Kids Should be Doing Chores, But Here’s Why…

This article provides information on how chores help kids build foundational learning skills. Integrated Learning Strategies (ILS) is a learning and academic center. As a reminder, ILS is not a health care provider and none of our materials or services provide a diagnosis or treatment of a specific condition or learning challenge you may see in your child or student. If you seek a diagnosis or treatment for your child or student, please contact a trained professional who can provide an evaluation of the child.

When we think about chores, it’s easy to frame them as simple responsibilities — tasks that help keep a household running. But for children, chores can be something much more powerful. They are rich, everyday opportunities to build foundational motor skills, support brain development, and strengthen sensory systems.

The goal isn’t to turn children into helpers for the sake of productivity. It’s to support their sensory-motor development, encourage cross-lateral brain integration, and give them meaningful, hands-on experiences that help them grow.

When we post ideas and charts for chores for kids, we often hear the following:

“Kids are not your slaves”

“Kids shouldn’t be working at these young ages”

“These chores are laughable”

“My child could never do these”

“Are the parents sitting on the couch while the kids do all the work?”

While many of these points are valid if people are truly implementing chore responsibilities in this way, the purpose for chores in our minds looks a little different. Our goal is to utilize chores as another element of learning to elevate growth and development, not to make children our servants. In fact, parents should whole-heartedly join in — making chores fun or turning them into play rather than “work.”

Here’s what we envision chores look like when done correctly.

Chores as Brain-Building Work

Children learn best through movement and real-life experiences. Many chores naturally involve important developmental skills that may include the following:

• Bilateral coordination (using both sides of the body together)
• Crossing the midline (reaching across the body, essential for reading and writing)
• Fine motor skills (small, precise movements)
• Postural strength and control (for sitting upright at a desk to listen to the teacher)
• Working on vertical surfaces (supports wrist stability and visual tracking)
• Spatial awareness (helps kids with personal boundaries and helps kids learn correct spacing for writing letters, sentences, and paragraphs)
• Proprioception (body awareness and force control for sustained attention and focus)

These are not just “physical” skills — they directly support learning, attention, and emotional regulation.

The Hidden Power of “Heavy Work”

Activities that involve pushing, pulling, lifting, or carrying, often called heavy work, provide deep sensory input to muscles and joints. This type of input can have a calming and organizing effect on the central nervous system (CNS).

For children who struggle with attention, impulse control, or ADHD-like symptoms, heavy work can help do the following:

• Improve focus and attention
• Reduce restlessness
• Support emotional regulation
• Increase readiness for learning

In other words, chores can help children feel more grounded and better able to engage in schoolwork and daily tasks. Some kids even crave this type of “work” to calm their bodies. Many parents tell us how their kids like to re-arrange furniture or push furniture around the house for proprioceptive input.

Everyday Chores That Build Key Skills

To get an idea of how chores can be helpful for building a child’s brain for higher learning skills down the road, we have a few examples that directly target areas of foundational learning. Chores most commonly done at home provide some of the following developmental benefits:

Carrying groceries

• Targets: Proprioception, bilateral coordination, postural and core strength
• Learning impact: Improves body awareness and attention

Wiping tables or washing windows (especially on vertical surfaces)

• Targets: Crossing midline, shoulder stability, visual tracking
• Learning impact: Supports reading and writing skills

Sweeping or raking

• Targets: Bilateral coordination, core strength, rhythm
• Learning impact: Supports handwriting development, copying notes, and fact retention

Folding laundry

• Targets: Fine motor skills, bilateral coordination, spatial awareness
• Learning impact: Builds organization, sequencing skills, and executive function

Pouring, stirring, and food prep

• Targets: Fine motor control, hand-eye coordination, hand, wrist, shoulder, and elbow strength and stability
• Learning impact: Supports handwriting development, holding the paper with one hand while writing with the other, and promotes cross lateralization for the brain.

Vacuuming or mopping

• Targets: Heavy work, postural control, proprioception
• Learning impact: Supports attention, focus, self-regulation, and emotional grounding

Making the bed

• Targets: Motor planning, bilateral coordination
• Learning impact: Builds sequencing and problem-solving skills

Picking up toys and organizing items

• Targets: Spatial awareness, executive functioning
• Learning impact: Strengthens categorization, memory, following multi-step tasks, completing and remembering homework

Parent Involvement Matters

Children benefit most when chores are done with them, not assigned from a distance. This isn’t about sitting on the couch and supervising — it’s about active participation.

Working together allows parents to do the following:

• Model movements and strategies
• Adjust tasks in real time based on the child’s level and age
• Encourages effort and persistence
• Builds connection and confidence

It also shifts chores from feeling like obligations to becoming shared experiences that support learning.

Not all Chores are Created Equal

Something important that most people miss the mark on is chores should match the child’s developmental level, not just their age.

I can’t tell you how many times we have heard, “This list is garbage, my child can’t do that.” While many of the charts, lists, and resources we provide are only guidelines, all recommendations should be adapted to the child and their unique circumstances to make it easier or more challenging.

Two children of the same age may have very different abilities. Some may need simpler tasks or extra support, while others are ready for more complex challenges.

Before assigning or working on chores with your child, please keep in mind the following:

• Motor skill level
• Attention span
• Sensory needs
• Confidence and experience

The goal is to provide a “just right” challenge — not too easy, not too overwhelming.

Tips for Making Chores Developmentally Meaningful

As you begin helping kids with different chores or skill-building activities around your home, it’s important to keep a few things in mind.

A few tips to get you started include the following:

Start small and build gradually: Introduce simple tasks and increase complexity as skills improve.

Break tasks into steps: This helps children learn sequencing and reduces frustration.

Use visual or physical cues: Demonstrate movements instead of relying only on verbal instructions.

Focus on effort, not perfection: The learning happens in the process, not the outcome.

Incorporate variety: Different chores target different skills. Rotate tasks to support overall development.

Keep it consistent but flexible: Routine builds habits, but flexibility ensures tasks remain appropriate.

As you work with your child, remember to adjust for success by doing the following:

• Make tasks easier by reducing weight, shortening duration, simplifying steps
• Make tasks harder by adding resistance, increase precision, introduce multi-step directions

The Bigger Picture

Chores are not just about keeping a tidy home. They are powerful tools for helping children develop the motor, sensory, and cognitive skills they need for life.

When approached intentionally, these everyday activities will provide your child important foundational tools that will help learning come naturally without them having to work so hard later.

Helping kids participate in activities that support these foundational learning areas will do the following:

• Strengthen the body
• Organize the brain
• Support learning
• Build independence
• Foster connection between the right and left hemispheres of the brain for higher learning concepts

By shifting the perspective from “getting help” to “building skills,” chores become one of the most natural and effective ways to support a child’s development.

And the best part? These opportunities are already built into your daily routine — you just have to use them.

Reference Materials

Denysschen, M., Doe-Asinyo, R. X., Coetzee, D., du Plessis, W., Bonney, E., & Smits-Engelsman, B. (2026). What motor skills do children perceive as important? A child-centred exploration using the motor coordination questionnaire. Child: Care, Health and Development. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.70230

Palmer, K. K., Cox, E. R., Scott-Andrews, K. Q., & Robinson, L. E. (2022). Structured observations of child behaviors during a mastery-motivational climate motor skill intervention: An exploratory study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(23), 15484. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315484

---

Integrated Learning Strategies is a Utah-based center dedicated to helping mainstream children and children with learning challenges achieve academic success. Our services provide kids with non-traditional tutoring programs within the Davis County, Kaysville, Layton, Syracuse, Farmington, and Centerville areas. Areas to find Integrated Learning Strategies include: Reading tutors in Kaysville, Math tutors in Kaysville, Common Core Tutors in Kaysville, Tutors in Utah, Utah Tutoring Programs