Five Ways for Kids to Lend a Hand at Home

By Catherine Newman

When parents have a lot on their plate, kids can help! Here are five simple ways to lighten someone else’s load and feel good about being your best self.

five-ways-kids-help-home — Illustration © Debbie Fong, excerpted from *How to Be a Person*

Are your parents kind of . . . freaking out? We thought so. You can help! Seriously. You can really, really, actually help. While you’re home from school — when you’re not doing your schoolwork, obviously — you can learn new skills to make your home a happier place to be! Caretaking skills, cleaning skills, cooking skills, like some of the ones we’re showing you here.

Plus, do you know what dopamine is? It’s a neurochemical your brain makes to make you feel happy. Some researchers have shown that when you perform basic important life-sustaining activities (like cooking, cleaning, and gardening), your brain rewards you with dopamine! And other researchers have suggested that when you volunteer to help, your brain, again, makes dopamine. In other words, a lot of the stuff we tend to think of as chores can be truly rewarding. One thing we know: asking “What can I do to help?” is a sure way to be your best self.

1. Help keep things clean.

2. Help prepare food.

3. Help with the dishes.

4. Help take care of the animals in the house.

5. Help everyone rest a little easier.

How to Be a Person

by Catherine Newman

For the kid who leaves a wet towel wadded up on the floor or forgets to put a new roll on the toilet-paper thingy, witty parenting writer and etiquette columnist Catherine Newman provides the ultimate guidebook of essential life skills for kids.

Jam-packed with tips, tricks, and skills—all illustrated in an irresistible graphic novel–style—this book shows kids just how easy it is to free themselves from parental nagging and become more dependable—and they’ll like themselves better, too! They’ll learn how to deal with dirty rooms, care for pets and cactuses, stick up for somebody, and fold a T-shirt. They’ll even get a crash course on using the kitchen (including how to turn a 33-cent package of ramen into dinner) and a boot camp for lending a hand outside the house (mowing, shoveling, and fixing something loose has never been easier). This handbook to becoming beyond helpful promises that every kid can be a valued and valuable member of the grown-up world.

$16.99

$22.99 CAD

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Catherine Newman

About the Author

Catherine Newman is the author of What Can I Say? and the award-winning bestseller How to Be a Person, as well as two parenting memoirs: Waiting for Birdy and Catastrophic Happiness, and a middle-grade novel, One Mixed-Up Night. She's also the co-author of Stitch Camp. Newman is the etiquette columnist for Real Simple magazine and the editor of the James Beard Award–winning kids’ cooking magazine ChopChop. A regular contributor to publications including the New York Times, Romper, Cup of Jo, and Grown & Flown, Newman lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, with her family. Visit her at catherinenewmanwriter.com.

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