For most kids, being outside and playing in the dirt is a great way to pass a few hours of time. To take advantage of these feelings, you might want to consider giving your kids some outdoor chores that will help to indulge their desire to get a little dirty, give them a chance to get some fresh air, and save you from having to take care of all this outdoor maintenance on your own.
To help you pick the right tasks for the right aged kids, here are three landscaping chores you can give your kids or teens.
Teens and Power Tools
In most situations, you’re going to want to save the big tasks that require the use of power tools for your teens to tackle. But before you let them do this for the first time, it’s vital that you give them proper training not only on how to use the tools safely, but also on how you prefer your landscaping or maintenance tasks to be finished.
According to Amy Morin, a contributor to Very Well Family, you teens need to be taught the safest ways to use tools like the lawn mower, weed whacker, rototiller, and any other power tools or equipment that you use to take care of your outdoor tasks. Additionally, you should give your teen a refresher course on using things like a leaf blower or snow blower as the seasons change, since they might have forgotten the finer points of your tutorial from the previous year.
Using Hand Tools
Before your kids are big enough to use these power tools or bigger pieces of equipment, there’s still plenty for them to do to help with the landscaping and maintenance around your home.
Generally, anything that requires a hand-held tool should be saved for your children in older elementary or junior high school. Angie’s List shares that this includes things like a garden hoe, clippers, or shears. This will help to keep your kids safe as well as keeping your garden safe from younger kids that might just be too anxious to clip or chop down anything they see.
Basic Cleaning and Maintenance
For your really little kids, their outdoor chores should focus more on basic cleaning and maintenance tasks. So if you have things that need to be gathered, like leaves or pinecones, or if your yard has become overgrown with weeds, Carrie Madormo, a contributor to Taste Of Home, shares that having your younger kids identify what needs to be found and then rounding them up can be a great chore for them.
If you’re wanting your kids to help more with the outdoor chores you have to do around your house, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you decide which tasks are going to be best for your kids to assist with.
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