Home improvement is a concept generally limited to adults: power saws and drills, for obvious reasons, just aren’t suitable for children, at least not children who want to keep all of their fingers. Nonetheless, home improvement is still something kids can be involved in. Allowing your kids to assist you with certain activities, or allowing them to perform easy tasks on their own, is a great way to help your kids feel included. It’s also a great way to get things done around your house at a more expedited rate. The following is a list of home improvement tasks that are typically kid-friendly.
Painting: Kids love to paint: they paint with paintbrushes, they paint with their fingers, they paint by simply splattering colors all over the place. Why not put their love for painting to use by having them help paint the house, the garage, or the backyard fence. The higher areas and the ones that require a steady hand might be off-limits, but the larger ones are perfect for a child’s touch. You might have to perform some touch-up work after they’re done, but your kids will help you get at least part of the painting out of the way.
Cleaning the Garage: For those of you with kids, the concept of a garage used to store tools, cars, and garden materials goes down the driveway, and into the gutter: your garage is more likely stored with bikes, toys, and sporting goods. Ask your kids to go through their items and throw away the ones they no longer want or no longer use. Then have them store their things neatly, and sweep out any leaves, dirt, or gravel. Since most of the things filling up your garage belong to your kids, it’s only fair that the chore of cleaning the garage belongs to them as well.
Mowing the Lawn: Young kids really have no business mowing the lawn, unless the lawnmower they use is one that blows bubbles. Older kids, however, are more than capable of mowing. A task that is fairly simple, mowing the lawn is a great way to get your kids outside in the form of a weekly or biweekly chore. You might have to start the lawnmower for them (those things can be tricky) but after that, your kids just might find that mowing the lawn is kind of fun that a home improvement activity that totally kicks grass.
Cleaning up the Yard: The dog that learns how to clean up his own poop will never see the inside of a pound. Until that happens, humans – the superior species – are left doing the dirty work. Your kids might not be completely elated with their assignment of doodie duty, but, chances are, they are the ones who wanted a dog, so they can help take care of one.
Pulling Weeds: Pulling weeds might not be as fun as a game of tag or a day at the amusement park, but it’s an activity that is safe, easy, and kid-friendly. With a pair of gloves and a bucket to put the discarded shrubs, pulling weeds can easily be done by school-aged children (those really short will hardly even have to bend over). To make it more exciting, try having a contest and seeing who can pull the most weeds in a certain amount of time. You might be surprised how much your kids love any kind of competition among siblings.
Getting your kids involved in home improvement will help them appreciate the concept of hard work. And, as this creates fewer chores for you to perform, it will help you appreciate the concept of reproduction.
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