Household chores promote hands-on learning

Household chores promote hands-on learning

Chores help children:

• develop eye-hand coordination organize sequences

• understand how parts make up the whole

• learn to solve problems

Children learn best with active chores that they understand. Everyday tasks can be a fun way to spend quality time with your child. These tasks are a better way to help your child prepare for school than workbook sheets on numbers, letters or words. Children learn to be responsible in small steps.

First, allow your child to help with a job — like loading the dishwasher.

• Show her what to do and let her try to do it.

• Use patience to stand by —hands at your sides — while your child struggles with what seems a simple task.

• She will gain confidence and skills. She will learn that helping is fun.

Next, your child will do a task with a little reminding and with you watching.

• In loading the dishwasher, she may forget the spoons and you will need to say, “Let’s check to see if we have everything loaded.”

Finally, your child will be able to do the job by herself without reminders.