What to Read Wednesday: Chore Books for Kids

The Best Chore Books for Kids

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Do your kids have daily chores?

Are they just expected to do them–or do they do certain things to earn an allowance? In our home, we started training our kids to do chores early on. Each year as they grow, their responsibilities shift, and they become more independent with the things they are expected to do to help our household run smoothly.

Even very young children can participate in family chores, like putting dry food in the animal bowls, straightening pillows in the living room, and dusting with a cloth or duster. As they grow, kids can do things like set the table, take out trash, unload the dishwasher, and collect the eggs. When they are teens, bigger things like mowing the lawn and running errands are added to the list.

It’s fun to make a game out of chores to motivate kids, especially when they are taking on new responsibilities. Here’s a fun activity my son enjoyed while doing chores Lord of the Rings style.

We have some favorite books that feature characters who do chores or work, and reading these over the years helps instill these values into kids so they will know that they are a vital part of keeping the household efficient.

If you have any chore-themed books to add to our list, please leave your ideas in the comments below. Be sure to link up your family-friendly posts while you’re here!

Our favorite chore books for kids

• Richard Scarry’s What Do People Do All Day? (Richard Scarry’s Busy World)
• Little Critter: Just Helping My Dad (My First I Can Read)
• Just a Mess (Little Critter) (Look-Look)
• Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday
• A Little Prairie House (Little House Picture Book)
• Henry Reed’s Babysitting Service (Puffin Book)
• The Paperboy
• The Berenstain Bears and the Trouble with Chores
• Battle of the Chores: Junior Discovers Debt (Life Lessons with Junior)
• The Little Red Hen (Paul Galdone Classics)
• Washday
• Eloise Wilkin Stories (Little Golden Book Treasury)

And, one for moms:

Cleaning House: A Mom’s Twelve-Month Experiment to Rid Her Home of Youth Entitlement is Kay Wills Wyma’s family experiment to teach her kids responsibility through life skills and household management. When she realized that her kids were not doing their fair share around the house and how this was detrimental to their current and future well-being, she decided to shake things up and begin the “Experiment,” a year-long odyssey that changed her entire family dynamic. She began requiring that her kids learn how to maintain the household from laundry and cleaning, to cooking and managing small repairs.

The book reads like a journal and not a “how-to” manual, which was not what I expected. I find Wyma’s writing style to be readable and real, and I appreciated her candor:

“Each incremental increase in expectation frustrates the kids, who feel that accomplishing the previous assignment should be enough. They can hardly believe when we undertake another task, even if it’s something easy and possibly enjoyable. Continuing with the Experiment is hard for me, partly because of the constant demands of being the Enforcer, and partly because I catch myself questioning whether my motives are pure” (p. 88).

While her family situation does not resemble mine, Wyma’s true-life examples serve as good models for rebooting your household if these habits have not been instilled in your kids from the beginning. I did not agree with all of Wyma’s parenting philosophies, but I know some parents who would benefit from this book as a motivator for getting things on track in their families.

The most popular posts from last week’s link up were:

 

• Finding Contentment In The Midst Of Change from Phyllis Sather
• A Rooster and a Prom Dress from BJ’s Homeschool

And now for the link up!

This list has our book themes, but you don’t have to stick to that to link up–any family-friendly posts are welcome. So, come on! Join in the fun!

If you’d like to join us as a co-host for What to Read Wednesday, please contact Anne.

Katie @ Paradise Praises

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Dawnita @ Prairie Dust Trail

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Anne @ Learning Table

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Jeanae @ Just Jeanae

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