My mom trained us early, so we know housework since we were in grade school. I’m actually grateful that she instilled in us the value of hard work, discipline, patience and independence. When I moved out of the house after college, I didn’t find it hard to adjust since I knew already how to do laundry, clean the house, cook simple meals..
Know how my mom accomplished this? We were never allowed to be brats, we had to clean our own clutter, our own rooms, make up our own beds, fold and put used clothes in hampers, and a lot of simple, little things. When we were in high school already, every year she’d send the maids on vacation for a month and both me and my sister would take turns with chores around the house.
Since I am now a mom to a 5 year old, I’m starting to train her how to be involved and yet still have fun while doing little chores. I’m saying it should be fun too coz I don’t want her to end up resenting me. 
Here’s some tips from my own experience, my mom’s advices and some hints from friends.
1. Start early and make it a daily habit and rotate tasks – It’s really best to teach kids about cleanliness at an early age. When you are consistent, cleaning up will become more like a habit and less of a chore. My daughter now knows how to keep her clutter after playing. I gave her a couple of big plastic boxes for her toys storage and now she religiously puts back all her stuff after taking it all out. It takes time, but ultimately it would be rewarding! If you have several kids, rotate tasks so they can learn and master all tasks.
2. Be clear and specific with your task instructions. – Were teaching toddlers so task would best understood if explained in a specific manner. A demo would ease things up.
3. Make it FUN. – play pretend or play some music, do dialogue while working.. be creative. Make chores feel like playing. My daughter just loves talking and we play pretend like were both working as cleaners and its a lot fun! Setting up the table have also now become more like counting lessons for her too..
4. Provide positive reinforcement, or points or other rewards. – praise your child for a job well done. These actually motivates them to keep doing better. You can give out rewards too, but make sure if reward is monetary, it must go with lessons on saving and reward should depend on age and needs of your child. In our case, a completed task can earn her a couple of minutes on TV or a couple more token at the arcade or pancakes for breakfast…
5. Assign tasks depending on their personality – if the chore appeals to them it wouldn’t be hard to get them to complete it.
6. Bonding – time – cleaning up, making the bed, folding clothes, baking are my time to bond with my daughter. Watering plants or whatever garden stuff is my husband’s bonding territory with her.
7. Set an example and don’t bug them – Kids are more inclined to help if they can see you doing chores around the house. And don’t bug them or nag them, the more you nag, the more they would not do it. I know this coz I used to resist a lot when my mom nags me.
8. Get them their own cleaning and storage tools – It would seem more real to them and besides their hands are smaller so it would be easier for them to grasp smaller dusters, dust pans or brooms.
9. Never scream at them. – keep your cool. I’ve learned this the hard way. Screaming might get you what you want but it would only teach your child to scream back when they want something..
10. Do chores together. – great family bonding time. I don’t know but we certainly feel closer whenever we spend time together even just cleaning the backyard..
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