Click here to read Chore List with Dominoes & Numbers on Hands On As We Grow®
This activity puts a spin on a boring chore list and makes it fun and even sneaks in learning!
As a kid, I remember doing chores… and loving them!
My mom always made them fun to do. She’d make list of the chores to be done and number them. We’d call a number and that’s the chore we’d do next. My mom tells me now that she snuck in fun things too, like watch one cartoon, but I honestly don’t remember that part. I remember thinking it was fun to dust the house because I chose to do it!
I started doing this with the boys, with a very simple, task by task, list. I include things like: “Pick up and put away the wood blocks” “Pick up the farm toys and put them in the basket”. Small, broken down tasks instead of things like “Put away all the toys” so it wasn’t so daunting for a 5 and 3 year old to do.
Last week, I shared an activity for Henry to practice simple addition since he’s learning it at school, so I thought I’d throw in that element to do our list of chores.
I used a set of Dominoes that goes up to 12.
For George, I planned for him to pick one of the sides of the dominoes and just count the dots to find out his number and chore to do.
Henry was to add the two sides of the Domino together to find his number and chore to do.
So I made a list of 24 chores for the boys to do.
After making the chore list, I realized that only Henry would get the numbers 12-24, so I renumbered my list to make chores that will slightly more difficult to do to be the higher numbers. And 1-12 were easier chores that George could do.
The boys would draw a domino from the basket, add up or count their dots and find the number of the chore on the list. I’d then tell them what the chore is for them to do and they’d (mostly) happily do their chores!
Henry gets excited to get a lot of chores done when we make it a game and he thinks he’s beating George at the game!
More move and learn ideas from my co-hosts:
- Walk Giving Thanks to Nature at The Pleasantest Thing
- Freeze Dance Painting at Coffee Cups & Crayons
- Skate on Letters at Toddler Approved
- See all our Move & Learn Activities
I’d love to hear more ideas to conquer that chore list!
