School is out for summer and the kids are likely sitting around the house watching television, glued to their electronics, or begging to go to the beach every day. While summer certainly is a time for fun, it’s important to keep kids in the routine of learning responsibility. I’ve partnered with BusyKid to share ideas and information on summer chores for kids. As always, opinions are my own.
There are a number of chores that your kids can do, depending on their ages. My kids are older, so they can help with many of the household chores like laundry, taking out the trash, feeding the pets and picking up the house. I also get them to help in my gardens from time to time, though that always seems to cost me a bit extra – ha!
We use the BusyKid app to keep track of and pay for chores. It’s great because the kids can use their earnings to buy gift cards or fractional shares of real stock through BusyKid’s partnership with stockpile. They can choose to donate their earnings to numerous partner charities and you can also add a BusyKid Spend Card, which is a rechargeable Debit Card, for just $5 per year. That way they can purchase things wherever they want to, as long as it’s parent approved of course.
BusyKid allows kids to build work ethic, which is necessary in this day and age. And, if a child goes above and beyond on their chores, parents can choose to offer a bonus too. Who doesn’t like bonus pay? Beyond all of that,?BusyKid also helps to teach kids how to manage money, since many are not taught how to elsewhere. In fact, you should check out this article I wrote last year on how to get past the lack of financial education in schools.
First 30 days free
You can try BusyKid risk free for free for the first 30 days. After your trial, you can continue on for just $14.95 a year, which is good for the entire family. To date, BusyKid has produced these amazing results:
- 200,000+ completed chores
- $91,000 paid in bonuses
- $101,000 allowances earned
- $33,000 loaded on BusyKid spend cards
- $14,700 invested in stock
Why are summer chores for kids a good idea?
Chores are beneficial in many ways. They help to teach kids how to be responsible, while lessening your workload and 89% of parents say that tying allowance to chores is good training for the real world. With many families running a 2 working parent household, having kids help out can certainly lead to more family time! What’s shocking to me is that 90% of parents said they benefited from doing chores while they were growing up, but only 55% of them have their kids doing chores, according to a recent survey from BusyKid.
Chores can also help your kids to be more active. This digital world surely hasn’t helped keep kids active because statistics show that the percentage of physically children has dropped to under 25%, which is the biggest drop ion 5 years, according to new data. Summer is the laziest time of year for kids, so it;s the perfect time to start chores, while getting those kids active and earning money. Creating a schedule for chores can help to keep kids busy, active and productive, while learning how to be responsible.
You should also check out How to keep your kids busy and earning money this summer, for some ideas on how they can help out and earn some money.