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15 best chores for kindergartners: Fun & easy task ideas

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Chores are a valuable way to teach kids responsibility, boost confidence, and shape good habits. But it can be difficult to know when your child is ready to start helping out around the house and what chores are appropriate. Believe it or not, there are plenty of household chores for kindergartners that can get them helping around the house and maybe even burn some of that excited energy. Here, we provide examples of chores that kindergartners can do and offer some advice on how to make chores fun and valuable for your child.

15 best age-appropriate chores for kindergartners

There are a lot of kids' household chores, but not every one will be appropriate for kindergartners. With the chore list we provide below, you can develop a chore chart that will get your child involved in household tasks.

Daily chores

  • Making their bed without supervision

  • Helping to set and clear the table for meals

  • Picking up toys after playing

  • Helping to cook and prepare food

  • Washing and drying dishes

  • Feeding pets or watering plants

Weekly chores

  • Helping to carry and put away the groceries

  • Dusting around the house

  • Pulling garden weeds

  • Watering plants around the house or garden

  • Sorting laundry between whites and colors

  • Emptying small trash cans into the primary one

Monthly and seasonal special tasks

  • Raking leaves

  • Sweeping a walkway with light snow

  • Changing light bulbs

Olivia walking the dog as a paid chore
The chore app that checks all the boxes.

Chores. Allowance. They’re different for every family. That’s why we let you call the shots. Want to tie allowance to chores? Pay a percentage based on chore progress — or only if they’re all done. Prefer not to? Your house. Your rules.

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Why chores matter for kindergartners

Every child will one day be an adult. It's never too early to start teaching kids about expectations and responsibilities, especially when they're on the brink of starting school. Some of the key reasons why chores are so important for young kids include:

  • Learning responsibilities early helps shape good habits.

  • They can teach independence and teamwork and build your child's confidence.

  • They make it easier to teach life skills like problem-solving and patience.

But perhaps most importantly, household chores help you check off the daily tasks needed to keep your house running every day and make your child feel like a contributing member of the household, which makes family life more enjoyable for everybody.

Making chores fun: A game-changer for kids

Let's be honest: Chores are rarely fun even for adults. Your kids probably aren't going to be excited about a sudden list of chores they have to do every day. Regardless of your kid's age, you should do what you can to make chores fun. After all, if they're fun, then your kindergartner will be a whole lot more eager to do them.

Some ideas for making chores fun include:

  • Use chore charts with stickers or rewards that give your child a sense of accomplishment after completing a chore or a week's worth of chores.

  • Turn tasks into games like a race against a timer or dance-cleaning.

  • Provide praise and recognition to give your child positive reinforcement and assure them that they're doing good work.

  • Celebrate your child's progress with little rewards like some extra screen time or a trip to the ice cream shop.

Introducing an allowance: The first financial lessons

Chores are a great avenue to give your kindergartner their first lessons in money and finance. Chores are essentially work, which provides a clear relationship between labor and earning money. By introducing chores, you can also introduce a small allowance to demonstrate to your child that they're not just working to work, but they're doing it to earn their very own spending money.

From there, you can begin to teach your child early budgeting skills and encourage them to think about ways to save, spend, and share their money. One useful tool that some parents use is dividing an allowance up into three jars: spending, saving, and charity. Each week, a small amount of money goes into each jar and can only be used for that designated purpose. It's up to your child to decide what each purpose means for them.

Our parents' guide for chores and allowances offers more inspiration, and the Greenlight chores and allowance app for kids can help you create chore lists, manage allowances, and more.

Learn to earn, save, and invest together.

With a debit card of their own, kids and teens learn to spend wisely, keep an eye on balances, and track their spending. Big money dreams? Set savings goals and start investing with as little as $1 — with your approval on every trade.

Safety first: Tips for creating a secure chore environment

Safety is the most important thing when it comes to introducing your child to chores. Whether you're creating chores for 6-year-olds or 16-year-olds, it's absolutely paramount that you prioritize their safety and well-being. One way to do that is by ensuring all the tasks on their chore chart are age-appropriate and supervised, but there are other steps you can take, too.

  • Always choose non-toxic, kid-safe cleaning tools.

  • Have your child practice chores with you or an older sibling before letting them do it on their own.

  • Teach boundaries to your child around every chore so that they understand what's safe and what's off-limits, especially when working in the kitchen or the yard, where dangerous tools may be involved.

  • Start with very simple chores and slowly work your way up to more involved ones, especially when starting with young kids.

  • Take the time to communicate expectations very clearly to make sure your child knows exactly what's expected of them with any chore.

Greenlight: Helping families raise money-smart kids

Introducing your kids to chores is a great first step on the road to raising responsible, self-sufficient adults. Chores help build personal responsibility and confidence, but also offer a great introduction to money management and fiscal responsibility. Plus, you'll also get some much-needed help around the house.

With the Greenlight app, you can get the resources you need to continue supporting your kids' financial literacy and even manage their chore lists. Register for the Greenlight app and get the support you need to empower your kids' growth.

Built for them. And for you.

Both you and your kids download the Greenlight app — with tailored experiences. They check off chores, you automate allowance. They spend wisely, you set flexible controls. They build healthy financial habits, and you cheer them on.

Turn chores into $ lessons. Assign tasks, set rewards, and teach responsibility with Greenlight’s money app for kids and teens. Try Greenlight, one month, risk-free.†

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This blog post is provided “as is” and should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional advice. Some content in this post may have been created using artificial intelligence; however, every blog post is reviewed by at least two human editors.

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