SproutChores

Chore Charts by Age

By Andrew — dad of four (ages 9–18)

Illustration of children of different ages doing chores

A two-year-old who puts away one toy and a sixteen-year-old who runs the dishwasher without being asked are doing the same thing at heart: contributing to the family. The job on the chart just looks completely different. That's why a single chart almost never fits a whole house. We're Andrew and our family at SproutChores, raising four kids spanning ages nine to eighteen, and over the years we've also fostered younger children for short stretches. We've watched expectations stretch and shift at every stage, and we built this page as the starting line. Pick your child's age below and you'll land on a chart and a set of jobs that actually fit where they are right now. Before you do, here's how we think about matching chores to age, and how to choose a starting point that sets your child up to succeed instead of fail.

Find a chore chart for your child's age

Pick an age to open a free, age-appropriate printable chart and generator:

Or build one right now

Prefer to jump straight in? Set the age, tweak the chores, and print — no sign-up.

Ages 2–17 supported
My Chore Chart (ages 6-7)
Chore MonTueWedThuFriSatSun Remove
Make the bed
Set the table
Feed a pet
Tidy bedroom
Water the plants
Sort laundry by color
Pick a suggestion or type your own — Enter adds it to the chart.

Tip: choose Landscape in the print dialog for the best fit.

Print in landscape for the best fit. A few reminders from our family to yours: do it together the first few times, keep the chart somewhere everyone can see it, and reward steady effort over a perfect job. — The SproutChores family

How chores grow from toddler to teen

The shape of a chore changes completely as kids get older, even when the underlying idea stays the same. With our littlest ones, the whole point was self-care and copying us: getting dressed, brushing teeth side by side, picking up after their own mess. We never graded the work. A toddler 'helping' with the vacuum for a couple of minutes isn't cleaning the floor, it's learning that this is something our family does together. By the early grade-school years, the jobs become real and the bar quietly rises, dishes, taking out the trash, lending a hand with cooking, outdoor tasks. We stop redoing everything behind them and start expecting it done, and done without a string of reminders. By the teen years it shifts again. Around here, the printed family chart mostly retires once kids hit their mid-teens, because a wall chart stops being realistic for someone with a job, a social life, and their own schedule. We move to an agreement that works more like real life: tasks asked for in advance, tied to a monthly arrangement, with follow-through over the whole month being what matters rather than a checkbox on a single afternoon. The thread running through all of it is simple. We don't see chores as a way to get the housework done. We see them as rehearsal for being a capable adult. The unloaded dishwasher was never really the goal.

Picking the right starting point

When parents tell us a chart 'didn't work,' the problem is usually that it was aimed at the child they pictured rather than the child in front of them. The honest starting point is wherever your kid actually is. If a younger child has never had a single recurring job, don't open with a packed weekly grid, start with one or two things they can genuinely own and build from there. If an older child has been coasting, you can ask for more, but expect a stretch of resistance before it settles into routine. Two things helped us more than any clever chart. First, expectations should rise with proficiency, not with the calendar. A nine-year-old in our house now collects every wastebasket in the place and hauls the trash out on his own, unsupervised. He didn't wake up able to do that, it came from years of slowly handing him more as he showed he could carry it. Second, build a system that survives real life. The charts that collapse are the ones that demand perfection, then crack the first week a holiday or a busy stretch knocks the routine sideways. A good system is easy to pick back up after it falls apart, because it always falls apart eventually. So when you choose an age below, treat the result as a sensible default, not a verdict. Slide up or down until it matches your specific kid.

The chart is for you, not a bribe for them

This is the piece we feel most strongly about, and it runs through everything else on the page. The chart is a tracking tool for parents. It's how we see, at a glance, how each kid is doing and where one of them might need us to step in, not a machine for getting children to behave. The motivation isn't supposed to live on the chart. It comes from the plain expectation that everyone here pitches in, because that's what being part of a family means. So we keep rewards and screen time off in their own lane. Screens getting pulled is a consequence for behavior in our house, not a paycheck kids earn by doing chores, and we don't make our children work to buy back time or fun. Allowance does exist, but it isn't priced out task by task, and a perfect chart full of checkmarks doesn't automatically cash out. What earns it is the bigger picture: doing the work well, staying consistent, and the attitude they bring to it. Fostering younger kids drove this home for us in a way I didn't expect. The children who arrived with no predictable rhythm calmed down not because we dangled prizes, but because the structure itself made them feel safe enough to stop fighting it. A great deal of what looks like a discipline problem is really a child who doesn't yet know what comes next. A steady routine answers that question. A reward chart usually doesn't.

Frequently asked questions

What chores are appropriate by age?
As a rough ladder: toddlers and preschoolers focus on self-care and copying you, dressing themselves, brushing teeth, picking up their own messes. Early grade-schoolers can take on real recurring jobs like clearing dishes, trash, and simple cooking help. Older kids handle more independent and outdoor work, and teens shift toward adult-style responsibilities. The exact list matters less than the principle: hand over a bit more as your child proves they can carry it, and pick your child's age above for a chart built around that stage.
Should I pay kids for chores at every age?
We don't pay per task at any age, because that turns family contribution into a transaction. In our house allowance is real, but it's gated on the whole picture, quality of work, consistency, and attitude, not earned chore by chore. The expectation that everyone contributes is the motivation; the money sits separate from it. We also keep rewards and screen time out of the chore equation entirely rather than using them as bribes.
How do I pick the right starting chore chart for my child's age?
Start with where your child actually is, not where you wish they were. If they've never had a recurring job, begin with one or two they can genuinely own and add more as they get proficient, regardless of their exact age. Use the age picker above to get a sensible default, then adjust up or down to fit your specific kid. And build it to survive real life: the charts that last are the ones easy to restart after a busy week or holiday throws things off.
A cartoon illustration of the SproutChores family — two parents and their four kids

About the author

I'm Andrew, and along with my wife I'm one half of the SproutChores family. We're raising four kids — ages 9 to 18 — and we've run chore charts at home for more than 15 years, through every stage from toddler to teen.

As foster parents, we've also seen first-hand how much a consistent routine helps a child settle in, build trust, and learn to self-regulate. Everything on this site comes from what's actually worked (and plenty that hasn't) in our own home.

Between us we bring a Marine Corps background, years of homeschooling, foster care, and a big blended family — so the advice here has been tested across a lot of different kids and seasons, not just one tidy household.