| Ages & Stages
Household Jobs
By helping with household jobs, children will feel good about being
part of the family team work, and helping Dad with a variety of
tasks. Young children are eager to learn and master skills. By teaching
your children household tasks at the appropriate developmental stage
you give your child’s self esteem a boost!
Start teaching these skills when your children are preschoolers.
They will need lots of help at first, then are able to do more independently
as they grow and develop. Here are some examples:
Self care |
Kitchen tasks |
· Dress self |
· Sort silverware |
| · Undress, |
· Clear the table |
· Bathe self |
· Clean sink |
· Brush teeth |
· Wipe spills |
· Floss, |
· Set table |
· Wash hair |
· Wash dishes |
· Style hair |
· Wash fruit & vegetables |
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· Rip lettuce for salad |
· Water plants |
· Match socks |
· Care for pet |
· Make grocery list |
· Pulling weeds |
· Dust furniture |
· Sweep sidewalk |
· Fix snack |
· Take out trash |
· Pick-up belongings |
· Shovel snow |
· Cook meal |
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| · Empty wastebaskets |
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· Make bed |
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· Sweep the steps/floor |
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· Vacuum floors |
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· Fold clothes |
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· Put dirty clothes away |
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· Put clean clothes away |
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· Hang up clean clothes |
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· Do laundry |
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Links
Ages
& Stages 6-8 year olds (pdf)
Child Development
Publications
Quality Time, Quality Books
Dads who read with their children help them develop strong language
skills. Kids grow up to be caring adults when fathers spend quality
time with them. Check out these books from your library.
If I Were Your Father by Bridges, Margaret Park. New York:
Morrow Junior Books, 1999.
In this humorous and lively book a young boy describes to his father
all the things that he would allow his father to do if he was the
father! Some of these activities are highly improbable, like shaving
with whipped cream, but many of them are very touching and might
create a lump in your throat.
Beautiful, watercolor illustrations decorate the pages of this book.
Me & My Dad activity
If your child can read, this is a wonderful opportunity for you
and your child to read together. The father and the son in this
book each have separate lines. Actually, the father’s lines
are in blue print, and the son’s lines are in red print. This
would be very easy for an early reader to read the appropriate lines.
If your child is not able to read completely by him/herself, ask
your childto identify who is speaking by locating the color of the
text. You might also use this book to discuss the positive parenting
characteristics that fathers demonstrate and should encourage in
their own sons and daughters to develop and emulate.
William's Doll by Charlotte Zolotow, Mexico: HarperCollins
Publishers, 1972.
This book tells the story of a young boy who desperately wants a
doll so that he may demonstrate and practice positive parenting
strategies when he becomes a father in the future. Again the importance
of non-gender specific play things and chores are demonstrated and
illustrated in both these books.
Me & My Dad activity
Choose an age appropriate household task and work together to complete
it. Turn on some music and enjoy!
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