Allow me to be real with you for a moment: on a working farm, everyone needs to pull their weight. It doesn’t matter if they’re 2 or 102. There is something for every member of the household to contribute. Naturally, what that is will change as the kid ages and gains experience, and there is by no means a one-size-fits-all approach you can take. Young humans don’t come with instruction manuals for a reason, I’m afraid. Just remember to break the work up with plenty of fun, and it will all work out in the end.

Why Assign Chores to Kids

Kids growing up on a farm have a unique advantage over their peers: education. Unless they don’t take any part in the farming aspect. You can spend every day in a library, but you aren’t going to read unless you open a book. In order for kids to learn animal husbandry, butchering, gardening, and food preservation, they legitimately have to participate. In order to learn responsibility, they need to be responsible for something. No, it doesn’t always work out perfectly. Yes, your kids will mess up, make mistakes, lie to avoid work and consequences, probably create a disaster that you have to fix, and be better for all of it. Ask me how I know.

Regardless of everything that will go wrong, do it anyway. Give your kids something to do and take pride in. Instill a good work ethic within them. Teach them how to do what needs doing even when they’d rather do something else. They will grow into better adults.

If you’re looking for more chore ideas for inside the house, let me redirect you over to The Elliot Homestead.

How to get Kids to Actually DO Their Chores

First, don’t expect them to do a chore you wouldn’t do. Lead by example; don’t just be the boss. However, you’re still going to feel some pushback. No one enjoys hard work when there is no desire to do said hard work, and kids are still learning how to Person. Also this: “But Daaaaaad. None of my friends at school have to do chores!” How unfortunate for them; now go do your chores.

In our house, screen time is earned. Failure to do your assigned chores on time in the morning = no screens today. This has proven incredibly effective. For the things that are more “work” than “daily chore,” we include the kids in the weekly planning each Sunday. They are fully aware that on Wednesday, we’re going to spend a few hours in the garden. Come Wednesday morning, we hear a lot less complaining than if we wait until the day of to assign everyone a worklist. Also, giving them a say in the Plan at the beginning of the week tends to shut down the battle before it begins.

Don’t get me wrong, we still have to deal with the Don’t Wannas. Hell, even Will and I come down with a case of the Don’t Wannas every now and then, so we try to keep in mind that no one has to be happy about working. We let the kids complain as long as they keep it respectful and they power through the lack of motivation.

How to Determine if a Chore is Age-appropriate

Frankly, we don’t particularly care about whether a job is age-appropriate. Who does what is based on what each person is good at and has a desire to do. Let me explain.

We started farming on an extremely small scale in 2019. At the time, we had 9-year-old Ace during school breaks and 5-year-old Buck most of the year. In 2021, after we significantly scaled up production, Buck still had more responsibility than Ace did on the farm. Why? Because Buck had more experience. That constant exposure gave Buck access to knowledge Ace hadn’t been able to memorize yet. People learn through repetition. Even though Buck is 4 and a half years younger than Ace, he knew more about farming than Ace did.

Chores are assigned to our kids based on safety and ability. If a chore is unsafe and the child cannot physically or mentally complete it, that kid doesn’t do that chore. If a chore is unsafe, but the child is capable, we parents have to supervise but otherwise allow the munchkin to do their best. Finally, if a task is relatively safe and the kid is completely able to complete it, Will and I set it up so that the kid has the best chance of being successful on their own, and we simply do a bit of quality control and verification on the back end.

Farm Work for Infants

Going with you. That’s it. That’s the chore. When you go out to do some sort of farm work, take your tiny dictator with you. Chip and Bitty both went outside with us. If we were working on fences, we set them up nearby in a bouncer. If we were doing chores, they went into a carrier. If we were working in the garden, we set them on the ground where they could play in the dirt too. I may or may not have put my daughter in an empty feed bin at one point while I dealt with a chicken emergency. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Farm Work for Toddlers

You’d be surprised what a toddler can do if they’ve been watching you do it for the last year or two. At the time of writing this, Bitty and Chip are almost 3 and 4 respectively. Both gather eggs (yes, eggs are often broken, but they’re getting better). Both help fill feed buckets. Chip is able to use the scoop and we treat it like a counting and memory exercise. Bitty isn’t quite as coordinated, but she does her best.

All of these tasks should be done with you nearby.

• Turn the water hose on and off
• Hold the water hose to fill waterers
• Gather eggs
• Pull weeds
• Help start seeds
• Help with the harvest (gathering and carrying)
• Pick ripe vegetables that are easy to identify (like tomatoes and green beans)
• Fill jars when raw-packing vegetables (toddlers love putting things in other things)
• Help groom well-behaved horses and cows
• Guard the door to the chicken coop (toddlers also love bossing chickens around)
• Turn things on and off

Farm Work for Pre- and Gradeschoolers

This is the age-group Buck was in when we started farming. His first farm chore was to fill a single water bottle once per day and hang it back up on the outside of a rabbit’s cage. For the first few months, he was more than happy to do so and was very proud of his watering skill. Over time, though, the monotony drained his enjoyment, and it became a battle to get him to complete the task. We held firm with our expectations and encouraged him to motivate himself. He learned valuable lessons about work ethic and responsibility.

At this age, we would all go out and do chores together, but Will and I don’t watch the kids like a hawk while they complete their tasking.

• Fill and replace waterers
• Check small animals for obvious signs of injuries or illness
• Help plant the garden
• Help with the harvest (picking and storing)
• Help with food preservation (washing and processing produce, filling jars and trays)
• Groom well-behaved horses and cows
• Help milk
• Help catch and carry small animals
• Help feed

Farm work for Tweens

Buck is only 9 at the time of writing this post, but he is solidly in this category. He is responsible for one whole mobile chicken coop. It is his job to check on “his” birds each day: collect their eggs, keep them fed and watered, decide when they need to move, and monitor their health. When the chickens need something he is unable to provide, like moving their coop or medical care, he informs Will and I so that we can take care of it. Not only is he learning personal responsibility, but also how to make managerial decisions and effectively delegate tasks.

Supervision is likely unnecessary at this stage, but we strongly suggest checking their work once they say they finished.

• Take over full responsibility for the care of a set of animals
• Help with medical care
• Milk animals
• Muck stalls and clean coops
• Scrub waterers
• Help build fences
• Weed the garden
• Deal with garden pests
• Learn to drive the tractor
• Help train an animal (like a new milk cow or a herding dog)

Farm Work for Teens

The best way we found to assign work to a teen is to look at it as though he is an intern. The majority of his time should be learning. Build on all the information he’s already absorbed from helping with increasingly more complicated tasks, and teach him the whys behind the processes. An older teen should be able to run your entire farm for a few days if you are incapacitated.

• Feed animals
• Provide basic medical care
• Drive the tractor
• Organize the shop or feed room
• Harvest
• Preserve food
• Plan a garden space
• Take over full responsibility for a division of the farm

A division of the farm could be an entire pasture or all the rabbits. This is the step above your 12yo being responsible for one chicken coop. Now he can be responsible for all the chickens on the property. Remember he’s still learning and everyone makes mistakes. Share your knowledge with him and watch him grow.

An Interview with a Farm Kid

(Answers have been edited for clarity. I made the mistake of asking out loud while I typed instead of asking him to write his answers down. If you have a 9yo, you can imagine the rambling run-on sentences this started as.)

Buck, what do you think of doing chores on the farm?

“For like a city kid, it might be boring, but for someone willing and determined to have a farm or a garden, it is a lot of work, and you gotta be prepared for it.”

Do you think kids should have chores on a farm?

“Yes, but the chores have to be easy enough for a kid. An adult chore is like carrying pig feed bags, but a kid chore is like mine: carrying a water bucket or just doing waters for the farm. Adult farm work is more building and making sure the animals are healthy, but a kid’s part of the farm is more of helping the animals than making sure they’re healthy and all that.”

Are there any chores you think are bad for kids to do?

“Having to walk a sick horse because you might get hurt doing it or having to wire a fence because you might get hurt. The horses can get spooked so you gotta make sure everything around you is safe before you deal with a horse. The age group under 4 isn’t good for real farm work, but little kids can still help a family member do their chores.”