I want to specify that mundane might be super mundane. My kids (1,5 years) absolutely love 1. emptying washing machine 2. emptying laundry 3. picking up toys to a box when cleaning 4. peeling potatoes with me. They will give me potatoes, I peel them, and they'll taste the raw potatoes and put them to a container.
This surely takes more time than doing the tasks alone, but this way is much more fun.
One thing I rarely see mentioned but I have found true for both of my boys: give them a bucket full of around 50 of anything and they will find 100 uses for it: currency, counting tool, treasures to hide and find, etc. Latest version of this in our house is a small box of around 30 pencil erasers (the kind that attach to the back of a pencil) which are perfectly small, cheap and safe.
School calendar is an annoyance. But I managed until now to have no fixed activity for the kids on week-ends, and we avoid birthdays (another annoyance), so when we want to go to second-hand furniture markets, we just fill a bag with 2 diapers, one plastic spoon and go. They'll eat what we find there, and enjoy the furnitures.
For pre-reading kids, activities with big-pretty icons for things like:
putting toys away
brushing teeth
etc.
Allows them to check items off to give kids good habits. Gamify the achievements.
This exists for the fridge, but doing it on mobile devices makes it look cooler.
One thing I've seen some parents do for this is choosing core chores that they have to do because they also live in the house (i.e. tidying, trash, dishes, etc) and then having elective chores that pay (i.e. yard care, mopping the floors, organizing, deep cleaning, etc)
I also feel like the 'ol lemonade stand idea is a great lesson. of course it can be anything but something they can make and try and sell.
I just asked my daughter why it's important to clean up her toys. She said it's a good thing to do. I asked her why it's a good thing to do. She said it's a good idea to clean up before nap time so that there isn't stuff all over the floor for people to trip on and get owies.
3) Basic finance - for which I recommend a no chore allowance. Make them buy all non essentials with allowance. Oh we are at a fair, you want a lemonade? Sure, with your money. Water I will give (buy) for free. Total cost is less than the cost of your 23 year old child calling and saying they need rent money or they are being thrown out. Make the amount age based, and pay them once a month. We do ours on the last Friday of the month.
Pay for cleaning. This may work better or worse depending on the age of your kids... But vacuuming, cleaning surfaces, changing beds, etc. can be ousourced and saves LOTS of time.
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