Do you have a kindergartener? Want to start teaching him or her some responsibility? This list of daily chores for kindergarteners is for you!
Sometimes I’m just amazed by how old my 5-year-old seems these days. He’s going to big kid school, doing things for himself, and really reasoning through decisions. When did this happen? Instead of staring at him, gob-smacked at just how much of a person he’s becoming, I’m choosing to strike while the iron is hot and lean into his new skills. I’m teaching him responsibility through chores!
Now, I’m under no illusion that I’m teaching responsibility alone. My son’s teacher is very big on nudging the kids to do as much for themselves as they are capable. I’m simply extending the responsibility lesson my son is getting at school into the home by giving him daily chores. And what I’ve learned from this experiment has shocked me.
My kid likes his chores! In fact, he’s thriving in all this responsibility! He takes his jobs very seriously, does a great job with little prompting from me, and even asks what else he can do to help. Am I living in a dream?
If you want to share in this dream, you might consider some of these daily chores for kindergarteners. My advice is to start small. Pick one or two and build from there. You’ll be shocked at how much kindergarteners thrive with daily chores!
Daily Chores for Kindergarteners
School
School responsibilities for kindergarteners aren’t limited to the four walls of the school building – they come home too! Here are some daily chores for kindergarteners that bring their school responsibilities home.
Lunch
Planning and packing lunch has become my nemesis. The prospect of doing this for years to come is truly daunting. Because I’m overwhelmed by the whole packed lunch situation, I’ll take all the help I can get from my kindergartener where his lunch is concerned.
Pack lunch
Although I usually take care of the making of the lunch, I get help from my son however I can. We usually talk about what he would like in his lunchbox every day, and he is in charge of grabbing the snacks he thinks he might need to get through the school day. But his actual chore when it comes to packing lunch is to get his lunch container out of the fridge, get his insulated box out of the freezer, pack the container in the box, and put the box in his backpack. This is a huge help to me, and he’s great at it!
Empty lunch
Similarly, when he gets home from school, he’s in charge of emptying his lunchbox. He removes it from his backpack, puts the lunchbox back in the freezer, and deals with the container. Now, depending on the day, how he deals with the container could look different. If he didn’t eat all his lunch and he’s hungry, he eats the leftovers before putting the container in the sink. If he’s not hungry, he asks if I want any of his leftovers, pitches the rest in the trash, and then puts the container in the sink. We really have a fabulous system going!
Backpack
Dealing with the backpack could be one of the most obvious daily chores for kindergarteners. Don’t overlook the obvious!
Pack backpack
Our mornings are hectic in my house. I have to get two kids out the door to two different schools, make sure everyone has what they need at school for the day, and feed them largely by myself (my husband works a job with early morning hours). I need my kids to help themselves to the extent possible. In addition to packing his lunch into his lunchbox, my kindergartener can absolutely pack his backpack. What this entails is making sure he has his folders for school (he has two), his lunch, his water bottle, any outerwear he may need, and anything that needs to go back to school (like a library book). He’s done a great job with this job so far!
Empty backpack
Just like he’s responsible for packing his backpack, he’s also in charge of emptying it when he gets home from school. Basically, what he put into his backpack in the morning needs to come out in the afternoon. Daily chores for kindergarteners can be as easy as this!
Water bottle
Ah, the water bottle. This is a new item to add to the list for our generation of parents. I don’t know about you, but I hardly ever drank water when I was a kid. And if I did need water while I was at school, I headed to the water fountain. Nowadays, our kids are attached to their emotional support water bottles. On the one hand, they’re certainly better hydrated than we were. But on the other hand, the water bottle is one more thing to add to the list of things we have to manage.
We can focus on the benefits of our kids carrying around water with them everywhere they go if we delegate water bottle maintenance to the kids themselves. At least the filling of the water bottle. This daily chore takes this task off your plate and gives them total control over which water bottle they take to school with them. It’s a perfect chore for kindergarteners.
Just make sure you get a water bottle for your kindergartener that he or she can handle solo. We have found that the 16 oz. Owala FreeSip fits the bill perfectly!
Bedroom
I’m slowly turning over responsibility for my kindergartener’s room to him. That means we have several options of daily chores for kindergarteners that revolve around the bedroom. These are good ones!
Laundry
Although I wish I could entirely turn over the laundry to my 5-year-old, I fear that kindergarten is a little young for this level of responsibility. I mean, he can’t reach the control panel on the washing machine. But his vertical challenge doesn’t mean he can’t help with the laundry in any capacity.
My kindergartener has two main laundry chores. First, he must deposit his dirty items into his hamper. Not on the floor, not back in his drawer, in the hamper. Second, he needs to take his hamper to the laundry room on laundry day. These laundry-related daily chores for kindergarteners are totally doable, super helpful to mom, and are the building blocks to full laundry independence in a few years. He just needs to grow a few inches.
Make bed
Don’t forget the classic kid chores when you’re devising your list of daily chores for kindergarteners! And what could be more classic than making the bed? My kindergartener has a full size bed that’s shoved into a corner, so he still needs a little help making his bed. But I am happy to help until he’s ready to take over this task fully!
Select clothes
As I’ve mentioned, mornings in my house are quite hectic. Anything I can do to make the mornings go easier is a win in my books. For the last several weeks since my kindergartener started school, he has been picking out his clothes for the next day at night before he goes to bed. Clothing selection has always been a nightmare situation in my house, so this switch has really helped simplify our mornings. Now, if only my 3-year-old would actually wear the clothes she picked out the night before, we’d be in business!
Self-care
Daily chores for kindergarteners don’t have to be extra things. You can totally count stuff that they would do anyway as a chore! In fact, I love adding stuff that my kids would do anyway to the chore list because it really gives them momentum to do the other chores that maybe aren’t so obvious to them.
The self-care tasks that we count as a chore in my house are brushing teeth and getting dressed both in the morning and evening. These tasks are a good way to start and end the day with a little responsibility!
Kitchen
I don’t know about your family, but my family spends more time in the kitchen than basically anywhere else in our house. Because we are in the kitchen so darn much, this room is rife with possibilities for daily chores for kindergarteners!
Snack
All moms know that snacks can be the bane of our existence. I can’t begin to count the number of times a day my kids ask for a snack but then say they don’t know what they want to eat. It’s maddening! So, to reinforce the responsibility lesson and to try to prevent mom from going crazy, I have turned over the after-school snack decision to my kindergartener.
Now, after he gets home and unpacks his backpack and his lunch, he’s in charge of selecting his snack and his sister’s snack (we go pick her up from school after he gets home from school). If he can get it himself, he does. If he needs some help, of course I’m happy to assist.
Dishes
Why do the dishes never end? I feel like I wash dishes all day long. It got old years ago, but the dishes still appear. If you feel like I feel about dishes, the good news is that you can absolutely have your kindergartener help wash the dishes. Give him a stool and a sponge and let him go to town. Just maybe not with the sharp knives.
Set the table
My kindergartener’s first chore began at least a year ago. He was in charge of setting the table with the basics, namely, napkins and silverware. This worked so well that he has continued to be responsible for this task, if his sister lets him, that is! My 3-year-old has largely taken over this chore at this point. If she hears him rifling around in the silverware drawer, she comes running and basically pushes him out of the way so she can do it. Now, I’m definitely not condoning violence, but I’m pretty happy that both kids want to do chores.
Empty recycling bin
Daily chores for kindergarteners don’t have to be strictly daily. They can be on an as-needed basis. That’s the case with my kindergartener’s next chore, which is to empty the recycling bin we have in the kitchen into the big recycling can in the garage. We keep the kitchen bin small so it’s easy for him to manage it on his own. He takes this chore so seriously that if he sees me or his dad taking the recycling bin down to the garage, he gets upset and insists he do it. I don’t argue with him.
Replace trash bag
Although I’m comfortable with my kindergartener handling the recycling bin solo, he still needs help with the trash. The trash can is bigger than the recycling bin and it is often heavy. My husband is typically the emptier of the trash, but my son is responsible for replacing the trash bag once dad removes the full bag. This is a great chore for a kindergartener, and one that my 3-year-old has her sights on too.
Other blog posts
Looking for more content to help parent young children? I’m no expert, but I’ve learned a lot on the job. Here are just a few posts that might help you learn a little bit from my experimentation:
I really hope this list of daily chores for kindergarteners helps you make your own chore list. What’s going on your list? Please share down below or over on Instagram @sarainseason.