Playing Smart: Learning from Chores

By Susan K. Perry


Adults tend to think of chores as tasks that must be completed before moving on to more pleasant activities. However, with some imagination, it doesn’t have to be that way. There are countless ways we enhance our children’s learning, as well as everyone’s fun, by involving them in everyday chores from an early age.


From a child’s point of view, even the most mundane task can be a window into adventure. Try out the following activities with your kids and tune in to the learning that’s been hiding all along, just underneath the dust cloth or around the bend of the supermarket aisle.


Around the House
You can introduce household maintenance chores to your kids from preschool on, but it’s best not to assign jobs to a young child and expect them to be completed without your involvement. Instead, have your child work alongside you, enjoying your company and absorbing your positive attitude.



  • Measuring Up – Get your child some measuring tools and watch the learning add up. Begin with a ruler, a yardstick and, for the most fun, a 25-foot children’s tape measure. Have your child measure the length and width of the rooms you’re about to dust or vacuum. Older children can figure the square footage (length times width). When your child picks the toys up from his room, how many square feet did he tidy? Use the bathroom scale creatively: On garbage day, have your child weigh himself, then do so again while holding the full garbage bag. Suggest keeping track of how many pounds of trash your family tosses in a week. A longer-term project might be to reduce that poundage by more careful buying and recycling.


  • The Joy of Imperfection – Doing things correctly is sometimes less enlightening than imagining doing them wrong. At laundry time find out how many different ways your child can think of doing the wash incorrectly: “Fill the pockets of all the pants with chalk.” “Use one teaspoon of soap.” “Load the machine so full that nothing can move.”

    While you’re discussing possible errors, you can also bring up reasons why various chores are managed the way they are. “We separate dark colors from light ones because some dyes aren’t colorfast.” That way, you’re introducing and defining new terms as you talk about how to do chores correctly.


Articles Tools

Top