Chores for 4 Year Olds

A list of age appropriate chores for 4 year olds with free printable chore chart templates

Chore List for 4-Year-Old

What are appropriate chores for a 4-year-old?

A four-year-old wants to do it themselves, wants to do it now, and will be genuinely offended if you do it for them. That stubbornness is the whole opportunity, and it does not last, so it is worth using while you have it.

At this age a chore is really a set of hands learning to work. Carrying something without dropping it, sorting one thing from another, wiping in the right direction, pouring without flooding the counter. That is why the list below is grouped by the movement rather than by the room. Pick jobs that match what your child’s hands can already almost do, and they will throw themselves at it.

One practical note: a four-year-old cannot read. A chore chart at this age has to be pictures, with no words at all, or it is just a piece of paper you end up reading aloud every morning.

Carrying and Fetching Jobs

• Bring you the thing you name, then bring it back where it came from
• Carry their plate to the counter using both hands
• Take a small stack of napkins over to the table
• Put their cup in the sink
• Fetch a diaper or the wipes for a younger sibling
• Carry their own bag in from the car
• Bring the mail from the front door to the kitchen
• Take their dirty clothes to the laundry room
• Put a book back in the basket
• Carry a fresh toilet roll to the bathroom

Sorting and Matching Jobs

• Put the toys into the bin they belong in
• Match the lids to the plastic containers
• Pair the socks by color, even if the sizes end up wrong
• Put the spoons in their slot in the cutlery drawer
• Line the shoes up in twos by the door
• Put the white clothes in one pile and the colored ones in another
• Split the recycling into paper and cans

Wiping and Scrubbing Jobs

• Wipe a low table with a damp cloth
• Mop up their own spill
• Dust the legs of the chairs
• Scrub the potatoes with a vegetable brush
• Wipe the handprints off the fridge door
• Clean their own booster seat tray
• Wipe down the step stool in the bathroom

Pouring and Scooping Jobs

• Pour their own water from a small jug
• Scoop the dog food out of the bag and into the dish
• Tip flour you have already measured into the mixing bowl
• Scoop birdseed into the feeder
• Squirt the houseplants with a spray bottle
• Spoon fruit into their own bowl
• Hold the pet’s bowl under the tap while you run the water

Two-Step Jobs

Four is roughly when a child can hold two instructions in their head at once, which is a bigger milestone than it sounds. These are worth practicing on purpose:

• Take your plate to the sink, then wash your hands
• Put the blocks in the box, then close the lid
• Put your pajamas under the pillow, then get dressed
• Pick the toys up off the floor, then choose a book
• Put your shoes away, then hang up your coat

Jobs That Are Really Just Play

These are worth doing anyway. Nobody is pretending they save you time:

• Sweeping with a child-size broom, which mostly relocates the dust
• Splashing a sponge over the car while you actually wash it
• Rinsing lettuce leaves in a bowl of water
• Stirring a bowl of pancake mix
• Pushing a toy vacuum along beside yours
• Digging a hole exactly where you point

At four, the help is not really help. A job takes longer with your child than without them, and you will often redo it later. That is fine, and it is worth saying out loud, because parents quietly conclude they are doing something wrong when the chore takes twice as long. You are not. You are buying the habit, and the habit is what pays.

One or two chores is plenty. Pin each one to a moment your child already knows, and let the standard be terrible. A badly wiped table your four-year-old wiped is worth more than a clean one they watched you wipe.

Chore Chart for 4-Year-Old

Each child develops at a different pace. Some kids might not be ready for some of these chores. If not, don’t push them. Check out our list of age-appropriate chores to find daily chores for kids that are more relevant.

This preschool chore chart has pictures so that your 4-year-old understands each chore on the list.

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Responsibility Chart

This responsibility chart lists a child’s daily responsibilities with an image next to each one since your four-year-old most probably cannot read yet.

In addition to the chores that a child is required or asked to do at home, children have responsibilities for their basic hygiene and their own personal responsibilities. For a four-year-old, responsibilities could include making their bed, putting toys away when they have finished playing, putting their dirty plates in the dishwasher, etc. Since they cannot read, this responsibility chart includes pictures to help them understand what they need to do. Take a photo of each task and add it to the chart. For example, if you want to add “tidy your room” to the chart then take a photo of them tidying their room. If you don’t want to bother taking photos and personalizing the chart then use photos from the gallery.

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How to Create a Chore Chart with Pictures

1. Click on the button above to open the chore chart app.
2. Select a chore chart with pictures (there are two options).
3. Change the border color if you prefer.
4. Click on each image to upload a photo of your child doing that chore or use a chore picture.
5. Edit the text.

If you want a chore chart for kids with text instead of chore pictures then select a version without pictures.

See chore chart and family chore chart