With my youngest turning 4 soon, we are in full swing of the “I want to help!” stage — one where help sometimes means more confusion and more time. Encouraging homework for 4-year-olds can require a lot of patience on your part.
I know. That’s right a lot it’s easy to do it yourself.
But here’s what six kids taught me: it’s totally worth the mess, time, and patience. The 4-year-old children I worked hard with became teenagers who could manage the house. My three oldest can cook real food, do their own laundry, and clean the bathroom. That didn’t happen by accident — it happened because we started small, even when it was slow and incomplete and sometimes led to a bigger disaster than we started with.
So yes, teaching a 4-year-old to do chores around the house is difficult at first. Is it worth it? Absolutely.
One more thing before we get to the list — if your child has special needs, this will look different but don’t count them out. My son David has a disability that doctors thought would make him unable to sit on his own. Now she stands on the couch every morning to help my husband Jesse make coffee. He knows every single step – grinding the beans, pounding them, cooking them, extracting the milk – and if you skip a step or do it out of order, he’ll let you know completely. (See this video to learn more.)
Children can contribute in their own ways, and they may surprise you.
Choice Ideas for 4 Year Olds: 3 Key Things to Remember
1. Children Need to Know What You Expect of Them
If you don’t show your kids how to do a job right, you can’t expect them to know how to do it right. Before you ask them to do a task on their own, work with them a few times and show them exactly how to do it.
2. Don’t Expect Them To Get It Right — Especially At First
It often takes repeated teaching, gentle correction, and practice before a child can do a task well. Don’t expect perfection — especially when they’re young. What matters is that they make an effort and try their best.
3. Praise Ten Times More As You Correct
It’s easy to want to focus on pointing out all the things a child is doing wrong and where they need to improve. Instead of focusing on what they didn’t do well, focus more of your energy on praising those things they did well. Encouragement and reassurance go a long way!
15 activities for 4 year olds
Children this age can probably dress themselves, brush their hair, and comb their hair. If they do not do these things themselves, I would encourage you to start by teaching them those tasks.
Here are 15 household chores that work well for 4-year-olds (and honestly, many other ages):
1. Take Their Room — Make sure you show your child what a clean room looks like. And if their room is messy, I would suggest working with them to clean it and giving them one specific project to work on at a time. Young children are still learning the concept of staying on task, so you want to make sure you don’t overwhelm them by giving them more work to accomplish than they are ready for.
2. Vacuum — If you have a vacuum with an attachment or a lightweight vacuum like this one, they can use the attachment on furniture or small areas in your home. My 4 year olds managed to clean one room, with a little help from me.
3. Fold Bath Robes, Hand Towels, Underwear, and Other Small Items – I will usually sort these out of the big pile of laundry and make a smaller pile for each child to fold, based on their folding skills.
4. Sort and Roll the Socks – Sorting and folding socks can be a fun activity for little people. And you can teach matching, colors, and counting too, too.
5. Set the Clock – When my children help with the laundry, I take out their clothes and towels for them. It’s amazing how quickly things get lost when so many people work together!
6. Aquatic Plants — Use a plastic watering can (we got ours at the dollar store or you can make one from a milk jug) to make it nice and easy for little hands.
7. Dust/Wipe Down – 4-year-olds can clean the boards, small areas of the floor, wipe the cabinets, or dusty areas. If you have a feather duster, they might be happy to try that, too!
8. Wipe down the Sink/Toilet – Cleaning products work well especially for small children who can use them. Or, you can spray a non-toxic cleaner on a rag and let them wipe the sink, toilet, or bathroom floor. As they practice that skill, they can also learn to clean the toilet with a toilet brush, under my supervision.
9. Clear the Trash — 4-year-olds are usually big enough and strong enough to tie a garbage bag and carry it out the garage or back door.
10. Wipe Down Door Handles — Give your child a cleaning product or wet rag and tell him to wipe all the door handles. This is a favorite activity in our household!
11. Clear the Table — Teach your children to wipe their plates after each meal (our little ones are still working on doing this without needing to be reminded!)
12. Do the Dishes/Load the Washing Machine -A 4-year-old is usually old enough to stand on a chair at the kitchen sink and wash dishes that don’t break (be sure to remove knives and other sharp or dangerous objects before letting them do this). They can also help load silverware and other non-breakable dishes into the dishwasher.
13. Preparing Snacks — Kierstyn learned how to pour cereal/milk, make toast with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and popcorn on her own. He often helps me when I cook.
14. Edit the Table — Teach your children how to set the table from an early age — it’s a skill that many adults don’t know! 🙂
15. Mop — My dad got my older girls baby-sized mops for Christmas one year and they loved them. And while it took them a while to develop their mopping skills, they did a great job of cleaning up a small area quickly.
Printable Music Chart for 4 year olds
If you’re a visual person, you can download my free printable chart to start using in your home today!
Looking for more age-appropriate activity ideas or help teach kids about money? You’ll love these other posts:
What activities do your 4-year-olds do? I’d love to hear some ideas!
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