My Little Helper Monkey's To Dos

I just replied to a blog post I found on Pinterest about chores for toddlers and preschoolers and realized just how much my little guy does around the house!  I was replying to a blog post on Nice Girl Notes about some of the chores that her girls do around her house.  A lot of the chores her girls do, my little guy does, too, and I didn't realize just how much he does around the house until I started writing it down in my reply!

Here are some of the chores wee-man does around the house:

• Picks up after himself:  This means his toys, fort supplies, art projects, play-doh, puzzles, books, etc., etc. need to be picked up and put back in their proper homes before moving onto the next activity.  If things are left out and not put away after fair warning they end up in "Clutter Jail" and stay there for a week.  (I'll post about that next.)  Where ever his toys or activity was that area needs to be completely cleaned up (living room, dining room, bed room, hallway, etc.)

• Feeds and waters the dog:  Okay, so she's not a plant, but she still needs to be fed and given water.  Little guy knows that if her food bowl is empty, she gets two scoops and if the water bowl is empty, it needs to be filled!  He also lets her out on her leash when she barks at the door to be let out.

I swear there's a dog there, not just a ball of fur with a bone!

• Sets the table:  Until recently, we helped get the bigger plates down for him then set them on the counter so he could bring them to the table; but now that he's a little older and has his trusty stool, he has started to bring the bigger plates to the table, too.  He also gets the silverware from the drawer, a glass from himself from the lower cabinet, and a placemat for himself.  The grown-up, bigger glasses are still too high for him to reach, so we still gets those down for him, but we set them on the counter so he can  bring them to the table.  Aside from dishes, he also helps bring smaller food items to the table like the salt and pepper shakers, the butter dish,  bags of chips if they are meal appropriate, the milk bottle, and anything else that we may need for the meal that is not hot to the touch.      

• Clears the table and pushes his chair in:  Once he's finished his meal and has said his thank yous, he then clears his dirty dishes from the table and puts them on the counter.  If there are any larger bits of food left on the plate, he knows that he needs to scrape them into the garbage can.  When the table is completely cleared, he gets the washcloth from the sink, wets it, and wipes down the table.  He is also responsible for pushing in his chair and sometimes has to help Dad push his in, too, since he almost always forgets!

• Take out the garbage:  Okay, so he doesn't empty the big kitchen garbage, but he does go room-to-room and empties all of the smaller garbages from the bedrooms and the bathrooms.  Not only does he take the full garbage bags out, but he then puts a new bag in!  I just have to remember to keep a few extra bags at the bottom of the cans so he can grab a new bag right away to replace the old one. He also lets me know if he's used the last clean bag so I can replenish his supply.

We reuse the plastic bags we get while out shopping as garbage bags.

• Take out the recycling:  Whenever we finish a gallon of milk or a can of pop, or if I used canned goods for cooking, we rinse them out and set them at the end of the island to eventually be taken out to the recycling bins in the garage.  Little guy's job is to take the recycling out the bins in the garage and make sure that they end up in the right bins (glass in glass, aluminum with aluminum, plastics with plastics, etc.)  

• Laundry:  Well, he doesn't actually do the laundry, but he does put his dirty clothes in his hamper at the end of the day.  When laundry day rolls around, he brings his dirty laundry down to the laundry area and separates into the right baskets.  He has also started helping me fold some of the clean laundry.  He helps with easier things like hand towels and washclothes, his pants and underpants, separating socks into matching piles, and laying out his shirts flat on top of each other so they can be hung up in his closet.  He's also started putting some of his clean clothes away.  Now, if I could just get him to put his PJs under his pillow after he gets dressed...

He also helps water the plants when it's nice out.  Another good season chore I have him help me with is taking down seasonal decorations.  It's almost like a scavenger hunt for him and he loves hunting through the house trying to find all the snowmen, Santas, Easter bunnies, or whatever other nick-knack I've set out.  Last week I finally started having him make his bed.  He did a pretty good job the first time, too.  Now, to just be consistent about it!

A few chores that I think I'll add to the ol' memory bank for those "Mom, I'm bored!" moments are:

1.  Wipe down the cabinet doors:  I'll have to pick up a small spray bottle the next time in Walmarts or at the Dollar Tree and fill it with my favorite homemade all-purpose cleaner that I got from Mummy-Dearest.  
2. Wipe down the fridge:  Use the same spray bottle as for the cabinets.
3. Wipe down bathroom counter tops:  Make that two bottles that I'll have to get.  One for the kitchen and one for the bathrooms.
4. Re-organize his bookshelf:  Why is that children don't understand the when books are stood on end they don't take up as much space as when they are laid down?
5. Wipe down baseboards/stair railing/chair rail:  Get a wet cloth and have him do all the baseboards in the house as well as the railing and spindles on the stairs and the chair rail in the dining room.
6. Pick up trash outside:  There's always something that ends up in the yard.  Again, though, this is seasonal.

I'm sure there are a million other chores preschoolers can do, but these are just a few that I could think of and I saw on-line on various sites.  Do you have your kids to the same types of chores?