or press Ctrl+P (Cmd+P on a Mac). It fits one landscape page.
Chore chart
Name
Week of
| Every day | Points | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Make my own breakfast and pack my lunch | 2 | |||||||
| Do the dinner dishes, including hand washing pots | 2 | |||||||
| Take out the trash and recycling when full | 1 | |||||||
| All the pet care: food, water, litter or a walk | 2 | |||||||
| 15 minute tidy of the living room | 2 | |||||||
| Keep my room picked up | 1 | |||||||
| Once a week | ||||||||
| Do my own laundry and put it away | 3 | |||||||
| Clean the bathroom top to bottom | 3 | |||||||
| Vacuum all the floors | 3 | |||||||
| Change my sheets | 2 | |||||||
| Clear out old food and wipe the fridge shelves | 2 | |||||||
| Try this week | ||||||||
| Cook dinner once a week with a grown-up in the house | 5 | |||||||
| Points this week | ||||||||
Free chore charts by age at familypointstracker.com/chores
What is on this chart
The chores come from the 11 year old list. A 12 year old is ready for the whole kitchen cleanup, a family load of laundry and, after training, mowing the lawn. All three are on the 12 year old page.
Points follow the same scale as our chores by age chart: about one point for every 10 minutes of work, a little more for a job they are still learning.
How to use this chore chart
- Fill it in together. Go through the chart with your child before it goes on the fridge. Cross out what does not fit your house and add their ideas in the blank rows. Kids stick with a plan they had a say in.
- Start with fewer rows than you think. If six daily jobs is a lot for your child, cover some up for the first week. Behavior programs that work add one step at a time, once the last one happens without reminders.
- Check it at the same time every day. Right after dinner or before bed. A routine at a fixed time takes over the reminding, and responding the same way every day matters more than the chart itself.
- Tick it with praise, not instead of it. When a box gets ticked, say what they did: "you wiped the whole table". Specific praise is what makes a chart work, and points or rewards work best on top of it.
- Let it fade. Once a routine happens on its own for a few weeks, take it off the chart and put something new on. The goal is a kid who does the job, not a kid who does the chart.
Full chore lists for ages 11 to 12
- Chores for 11 year olds Hand washing pots, cleaning out the fridge, planning and cooking a meal.
- Chores for 12 year olds The full kitchen cleanup, a family laundry load, mowing after training.
Sources
The chores and ages here were checked against the American Academy of Pediatrics' guidance. Where this page makes a claim about safety or research, it comes from:
- Age-Appropriate Chores for Children. American Academy of Pediatrics, HealthyChildren.org.
- Parent management training (research chapter). Alan E. Kazdin, Yale University.
- Parent Praise to 1- to 3-Year-Olds Predicts Children's Motivational Frameworks 5 Years Later. Gunderson et al., Child Development, 2013.
- Tips for Relying on Routines and Rules. CDC, Essentials for Parenting Toddlers and Preschoolers.
