How to gain your children's cooperation in performing chores

EXCELLENT tips and advice!

Also being consistent is the KEY!

Great tips. Now what do you do with teenagers who are bigger than you and "don't care" if you ground them?

These are all excellent tips. I have been using them for some time and they work very well

I have also noticed that if you give them a time frame it helps, too. Otherwise they can take all day to do something simple. Because she gets distracted easily we set 2 time goals to help motivate her to stay on task. We use a point system and she is rewarded with extra point for meeting the first time goal. A single point for meeting the second and if she totally misses the second one she is given no points.

It also helps if you set your own expectations correctly based on the task and the child. If it really bugs you that they don't make a bed so a quarter can bounce off it, you might want to figure out why that bothers you. They will never do it EXACTLY the way you want it at first. Take the victory of getting them to make the bed and work your way up from there.

To go along with the praise tip, I would add - sandwich your critique/suggestions between praise or positive comments and it is easier to swallow.

A good thing to remember is to slow down when you can and have your toddler or preschool aged child help you.
I know they make a bigger mess then help, but the skills they learn at this age when they are willing to help, will make them MUCH better helpers later on.

Good things to have the kids help with are
dusting
laundry sorting/folding
picking up their areas
sweeping
sorting dirty clothes
sorting out broken and old toys
making beds

There are tons of things your children would LOVE to help you do, make sure to let them have a chance to learn to do it the right way.

I taught my kids from a very young age to help out. My trick was to split the chores -- one collected the garbage from the house and put it in the cans, the other took the cans to the curb, and back after emptied. As for putting away dry dishes, I just scheduled it "day after day", i.e., one did it M-W-F, the other Tu-Th-Sa, and I sold them on it by doing Sunday myself. Same with vacuuming, except it was every other week. Structure makes it simple for them; they can't argue with it, and it becomes habit.