In most houses with several children, chores settle into one of three shapes: the oldest does most of it, the youngest is quietly excused, or everyone does the same two jobs whatever their age. Lists of age-appropriate chores are easy to find. What they miss is the view across your own children that shows whether the work grows as they do.

Here you mark each child on a ruler at their age and hand them jobs from the band that fits. Their charts then stand in a row from youngest to oldest, so you can see the shape of the load before anyone argues about it.

Chores by age, band by band

The bands follow the American Academy of Pediatrics' list of age-appropriate chores, which groups school-age children at five to seven, eight to ten, and eleven to twelve. For the youngest band the page leans on Cleveland Clinic's advice for toddlers and preschoolers, which says a child is ready to pitch in once they can follow an instruction or two.

• Two to four: toys back in the basket, a plate and cup to the sink, books on a low shelf, watering plants, feeding the pet with you beside them.
• Five to seven: making the bed, setting and clearing the table, filling the pet's dish, sorting laundry, sweeping, emptying wastebaskets, packing a school lunch.
• Eight to ten: vacuuming a room, walking the dog, putting away their own clean clothes and the groceries, making a snack, helping with dinner.
• Eleven to twelve: cleaning the kitchen or the bathroom, changing the sheets, washing and folding laundry, washing the car, cooking a simple meal with an adult nearby, watching a younger sibling while you are home.
• Thirteen and up: whole jobs from start to finish, like mowing the lawn, shoveling the walk, cleaning up after dinner, cooking for the family, or a grocery run once they drive.

Children keep the jobs of the younger bands, too; a ten-year-old still makes the bed. Treat each band as a starting point, not a deadline. A careful six-year-old may walk the dog happily, and a distracted eleven-year-old may need the eight-to-ten list a while longer.

How the chart works

Tap a child's age on the ruler and a pencil mark appears with their name; up to four children fit. Pick a child and the panel opens on the jobs for their band: tap one, borrow from a younger band, or write your own. A job from a band above their age stands dashed in the lineup as a stretch, the kind you do side by side for a few weeks. Each chart stops at six jobs.

The lineup is the point. Every chart stands on the same floor with the youngest on the left, so the tops should step up as you read across. The reading underneath names what it sees, whether that is a load climbing with age, a dip where a younger child holds more than an older one, a child with nothing yet, or an older child whose jobs all suit someone much smaller. When the shape is off, it ends with a first step toward fixing it. When the shape looks right, print it: every job gets seven day boxes, and the skyline survives on paper.

What the research says, and what it doesn't

The best-known study followed nearly 10,000 American children from kindergarten. White, DeBoer and Scharf found that kids who did chores more often in kindergarten rated themselves more capable with schoolwork, friends and life in general by third grade, and that doing chores at any frequency went with better math scores. That is an association, built on parents' reports of how often chores happened. Families who hand out chores may differ in other ways, so the study cannot show that the chores made the difference.

Nothing in the research sets an ideal number of jobs for each age; the guidance only points in a direction. A University of Arkansas extension guide notes that older children can manage more complex tasks and more tasks overall, while younger ones need more guidance and fewer steps. The lineup follows that direction without pretending to measure effort. It counts jobs, not minutes, so a teenager's three big jobs can outweigh a seven-year-old's five small ones. You are the judge of that; the chart just puts the question where everyone can see it.

Making it stick

Add one new job at a time, especially for a child who has never had one, and praise the effort rather than the result; both come straight from the AAP's advice. Say what finished looks like: “books on the shelf and clothes in the hamper” works where “clean your room” does not.

If a teenager wants a say in their jobs and a link to pay, the chore chart for teens is built for that negotiation. To follow the week itself with the grown-ups included, use the family responsibility chart. For one child's week on the fridge, the printable chore chart is simpler.

When to use it

Set it up at the start of a school year, after a birthday, or in a week when one child seems to carry the house. After each birthday, step that child's age up a year and their panel opens on the next band.