Summer days seem to offer more time and opportunities to teach and train young children how to help with chores around the home.

Even the youngest of children can pitch in and help the family.

So many skills are learned when a child is guided to engage in household chores. Parents, it might take a little while to show your young child how to do household chores, but your patience will truly benefit your child and your family. Young children love to help! With helping skills come sharing and caring for others.

Assignments for young children are made according to their age, what they can developmentally do, and what they can physically do. With young children, keep the job simple. Think of the job in steps. Be realistic in your expectations of your young child. Safety is another factor to keep in mind.

Below are a few suggestions of chores and some of the readiness skills your child will benefit from in helping around the home. These are shared from years of working with young children and classroom observations and experiences.

• Put away toys, games and clothes. So many skills are learned in sorting, color identification as well as responsibility when we guide young children to put away what they have gotten out to play. To make young children more independent with this, label the shelves with words or pictures of where the toys need to go.
• Folding towels and washcloths encompasses the readiness skill of sorting and using small motor skills.
• In setting the table, young children learn one-on-one correspondence as they think of the number of people in their family and who is going to eat. They also learn patterns about where the plate, cup, fork, knife and spoon go.
• Helping to carry and put away groceries helps a child learn organization skills.
• Get a child-size broom and mop so your child can help you to keep the floors clean.
• If there are no allergy problems, your young child can put a sock over their hand and help you dust. Again, this is teaching a young child to clean up after they make a mess.
• Helping to make their bed teaches them an order of pulling up sheets, covers and pillows.

 Always praise, encourage and say thank-you for your young child’s help.

Beth Pinyerd lives in Daphne and serves as director of younger children at Faith Family Fellowship in Spanish Fort.

Her column appears regularly in The Bulletin.