A while back, I posted some parenting tips about chore ideas for kids - 20 ideas in fact. Now that the school year has started, I need to get more organized as far as household chores go, or I will end up doing all of the work myself.

My children are busy little people - much busier than I was at their ages. Between school, homework, and activities they have precious little time to spare. So, while I do not want to burden them down with added work, I think the responsibilities of maintaining a home offer valuable life lessons that kids need to learn.

The key is to offer up manageable tasks. A few chores that I have delegated to the kids are

• Bringing their dirty laundry to the laundry room and putting away their, clean, folded clothes.
• Setting the dinner table - everything from  napkins to cups filled with milk or water.
• Clearing the table.
• Cleaning up the playroom.
• Taking out the garbage.
• Unloading the dishwasher on occasion - when they happen to have a little extra time in the morning.

The weekends are a different story because they are so unstructured. As a family, we often tackle a different area of the house or the yard as a group.

Now don’t get me wrong, this post makes us sound a bit like the Brady Bunch minus Alice. But I assure you, there is a fair amount of complaining and bickering going on - it just wouldn’t be normal any other way. “How come he gets to do that?”, “How come I have to put that away when I didn’t take it out” - and many more similar outbursts are common.

What chore ideas for kids do you have now that the school year has begun? I would love to hear them!

Now that the school year is in full swing, our days are busier than ever. Between school itself, homework, after school activities, and instrument practice, little time is left for anything else - and certainly not chores!

ButI need the kids to make home a priority as well. The whole family benefits when the kids clean up after themselves and help with general upkeep.

Here is a list of 20 chores kids can do even when time is tight.

1. Take the trash out.
2. Collect trash from all household wastebaskets.
3. Make their beds.
4. Refill handsoap pumps in bathrooms.
5. Collect bath and hand towels for laundry and put fresh ones out.
6. Replenish Dixie cup, tissue, or toilet paper supplies in bathrooms.
7. Set the table.
8. Clear the table.
9. Put toys away in playroom.
10. Organize their bookshelves.
11. Run the vaccuum.
12. Clean out 1 drawer or area.
13. Dust their room.
14. Clean stuff out of the car (wrappers, books, toys, etc.)
15. Get lunches or snacks ready for the next day.
16. Pull weeds.
17. Clean fingerprints off of doors/mirrors/walls.
18. Put their own clean laundry away.
19. Bring dirty laundry to laundry room.
20. Create their own “To-Do” list for tomorrow.