8 Ways to Make Chores Fun
When you mention it’s time for chores to be complete you might be greeted with sluggish children, frowns, or the dreaded “ugh…wwhhyyy?!”
Chores aren’t fun (for anyone), but there might be a way to make them a little more fun. And when you make work more fun you don’t mind doing the work, you produce higher-quality work, and it takes less time to complete. This goes for children doing chores too!
When teaching children to do chores it is best to first work with them to show them how to complete the chore. Then work alongside them as they complete the chore. And finally, encourage them as they apply their new learned skills to complete the chore on their own. This progression doesn’t happen in three easy attempts—it takes years to master chores, but when we make it fun for them it becomes less of a “chore” for us (pun intended).
And before long you can sit back, relax, drink some lemonade, and read a good book while your children complete the chores around the house. Joking! But it’s a nice fantasy, right?!
8 Ways to Make Chores Fun
1. Crank Up the Music. Turn on some music during chore time. Dance and have fun while chores are being complete.
2. Make it a Game. Instead of picking up toys and placing them in the correct spot, shoot them into the container like a game of basketball. Or make it a race to see which kid can pick up the most toys.
3. Get a Chore Chart. It’s fun for children (and adults) to see the progress they have made in accomplishing a task so allow them to have a chore chart and cross off chores as they complete them.
4. Do Chores Together. If everyone is working on a chore at the same time it helps your child feel like they are not missing out on something fun a sibling or parent might be doing instead.
5. Offer an Allowance. There is no right way to do this, so each family will have to find what works best for their needs, and it may need to be adjusted as children grow.
When my children were younger, we gave them 1-3 chores per week and paid them based on if those chores were completed or not.
Now that my children are a little older, we have moved to a different structure where they have chores that must be complete without payment, and then there are extra chores they can choose to do for payment. Each of the extra chores has a set price they can receive if it is complete.
6. Hide Treasures. You can hide treasures around the house and as your children clean, they will find the hidden treasures. The treasures can be candy, coins, or small toys.
7. Only Talk in a Silly Voice. During chore time make all requests or suggestions in a silly voice. Children are usually thrown off guard by the silliness and think it’s so funny. They end up following the requests because they want to hear more silly voices.
8. Take a Dance/Silliness Break. When you know a chore is going to be a long and tedious task like cleaning out flower beds, then take dance breaks, run-through the sprinkler breaks, cartwheel breaks, or something that will help recharge and remotivate you and your children to keep going.
Making chores or work fun is something that requires a little more effort on your part, but it helps everyone not dread doing chores. Soon your children might even come up with some ways to make chores more fun.
