A parent’s guide to chores for 6-year-olds

Raising a family takes a lot of work! As a parent, anything you can do to make your life a little bit easier is welcome.

How about something that can help you out and help teach your kids valuable life skills? As it turns out, asking your kids to help out with chores can accomplish both of these goals at once. 

The guide below covers a detailed list of age-appropriate chores for 6-year-olds, plus tips on how you can use chores to teach practical life skills in the home.

What are some good chores for 6-year-olds?

Six-year-olds are at a fun, energetic age. They’re able to do more on their own and communicate better, which also means that they’re likely ready to take on a bit more responsibility at home.

The list below covers some appropriate chores for 6-year-olds.

Watering plants

Asking your kids to help water plants can be a good way to teach them about living organisms, plants, and scheduling. Since most plants only need to be watered around once per week or even twice per month, you’ll likely need to add this task to a chore chart or chore schedule.

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While this likely won’t be a big time-saver for parents, it’s a great way to teach kids about responsibility. If they forget to water a plant, they’ll be able to see how it doesn’t grow or even wilts a bit. At the same time, it’s a relatively low-risk chore for 6-year-olds, so it’s an age-appropriate level of responsibility.

Raking leaves (and other yard work)

In the fall months, asking your kids to rake leaves and help out with other yard work is a great outdoor chore for 6-year-olds. It’s also an opportunity to teach about the changing seasons, to instill the value of hard work, and to spend more time outside as a family.

Keep in mind that you might need to invest in a kid-sized rake and other tools. Alternatively, you or one of your older kids can rake, then your 6-year-old can bag up the pile of leaves or pick up any strays.

Pulling weeds and watering plants outdoors are other good age-appropriate yard chores for 6-year-olds.

Helping in the garden

Asking kids to help out if you have a garden is another great chore for 6-year-olds. It can help younger kids get more in tune with using their fine motor skills. Tasks could include planting seeds and picking the food when it’s ready to be harvested. 

Gardening can teach kids how plants grow and where fresh, healthy food comes from.

Picking up toys

Your 6-year-old can pick up toys after playing to keep the house orderly and clean. This is an appropriate chore regardless of the child’s age group, so 4-year-olds, 5-year-olds, etc., can also be asked to tidy up their play areas.

This is also a chore that can easily become a routine for kids, and it doesn’t generally require supervision.

Helping out with younger siblings

If you have younger kids, you can ask your 6-year-old to help out with them. While they’re not old enough to truly babysit, your older kids can help play with younger siblings while you tackle other tasks nearby. They can also clean up spills and help younger siblings with their own kids chores, like cleaning up play areas or taking their dishes to the sink after meals.

This is a good opportunity to teach kids about gentle play, cooperation, and patience — and of course, it’s a great bonding opportunity for your kids!

Assisting with laundry

Kids can help out by sorting laundry, loading the washer with dirty clothes, and even folding and putting away clean clothes. It’s difficult to fold laundry well at this age, so don’t expect perfection — but kids should be able to help make laundry day a bit easier by tackling some of the tasks.

Feeding pets (and other pet care tasks)

If you have pets, 6-year-olds can certainly help take care of them. Feeding dogs and cats, keeping water bowls full, and playing with pets are all appropriate tasks for this age group. Simple pet grooming tasks, like brushing a dog’s fur, could also be good chores to assign.

Emptying trash cans

Your 6-year-old can also help empty various household trash cans (e.g., bathroom, bedrooms, kitchen, etc.) and may be able to take bags to the trash can outside. They may not yet be able to take trash out to the curb, however.

Washing dishes

The kitchen is surely a busy place in your home, and there’s always plenty of cleaning up to do. Cleanup-related chores for 6-year-olds could include clearing the table, washing dishes, loading the dishwasher, and even unloading silverware and other clean dishes that are stored in lower-level cabinets.

Other ideas for extra chores

Some other chore ideas that may be age-appropriate include:

• Cleaning the bathroom sink

• Dusting

• Cleaning baseboards

• Cleaning up spills

• Getting the mail

• Setting the table

Your household may have other chores for 6-year-olds to add to this list as well. Just remember that some tasks will require more supervision or help, while others can be done independently by your kids.

How to use chores to teach your kids about money

We’ve already discussed how chores can help instill valuable life skills like the importance of hard work, cooperation, and responsibility. But did you know that chores could also present a great way to teach kids about money?

Many parents choose to provide their kids with an allowance. By linking chores and allowances, parents can also help reinforce many of the life lessons discussed above — and teach the power of earning, saving, and spending all at once.

Some families choose to require chores to be completed in order to earn an allowance. Others may provide a financial incentive for kids to complete extra chores in addition to their standard tasks. You can customize your approach to what works best for your family!

Around age 6 is a great time to introduce money concepts or continue teachings you’ve already begun. Studies have shown that many financial habits are actually set by around age 7, including budgeting, delayed gratification, and saving.

If you’re not yet ready to introduce money to your little ones, you can create some sort of rewards system using stickers, treats, or other little perks. The basic idea is to provide rewards — and teach kids how to manage those rewards — so that they can be better prepared for their future financial lives.

The simplest way to manage chores, allowances, and finances for kids is to use the Greenlight app. Greenlight is an all-in-one money app for kids that offers tools to teach about earning, saving, spending, and even investing.

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It’s important to start teaching kids about shared responsibility and hard work. By getting the whole family involved, you can have some fun with it — and instill important lessons about teamwork.

Chores for 6-year-olds can genuinely help kids learn key life skills. And families that use the all-in-one Greenlight app can manage chores, give out allowances, and teach kids how to manage their own money. A win-win.

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