Chores-Developing Skills While Keeping the House Clean!
Assigning chores is not always about just getting some help around the house. In fact, if you consider that you can teach children sequential thinking and memory skills at the same time, it may change the way you assign chores!
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PrintI thought I was finished writing about the importance of chores - teaching children responsibility, showing them that you can work together to function as a family unit - and then I received another email that brought to light a great fact about chores:
Mike and Renee Mosiman, authors of "The Smarter Preschooler: Unlocking Your Child's Intellectual Potential," say that chores can, " . . . help develop memory, planning skills, sequential thinking, and classification abilities . . . "
Consider this: A child who takes out the garbage must remember when it goes to the curb. Also, children who do tasks that require multiple steps (washing the dishes or the car) need to recall what steps come first, second, third and so on in order to complete the task. This helps to improve memory skills.
In addition, teaching organization skills could really enhance this area for those kids (like I was!) who can't remember anything. For instance, set up a calendar in your child's room to show what things are coming up (school dances, carnival, fair) and then on the day the garbage goes out (or the car has to be washed, or whatever regular chore needs to be completed) write in that task. This teaches the child to use visual reminders when doing a task.
Those children doing tasks like washing the dishes must learn to do things in a particular order (water in the sink, adding detergent, washing, rinsing, drying, putting away). Following recipes (helping with cooking) is another task that involves sequential steps. This must be done before that - and if it is not, the task will not be completed correctly.
In addition, some tasks require children to really do some planning for the day. If you are a teenager that mows the lawn each Saturday on the summer weekends, you need to consider at what time you will complete your chore, and this may change from weekend to weekend.
For instance, if you are a teenager who mows the lawn and also has an event to attend on the same day, you'll need to faction that in to the equation before beginning your task. Even younger children must learn to prioritize: when to do homework, when to do the chores.
For this reason, parents should not expect children to drop their chore on the day of a big event, because this teaches the child methods for multitasking and preparing for more than one thing at a time. It gives them the ability to understand setting priorities (mowing the lawn) and making those fit into their schedule that might include additional bonus activities (a dance, a movie night, a game).
A variety of household chores can be done to teach classification skills, and these skills can be taught to some of the youngest household members. For instance, when doing laundry clothes must be sorted into lights, darks and whites. Socks can be put together in one stack while shorts can be placed in another. Young children can do this as they learn to classify and match objects.
Older children may enhance this skill by putting like toys together, the Mosiman's say. Going even further, children work on classification skills when they help grocery shop or put silverware away.
Why is this important? It may mean looking at chore day a bit differently than you have in the past.
By taking a look at my children and the age they are now, I can see what types of skills I want them to develop in the next set number of months. My plan: To use this knowledge when assigning chores, rather than simply considering what I need help with each day. For instance, while washing dishes is a great chore that my five year old can do, she could also work on a more sequential task (helping me cook) as well.
The almost three year old is great at setting the table - but it may be even better to put her in charge of putting a variety of toys away in the playroom each night by sorting and matching.
How do you assign chores in your home, and do you consider higher level thinking skills when doing so? If not, can you think of some chores now that may fall into these categories?
They can be used to teach higher level thinking skills!This is something I hadn't considered prior to reading the email. In fact, as I assigned chores I did so on a "what needs to be done and what can they do" basis, rather than by what chores might help what skills they needed to develop.
Mike and Renee Mosiman, authors of "The Smarter Preschooler: Unlocking Your Child's Intellectual Potential," say that chores can, " . . . help develop memory, planning skills, sequential thinking, and classification abilities . . . "
Consider this: A child who takes out the garbage must remember when it goes to the curb. Also, children who do tasks that require multiple steps (washing the dishes or the car) need to recall what steps come first, second, third and so on in order to complete the task. This helps to improve memory skills.
In addition, teaching organization skills could really enhance this area for those kids (like I was!) who can't remember anything. For instance, set up a calendar in your child's room to show what things are coming up (school dances, carnival, fair) and then on the day the garbage goes out (or the car has to be washed, or whatever regular chore needs to be completed) write in that task. This teaches the child to use visual reminders when doing a task.
Those children doing tasks like washing the dishes must learn to do things in a particular order (water in the sink, adding detergent, washing, rinsing, drying, putting away). Following recipes (helping with cooking) is another task that involves sequential steps. This must be done before that - and if it is not, the task will not be completed correctly.
In addition, some tasks require children to really do some planning for the day. If you are a teenager that mows the lawn each Saturday on the summer weekends, you need to consider at what time you will complete your chore, and this may change from weekend to weekend.
For instance, if you are a teenager who mows the lawn and also has an event to attend on the same day, you'll need to faction that in to the equation before beginning your task. Even younger children must learn to prioritize: when to do homework, when to do the chores.
For this reason, parents should not expect children to drop their chore on the day of a big event, because this teaches the child methods for multitasking and preparing for more than one thing at a time. It gives them the ability to understand setting priorities (mowing the lawn) and making those fit into their schedule that might include additional bonus activities (a dance, a movie night, a game).
A variety of household chores can be done to teach classification skills, and these skills can be taught to some of the youngest household members. For instance, when doing laundry clothes must be sorted into lights, darks and whites. Socks can be put together in one stack while shorts can be placed in another. Young children can do this as they learn to classify and match objects.
Older children may enhance this skill by putting like toys together, the Mosiman's say. Going even further, children work on classification skills when they help grocery shop or put silverware away.
Why is this important? It may mean looking at chore day a bit differently than you have in the past.
By taking a look at my children and the age they are now, I can see what types of skills I want them to develop in the next set number of months. My plan: To use this knowledge when assigning chores, rather than simply considering what I need help with each day. For instance, while washing dishes is a great chore that my five year old can do, she could also work on a more sequential task (helping me cook) as well.
The almost three year old is great at setting the table - but it may be even better to put her in charge of putting a variety of toys away in the playroom each night by sorting and matching.
How do you assign chores in your home, and do you consider higher level thinking skills when doing so? If not, can you think of some chores now that may fall into these categories?
