chores or important skills for each age group. 

I have some ideas for what I hope to add each year, but I have to wait to see how my children do by that time.

I also hope to do away with the chore charts once they have learned to do the basic household tasks, so that they can learn to do things just because they see it needs to be done. But I don’t have experience yet to share about that.

While I do try that the younger ones do the same chores as the older ones did at that age, I keep in mind that each child is different. As individuals, I need to go at their pace. If any of them will need to wait a bit longer, I have that flexibility.

What are you doing for chores for your children? I encourage you to start somewhere. You can make your own simple chore charts, or even buy ready made chore charts. (You can find a link to some on my shop page.) 

All the training pays off on the long run! Have fun with doing chores alongside your children, and see the work start paying off!

Save it for later!

You can read about our daily routine here, and my best housekeeping tips for busy moms here.