Our Family’s Age Appropriate Chores Ages Six through 11

A little over a week ago, I shared our families age appropriate chores for birth through five. I did say I would write about our chores for our older children last week, but God had led me a different way, so here we are for this week. You will notice that I follow God’s lead, which is why I don’t schedule posts out. I write them up and save them as drafts.

Again, I want to stress that you must consider your child’s abilities, when you figure what is age appropriate. If you have a child with a disability or that is struggling, their appropriate chore list will need to be adjusted. If you have a child that is ahead of the game, then you need to adjust their chore list. Your expectations and goals must be realistic for their present ability level. If you are ahead or behind their ability level, you will both be frustrated. Please, don’t ask me how I know.

You also need to adjust what you consider a properly completed job. I don’t expect perfection from my younger crowd. However, I expect to see all my children working hard, and trying their best. If they need help or further instruction then that is my responsibility not a lack of effort on their part. If they are messing around, and just goofing off, then it is a child training issue. And yes, we do have that here. Our home does not run perfectly. No where near perfectly. I have also found that I have to carefully choose who will work together as buddies. Some of our buddy groups create a lot of mess. Some create a lot of bickering, and some get a lot of work done. I choose to put that last group together.

In our home, we do a lot of the buddy system. An older sibling with a younger sibling. Our two year old is slowly graduating to be with an older sibling for a few chores, but still mostly works with me. Our baby (fifteen months), works with the seven year old on a couple of chores, but spends the rest of chore time with the two year old and myself. I typically put a boy and a girl together, rather then same gender. Know why? Because they work better, rather then play. The girls seem to be able to help the boys stay on task. The girls are a little pickier about how good a chore is completed, and the boys can help the girls with the muscle jobs. So, most of the time the ten year old boy and five year old girl work together. The seven year old girl and four year old boy work together.

By six years of age:

They will have mastered all chores for the birth through five group.

Start loading dishwasher on own.

Be able to move clothes to dryer and start on own. Remembering to clean the lint filter.

Fold nearly everyone’s clothes and put them away on own.

Wipe the table and highchairs after meals.

Vacuum the stairs while younger sibling helps keep the vacuum from falling down stairs.

Clean room and put everything away.

By seven years of age:

All of the above chores and:

Be able to sort through too small clothes and put in too small box.

Vacuum bedroom.

Start a load of laundry, using the proper amount of detergent.

Start the dishwasher.

Help with menu planning.

Help weed the garden.

By Eight years of age:

All the above chores and:

Vacuum any area of the home.

Clean the bathroom floor and bathtub.

Water the garden

Help with changing diapers—my seven year old does this now.

Dust the higher areas of the home—head level and below

By Nine Years of age:

All the Above and:

Clean kitchen and counters.

Brown ground beef.

Cook Oatmeal

Help care for animals

By ten years of age:

All the above and:

Help dad in the shop.

Help care for all animals—orphan kittens, baby chicks, horse, cats, dogs.

Help fix fence.

Pull posts—farm chore

Begin tractor driving.

By Eleven Years of age:

All the above and:

Be able to properly show responsibility operating a tractor when dad is around to offer assistance.

Mow yard.

Know how to be able to assist with changing a tire.

Know how to be able to assist with changing oil.

Be able to check oil.

Notice that my age nine to eleven chores are mostly “boy” chores? Well, that is because I don’t have a girl in that range. So, I have based our chore list on my boy. I suspect that my girl chores will be sewing, needle work, and cooking based. Baking bread, cookies, making homemade pizza and so forth. Mending a pair of jeans, sewing on buttons, helping teach younger sibling to read, add, count, colors.

Interested in our adaptable large family chore board system? How do I get our children to get their chores done happily?

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