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Free Chore Chart Template for Kids

January 7, 2021 | Leave a Comment

Chore Chart Template for Kids

My kids started helping with chores when they were about 18 months to 2 years of age.  My oldest got his own little broom that would recite, “sweeping, sweeping” as he swept.  He loved that broom, and he loved helping out.  Most toddlers are eager to do what the people around them are doing.  If you have a toddler and want to start working with them on chores or you want a more organized chore routine for your older kids, consider using one of these free chore chart templates for kids.

Why Assign Kids Chores?

Some parents don’t want their kids to do chores.  They argue that kids should just be kids.  However, there are many valid reasons why you should assign your children chores:

They Learn Valuable Life Skills

When I went to college, I couldn’t believe how many kids didn’t even know how to do their own laundry.  My son started doing his own laundry at 12, and my daughter started at 11.  The larger variety of chores you have your kids do, the better they will be able to successfully live on their own.

They Learn to Contribute

There are many things that need to be done to run a household successfully.  If you don’t expect your kids to contribute, they can grow accustomed to the idea of others doing things for them, which can lead to a sense of entitlement.  The family is the first place kids learn what it means to be part of a group and to help run that group.  This, too, will be a valuable lesson for their adult lives.

Should You Pay Kids for Chores?

Chore Chart Template for Kids

Photo by Anna Earl on Unsplash

This can be another devisive issue.  Some families don’t pay their kids money for chores because they want them to realize that they are part of a family and family members help one another.

Others, like my family, pay their kids for chores because they want kids to firmly make the connection between work and income.  You work, and you earn money.  You don’t work, and you’re broke.

Still others don’t pay cash but instead let their kids earn privileges like watching a show, or playing a video game, or staying up late based on the chores they do.

The choice is up to you and what your family decides will work best.

Free Chore Chart Template for Kids

There is no need for you to create your own chore chart template for kids when there are so many out there!  Here are a few of our favorites:

Healthy, Happy, Impactful has a chore chart template that gives blank lines to list up to eight chores beside squares for days of the week.  Just check off each day that the chore is completed.  There is also a box at the bottom for notes.

Plan for Awesome has a chore chart template for toddlers.  This one is unique in that rather than words, there are pictures so your littlest helpers can understand.  You can also use the pictures and words for the preschool and early elementary set.

Make any one of these chore charts last longer by laminating them or placing them in a plastic sleeve so you can use them week after week.

Final Thoughts

There’s no time like the present to start having your kids help with chores.  These free chore templates can help motivate them and help them find pride in their accomplishments.

Read More

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Filed Under: Freebies for Parents, Household, Money and Finances, Parenting Blog at KidsAintCheap Tagged With: chores, free chore charts, raising independent kids, responsible kids, toddlers

Encourage Toddler Play without Breaking the Bank

May 21, 2020 | Leave a Comment

The toddler years from one to three are a time of tremendous growth.  Kids learn to walk, run, and explore their worlds.  They are curious, and both their minds and bodies are developing rapidly.  As a parent, giving your children safe ways to play and explore is important to their development.  At this age, you can find plenty of frugal ways to encourage toddler play without breaking the bank.

Encourage Toddler Play without Breaking the Bank

Low-Cost Supplies

There are so many low-cost supplies that you can stock your shelves with that will keep your child happy for hours.

Play-Doh

For less than $5, you can pick up a small set of Play-Doh for your toddler.  Play-Doh has definitely gotten fancier since my kids were toddlers.  Now you can buy Play-Doh with glitter in it and in a large variety of color.  Kids are usually happy playing with just Play-Doh, but if you want to spend a bit more, you can buy Play-Doh toys like a hair dresser shop or a gravel construction yard, for example.  You can also try your hand at making homemade playdough.

Finger Paint

If you have $8, you can buy a 6 pack of finger paint that will provide your child with artistic and sensory expression.  All of my children loved to finger paint when they were toddlers, but my middle child easily wanted to finger paint several times a week.  She still enjoys art, and I attribute it to all the time she spent finger painting when she was young.

Bubbles

This is likely the best way to encourage toddler play without breaking the bank.  Bubbles are ridiculously cheap, less than $1 for a small bottle, and yet your child can likely use them for at least a month.  He can experiment with how hard to blow to form the bubble or run and try to get the bubble to form.  Even better, mom or dad can blow bubbles while your toddler tries to catch them without popping them or runs through them.

Sidewalk Chalk

Sidewalk chalk is yet another way to let your little artist express herself.  You can get a box of 48 pieces of chunky chalk (perfect for little hands) for around $5.  These will last all summer, and your sidewalk or driveway is the perfect canvas.

Bath Supplies

After finger painting, my younger two kids’ favorite activity was taking a bath.  They loved to have the tub filled with bubbles to play in.  When the bubbles dissipated, they liked to play with their bath toys.  They could easily spend 45 minutes to an hour in the tub.  (Just make sure a parent stays in the room with them.)  You could buy the bubbles and a few toys for your kids for less than $20.  My girls’ favorite bath activity was using bath crayons to draw on the tub walls.

Doctor Kit

Many toddlers like playing doctor.  They take the stethoscope to your chest to check your breathing, they check your reflexes, and then they give you their diagnosis.  They also love it when you give them an exam.  These kits are a bit more expensive, around $20, but your child will likely use them quite a bit.  (We bought ours used at a garage sale for $1, which is another great way to save money).

Make It Yourself

There are other ways to encourage toddler play without breaking the bank.  Namely, instead of buying something, make it yourself!

Calm/Glitter Bottles

Many toddlers are fascinated with calm/glitter bottles and can spend a surprising amount of time tipping them from side to side.  Making a calm bottle is not difficult; there are plenty of tutorials online.

Once you buy the ingredients, you likely have enough to make several bottles.  Once your child tires of one, make a new one in a different color with different items inside.  Even though this tutorial only had glitter, I’ve seen calm bottles filled with a variety of items like large stars to give them some more visual appeal.

Bowling Set

Another idea for outdoor fun is to make a toddler bowling set.  You’ll need some empty water bottles and a ball.  Your toddler can practice knocking them down.  He’ll love it if you play with him.

The nice thing about a homemade bowling set is not only that it’s frugal, but if one bowling pin gets damaged, it’s easy to replace.

Sensory Play

There are a host of reasons why sensory play is beneficial for kids, not the least of which is that it helps develop connections in the brain and encourages imaginative play.

Probably the easiest one is to buy a can of shaving cream.  When my kids were about three, I’d put a light layer of shaving cream on a cookie sheet, and they practiced writing their letters in the shaving cream.  They loved the sensation, and they were learning at the same time.

Another less messy way to do this is to put a bit of shaving cream and a drop or two of dye in a gallon plastic freezer bag.  (Don’t fill it too much!)  Then kids can write their letters in the cream, but they do so on top of the bag so they still get sensory input, but there’s no mess for parents to clean up.

There are plenty of sensory play ideas online.

Don’t Forget the Books!

While it’s very important to encourage play in your toddlers, don’t forget to also read aloud to your child daily, the more the better.  The stories that you read aloud to your child now will eventually lead to imaginative play later.

I read aloud to my children frequently, and when my girls were in first and second grade, we read the entire Little House on the Prairie series.  They had the discipline to sit through those books because they were used to being read to.  For the next few years, much of their imaginative play was based on what they learned through those books.

Final Thoughts

Children under the age of three experience a phenomenal amount of brain and body growth in these important years.  Starting now, make sure to give your child plenty of safe opportunities to play and learn.

Filed Under: Education, Growing Up, Parenting Tagged With: frugal and fun, long-lasting toys for toddlers, toddlers

5 Chores That Teach Work Ethic Principles to Toddlers

September 12, 2016 | Leave a Comment

Here are five chores that teach work ethic principles to toddlers.

“Chore” is a curse word for some kids. Perhaps you dreaded them, too, in your youth. What your parents, grandparents, and teachers were really doing was instilling work ethic principles in you as you learned what it means to grow up.

Now it’s your turn to pass it on.

Why start when your children are just toddlers, you ask? Isn’t it a bit young? They may be a little too young for learning how to file taxes, but they’re absolutely not too young to learn about helping out. Chores for 2- and 3-year-olds teach work ethic principles in the following ways:

  • Kids learn to be part of a team.
  • They learn responsibility.
  • They form good habits.
  • They learn listening skills.
  • They learn that they’re not entitled to “all play and no work.”

5 Chores That Teach Work Ethic Principles to Toddlers

Each of these chores is simple enough for a toddler to do, even though some may require a parent’s help. Supervise each task. Focus on your child’s obedience in doing the task more than how “well” he or she actually did it. Then, celebrate the completion immediately and enthusiastically. If you pay for chores, then pay your toddler right away.

Clean up toys.

Setting a brief time at the end of each day to pick up toys can help children learn a new habit. I typically choose one area of the house and assign my 3-year-old and 2-year-old to specific items. For example, I’ll ask them to just pick up all the books or all the trains or all the puzzle pieces. That helps them hunt for exactly what they need to pick up.

Bring dishes to the counter after meals.

One day, I was sitting at the lunch table, surrounded by bits of food and dirty dishes. The kids were racing around the house, energized by their meal. I realized that the only way for me to get some help clearing the table was to teach my kids to do it, too. So we implemented a new rule that each family member should carry his or her own dish to the counter. I shadow my youngest to make sure he doesn’t drop something on his foot, but the kids took to it right away.

Make the bed.

Can we all agree that this is an awesome, lifelong habit every kid should learn? Consistency is key in all work ethic principles, but there’s something universal about starting the day with a made bed. Plus, for whatever reason, my 3-year-old gets so excited to enter her room at bedtime and find her bed all nice and neat, waiting for her.

Put away shoes.

Do you have a designated place for shoes in your house? We have a coat closet. The moment the kids walk through the door, the oldest knows to take off her shoes and place them in the closet. The youngest can’t usually take off his shoes by himself, but he knows how to put them in the closet – which counts as a win in my book.

Dust the furniture.

You know what my kids love? Dusting the house with one of those Swiffer Dusters. It’s the kind with the handle and the fluffy guy on the end that looks like a Sesame Street character.

Not only does it dust much better than my previous duster – a rag made from an old tee shirt – but the kids get a kick out of it. It’s light-weight, is easy for toddlers to use, and pretty much gets the job done.

You can even make it talk while your toddler works, if you’re feeling especially ridiculous.

(I highly recommend any toddler activity with “ridiculous” in the description.)

Find it here.

How old were you when you started doing chores?

Share in the comments below!

Image Credit: Ben White (UnSplash)

This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase, Kids Ain’t Cheap will receive a commission, but we only recommend products that we know and love. Thank you for your business!

Filed Under: Growing Up, Home and Living, Money and Finances, Parenting Tagged With: chores, kids and money, Swiffer, toddlers, work ethic principles

Encouraging Good Language Development for Toddlers

September 9, 2015 | Leave a Comment

Is your child having a hard time learning to talk? Here's how to encourage good language development for toddlers.Since my daughter is the only child I’ve ever really been around for any length of time, I really have nothing else to compare to in terms of development. People often comment though on my two-year-old’s language development. Other parents, teachers and people who have way more experience with kids than I do. Recently a friend of mine asked if I did anything ‘’special’’ to teach our daughter how to speak ‘’so well’’.

Given that this is my first go-round with this parenting thing, my answer is always no, but when I think about it my daughter’s day-to-day life is surrounded by opportunity communicate, effectively.

Starts with communication at home

My husband and I avoided ‘’baby talk’’ from the very beginning. We didn’t have silly names for things, ever. If we were giving her a glass of water or a bottle we wouldn’t call it ‘’wa wa’’ or ‘’ba ba’’ instead. Traditional ‘’baby talk’’ has always seemed unnatural to me, so this wasn’t exactly something I deliberately didn’t do but after being around friends with other young children I realised how different my day-to-day language was with our daughter, it was more ‘’grown up’’ somehow.

Though I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing if you want to communicate in easier tones for your child to understand, I do think expecting them to suddenly stop using these words at a certain age is then unfair.

Read to your child, look at pictures

I can’t stress this enough. You can never read too much to your kid, it’s just that simple. We read all sorts of different books to encourage the diversity. Everything from simple picture books that are fun to longer books, that, I think, encourages focus. It’s the simple picture books (with busy pages) that we have the most fun with though. When she’s really young they’re fun pictures where we can point out all the different things on the page and as gets older I can ask everything from ‘’count the balloons’’ to ‘’who is closer to the boat?’’ to ‘’where’s the octagon?’’ type of questions. We also like flash cards.

Have basic expectations

If our daughter mispronounces something, we correct her. Not in a military drill type of way but we will usually say ‘’I think you mean this’’, just once. After a few times (or correcting her) she’s usually got the proper pronunciation down.

Be selective with screen time

We do allow our daughter to watch a little TV and movies but we’re very selective about what she watches. We follow her lead as to if she’s into a show or not but if we as parents don’t like it we won’t allow it. There are a lot of really dumb programs for children. Ones that speak in dumb languages and words. The first red flag for us as parents is the clarity of speech.

Play Games With Your Surroundings

Something I started doing with her when she was young was count the stairs as we walked up. We also sing songs like ABC’s when we’re driving in the car to keep her distracted from an otherwise boring car ride. From these things alone she has been counting and singing her ABC’s for many months now.

I am by no means and expert of any kind, these are just a few things that we’ve done that seem to have led to a pretty decent vocabulary and pronunciation for our two-year-old.

Do you have any tips for encouraging good language development for toddlers?

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: babies, language development, Learning, toddlers

How I Prepared to Potty Train My Toddler

October 29, 2014 | Leave a Comment

Ready to potty train? How to prepare.I’ve been thinking about how to approach potty training with my two year old for months. It’s funny, motherhood relies a lot on intuition but potty training was leaving me stumped. I mean how do you teach a small child how to just stop using a diaper and start using a potty (or toilet)?

Today I am discussing how I prepared to potty train, next week I will break down my step-by-step about how I had my daughter from diapers to full-time underwear (including overnight) in less than a week.

Mentally Prepare Yourself

I knew one thing for sure, regardless of how I was going to approach it, I wasn’t going to initiate anything until I was ready. Most things I read focused on the readiness of the child but in my mind I was mentally preparing myself for what could be a struggle and mommy needed to be prepared more than child. If mom (and/or dad) isn’t on board do not attempt anything until you are. Once you start potty training do not stop, so if there will be foreseeable interruptions (vacations, large life changes), wait. Children are much more flexible than we give them credit for sometimes.

Get the Right Supplies

  • I chose to use a toilet seat insert over that traditional child potty since I felt like it was saving a step with the lack of transition needed between potty and regular, large toilet. My niece was taught on a child potty and is still terrified of toilets, especially in public, so I was going to do what I could to avoid this. I bought the seat months before I started so she could see it and become familiar with what it was though I don’t think this is a necessary step. Use whatever is easiest for you and your family.
  • I bought new underwear for her to see and get acquainted with, they were her ‘’big girl undies’’. Though I didn’t have her present when I bought them, I can see how some children would be excited to be involved with this step and may be beneficial, use your own judgement.
  • Buy a travel potty seat insert if you plan on going in public! Their bladders are small and when they need to go they need to go! Some public toilets are larger than residential and falling into the toilet even once will be enough for you and them I’m sure. The travel seats I’ve seen fold up to the size of a change pad and are pretty cheap (less than $15.00).
  • Rewards, if using, need to be on hand. Again this is child dependant. Before I started I knew if it came down to it my child would do just about anything for a Smartie or M&M so I had a few on hand, if I needed. I chose to not start with much reward in the beginning and see how it worked out. As I suspected my daughter was excited to just have me clap and be proud of her, she didn’t need a chocolate treat or sticker but again, have whatever you think you child will need for encouragement, on hand.
  • An audible timer. This could also likely be an app on a smartphone but something that makes a noise loud enough for you and child to hear.

Because I was prepared mentally for the worst, you can imagine my elation for how easy the process actually was for us. Though I mentioned mom (and dad) being mentally prepared it goes without saying to check for readiness with your child as well. There is no ‘’perfect’’ age to potty train. Every child is unique and for some being potty trained at 18 months is do-able where others are past their third birthday. You know your child better than anyone or any expert, unless there is a time sensitive issue (passing fourth birthday and needs to be out of diapers for pre-school), don’t rush the process!

Filed Under: Growing Up, Parenting Tagged With: potty training, tips for potty training, toddlers

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