Teaching Responsibility With Chores
By Lisa Julian
http://www.lee-bee.com

By giving your children chores to do, you are not only teaching them to be productive members of the family but you are also teaching them responsibility. Get children involved with the process of choosing which chores to do! This will encourage your child and give the feeling of self importance.

• Start teaching your child at a young age to be responsible.

• Teach your child to pickup after each activity (Enforce this when she asks for something- especially when she is done playing with her toys! (i.e. food, to go out, a movie etc...).  

• Get children involved in the process of doing chores by allowing them to help with choosing the chores that they feel they can do.  

• Let your child help place the chart on the refrigerator in a spot where they would like it to go.  

• Teach children the joy of self-evaluation and a job well done instead of dependence on rewards. Children love the satisfaction of placing the completed stickers on their chart.  

• Do not do anything for your child that he can do for himself.  

• Always praise your child for a job well done when a chore is completed! Tell the child "good job!" (Not "good boy"!)

• If your child does something on his own (without you asking him to do it) make sure you tell your child that you like when he does this. This will encourage more of this behavior (cleaning up after himself). 

A chore chart is a great way to start teaching your child responsibility. The key to positive motivation is getting children involved with the process! You can make your own chore chart or use a Lee-Bee Chore Chart. We created one for you with 150 reusable chore stickers (similar to Colorforms) so that your child can pick and choose from the many common tasks and chores. We also include blank stickers for you and your child to customize your own chores and incentives. Whichever you decide, remember to make children's chores fun!

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