Teach your kids responsibility with these chores for 7-year-olds

In the social media era, some of the principles of parenting may have changed, but one thing remains constant: chores. Chores are an important aspect of everyday life that help kids feel a sense of accomplishment, learn life skills, build responsibility, improve self-esteem, and earn a bit of money.

However, tailoring these chores isn’t as clear-cut, especially if you have a younger child. If you want to create chores for 7-year-olds, finding household tasks that they can physically and mentally handle are ideal. So if you’re at a loss for ideas, use this age-appropriate list of chores to point you in the right direction.

6 age-appropriate chores for 7-year-olds

If you have kids of various ages, you’ll want to give them each a list of chores tailored to their age and abilities. Check out this list for ideas of tasks you can assign to your 7-year-old.

1. Pull weeds and other basic yardwork

Doing basic yardwork is an excellent age-appropriate chore for 7-year-olds. They can get outside, learn about landscaping and plants and feel a sense of responsibility by doing it. Seven-year-olds can also do a surprising amount of simple kids chores outside, including:

• Pull weeds

• Rake leaves

• Plant bulbs and seeds

• Harvest fruits and vegetables

You can also teach them the difference between weeds and grass or ornamentals, as well as teach them proper safety with gardening gloves, eyewear, and other personal protective equipment.

Keep in mind that they should not mow the grass at least until the age of 16, but you can show them lawn mower safety in the meantime.

2. Clean baseboards

One of the advantages of having a child do chores is that they can learn teamwork by contributing to the household. One way a child can contribute is by cleaning baseboards. These hard-to-reach areas need regular dusting, but you may not always want to get on your hands and knees.

Fortunately, the small stature of your 7-year-old makes them the perfect candidate to clean baseboards. Show them how to add wood cleaner to a rag and how to wipe the baseboards down, and you can cross one thing off your personal cleaning list.

3. Empty the dishwasher

Another easy chore for 7-year-olds is emptying the dishwasher. Once the dishes are clean, your child can open the dishwasher and put away anything that’s within their reach. Obviously, you don’t want them climbing on the counter, but anything low is fair game.

You can also teach them how to wipe water spots off glassware and silverware, giving your dishes a gleam that any parent can enjoy, whether you eat a simple meal with your family or have a dinner party with guests.

4. Water plants and feed pets

Young children love to take care of living things. There’s an added sense of accomplishment when plants or pets thrive. Plus, it’s easy for them to do.

An excellent chore for 7-year-olds is to water plants, feed pets, or both. It’s fairly simple, although some spills are likely — at least a first. Show them how much water or food to add with a measuring cup or watering can, and you might just be surprised by the results.

5. Put dirty clothes in the hamper

If left unchecked, a 7-year-old’s room can get messy, especially with dirty clothes. So start them off early with responsible garment cleaning. You can begin with your 7-year-old putting dirty clothes in the hamper. Once they’ve mastered this, you can move on to other ideas until your child is a clothes-washing master. 

Ideas include:

• Put clean clothes in the proper drawer

• Fold laundry

• Sort laundry by color or wash cycle

• Hang clothes on a clothesline or throw them in the dryer

• Put dirty clothes in the washer

Your 7-year-old is too young to do their own laundry, but these basic ideas can put them on the right track. And while washers and dryers now have top-notch safety features, you may want to supervise your child until they get the hang of basic chores.

6. Try the chore team-up

If you also have younger children capable of chores — such as a 5-year-old or 6-year-old — give them a group task. Along with getting household chores done, you can teach them teamwork!

Some examples of team-up chore ideas for kids might include:

• Washing the car

• Picking up toys

• Organizing games

• Basic cleaning, such as clearing the table after breakfast

The idea is to foster a sense of camaraderie between siblings and forge a deeper bond.

What you can do as a parent to keep your kids on top of chores

Whether they’re doing chores for the first time or have some new tasks to learn, it can take some time for your 7-year-old to get the hang of their responsibilities. Here are a few ways you can help keep your child on track and support their success.

Create chore charts or wheels

You can find plenty of printable chore charts online that can help you divvy up chores if you have multiple children. Or, if you want something a bit more interactive, a chore wheel can be a fun way to assign tasks.

Alternatively, the Greenlight app allows you to create a chore list that your child can see on a mobile device and check off tasks as they’re completed. In the digital age, this format might work better than a simple pen-and-paper chore chart.

Use in-depth instructions

A chore such as tidying the bathroom is vague, and chores for 7-year-olds need to have structure and defined expectations. So rather than write one phrase, either write more in-depth instructions, show them what you expect, or both. Avoid any gray areas, and you’ll both be happier with the final result.

Give positive reinforcement

While completion of chores should become an expectation, remember to give praise when praise is due. At first, you may want to give encouragement and accolades for simply completing the chore. Over time, you can ease off this practice and provide more praise when the job is done up to your expectations, or the child reaches a milestone of completing a chore a few weeks or months in a row.

Don’t expect perfection

However, you shouldn’t always expect perfection from a 7-year-old or any other preschool or school-age child. While you can hold older kids to a higher standard, younger kids may not have the attention span or physical or mental capacity to do a job up to the same level as a teenager or an adult. Adjust your expectations accordingly, but give them hints and ideas about how to improve.

Make sure to follow through

Chores build character and responsibility, but only if you follow through as a parent. Even if you’re tired from work or generally exhausted, make sure that your 7-year-old is doing their chores. Otherwise, the importance of chores can easily get swept under the rug.

How to determine chore payments or allowances

As a parent, you get to decide what you should pay your kids for each chore, but you have many variables to think about. You can decide that chores for 7-year-olds may be worth more than chores that your younger kids do. Or you can assign a value based on how long a chore takes.

While you can use a per-chore rate, you could also use a flat rate each week. For the latter, a general rule is that you pay $1 to $2 a week for each year of age. So if your 7-year-old does all their chores, you would pay them $7 to $14 weekly, which would translate to a few hundred dollars a year.

Earning an allowance will help motivate your child to complete their chores. Plus, it’s a good tool to teach financial literacy at an early age.

Track chores and pay allowances — all in one place

Finding chores for 7-year-olds may require a bit of creative thinking, but choosing the right tasks for your kids can help them learn responsibility and earn money.

Greenlight makes this process even easier. With the app, you can assign chores and track your child’s progress. Plus, if you give your child an allowance, you can automate the process — and choose to pay only if their chores are complete. Greenlight will also help your child split the earnings between savings, spending, and giving.

Sign up for the Greenlight app and start teaching your kids valuable life and financial lessons that they can carry with them into the future.