Jobs for Toddlers

My kids have been handling the meal preparation in our house for the past month while I recoveryed from surgery. Now they are wondering when I'm going to start fixing the meals again, but I'm enjoying having them handle the majority of the meals. They have been doing a good job. Obviously toddles aren't going to be handling meal prep for a long, long time, but they can learn other ways to help.
Here are some ideas:
1. move the clothes out of the dryer into a laundry basket and slide the basket to the room you need it in.
2. fold simple laundry items like wash clothes, dishtowels and sort socks by colors or dark and lights.
3. put the silverware from the dishwasher on the counter for them and let them stand on a stool or chair to sort and put away for you.
4. remove plastic items from dishwasher. If you have a lower cupboard for the kids dishes they can put their own away and even get them as needed.
5. set the plates on the table
6. pull the blanket up on their bed-top sheets can be difficult, so my kids for the most part didn't use them.
7. pick up toys
8. carry their plate to the sink after meals, depending on the mess left on the plate.

Most jobs given to a small child take a lot of work on the parents part to train them how to do, but once they have the job down they enjoy being able to help. Plus you are teaching them how to serve and be part of the family. Most of the time the end result isn't done very well, but nothing says it has to be perfect, except usually us moms. Once you have a child or two trained in a job they can then be given the responsibility of teaching a younger sibling. I still team my younger two children up with an older sibling. I told the older ones I trained you, now you train them. If they do a good job training the younger sibling it makes the job easier for the older one; this is good incentive to train their younger sibling well.

We don't pay our children an allowance for chores as we feel the chores are part life as a family. They get room and board with out charge. If we have extra jobs we would like done or if they are looking to earn some money we will pay them for those jobs.

It definitely is work to teach our children how to work, but in later you will reap the reward for your effort. So when all the dish clothes are in a "folded" mess and the dinner plate hits the floor for the hundredth time take heart and remember some day it will be worth it.