Chore chart by age

Most children can start helping at 2 or 3 with small jobs like putting toys away. By 11 or 12, the American Academy of Pediatrics lists cleaning the kitchen, changing their own sheets and doing their own laundry. Below is a chore list by age, a chart you can print for each child, and a way to run the same chart on a phone so it keeps score.

Children differ, so treat each list as a starting point. A careful six-year-old may be ready for the eight-year-old's list, and a busy twelve-year-old may need fewer jobs.

Make and print a chore chart#

Pick the age band, add a name if you like, and print. Each chore gets a row and each day gets a box to tick.

Age-appropriate chores, by age#

Each band adds to the one before it, so an older child keeps the younger lists too. The lists for ages 5 to 12 follow the American Academy of Pediatrics' Chores and Responsibility guide (updated February 2024). That guide starts at 5 and stops at 12, so the lists for 2 to 4 and for 13 and up are mine.

How to make a chore chart stick#

Start small. Two or three jobs at the same time every day get done; a long list mostly doesn't. Show a chore first, do it together a few times, then hand it over. Put the chart where the job happens: the fridge for kitchen jobs, the bedroom door for the bed and laundry. A bed made badly by a five-year-old is still a made bed, so count the effort. Every few months, move a child up a band once the current jobs run without reminders.

If you pay for chores, the allowance by age calculator works out a weekly amount for each child and splits it into spend, save and give.

Run the same chart in The Margin#

Paper works until it gets lost behind a magnet. In The Margin each child's chores live in the family workspace: they tick them off on their own phone or on a tablet on the wall, a parent can approve a job before it counts, and points or pocket money add up by themselves. See family chores and roles, allowance and chore points and the wall display.