In this week’s Keeping Kids Healthy column by UTMB Drs. Sally Robinson and Keith Bly: Chores are simple tasks that help build planning skills and teach basic life skills. These basic life skills will help your child for the rest of his or her life with such tasks as cleaning, cooking, doing laundry and household maintenance. The better the parents are able to teach these skills while the child is young, the more capable the child will be to do more complicated tasks later in life.