9 Life Skills To Teach Kids At Home

9 Life Skills To Teach Kids At Home
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Missing out on practical life skills for kids is very easy in this high-tech world: whether it is reading a map, doing laundry, or handwriting a letter. A study found that 58% of kids age 3-5 in the US can navigate smartphones, but less than one out of 6 kids can make their own breakfast. 

Start teaching your kids these life skill lessons for their development and put your kids on the path of self-dependent.

Top 10 Essential Like Skills List For Kids Development

1. Doing the Laundry

Teens head to college without any clue on how to do the laundry. Don’t let your kids grow up like that.

Start teaching your kids life skills from the age of 6. This is an important type of life skills activities. 

When you do the laundries, ask the kids to stand by your side and walk them through the entire process-how to add detergent, what settings to choose, and how does the machine start.

PRO TIP

Don’t aim for perfection at this age, instead teach them how to get a certain work is done.

2. Planting a Seedling

Lots of pre-schools teach kids how to plant seeds, but they do not teach how to transfer the sprouts into the garden. Practice these easy steps with your kids:

A white kid in blue strip shirt planting seeds
  •  Ask the kids to dig a hole that’s a bit larger than the size of the container the plant is in.
  • After removing the plant from the pot, place the plant in the hole, and ask the kid to push the soil around it delicately and pat it down.
  • Ask your kid to water the plant with a gentle stream.
  • By the time your kids will turn 6 or 7,  they will be able to remove a seedling themselves. 

These small life skill lessons help the kids in their development and understand the value of small things in life.

3. Wrapping a Gift

Children love to give gifts, why not teach them how to wrap one and make it more fun and satisfying for them?

Preschoolers can help in cutting the paper and sticking a tape while a kindergarten kid can accompany you in removing the price tag, searching the right sized box, and wrapping a gift paper to check the size before cutting it.

4. Writing a Letter

Toddlers can dictate what they want to write in the letter to a family member and attach a stamp and come with you to drop it in the mailbox.

Ask your kid to make a cute drawing on the backside of the letter.

If your kid is older, teach him to write address on the envelope and the five main parts of the letter: date, greetings, main body, closing part, and the signature part.

You can also help your kids with holiday cards and find them a pen pal. This small life skills can be very beneficial for your kids in their growing age.

5. Preparing a Simple Meal

Ask your kids to help with making meals. Assign them small jobs suitable for their age.

Don’t get angry if something spills. Make easy DIY breakfast with your kids like yogurt with fruit.

If your kids are older than five years, you can make sandwiches and smoothies.

A 7-8-year-old can try toaster-ovens or make salads by cutting tomatoes, dumping croutons,c carrots, and cucumbers.

By, age ten, your child will be able to use stovetop with close supervision and make himself a grilled cheese sandwich.

Focus on teaching your safety, along with practice. Who knows your child may become the next Masterchef junior.

This type of life skill activity will help the kids to make their own food in times when you are away from home after they grow up a little.

They will not rely on others to make them a full day meal.

6. Navigating

Cartoon of a father teaching his kids basic life skill to find the way to home when lost.

Have you ever got lost while following a GPS voice direction, then you know why it is important to be able to read a map?

Such life skill developments are essential for kids as well to teach them navigation.

jfffjhfhjfsdfsjgfjhsdgfdgfdjgfjhsgfjhdgfjdgfjgasaType of life skill activities you can try to teach your kids navigation:

HUNT FOR TREASURE. Teaching your kid how to read a normal map will be very boring unless you ask them to do a treasure hunt.

Hide toys, chocolates in your house and yard, and draw an easy map with a sketch to mark the location of the treasure.

Tell your 3-4-year-old kid how different objects on the map relates to the ones in the house.

HAVE HER LEAD THE WAY. The theme park and zoo maps are very easy and colorful. Ask your child to navigate the way, and if your kid is a little older, challenge her to reach from point A to B.

TAKE UP GEOCACHING. Kids age five and above, love to play treasure hunt games using GPS tracking to find trinkets. Try geocaching.com.

7. Treating a Wound

Teaching this basic life skill to your kids at a young age is very important. Teach your kids not to freak put when they see blood.

Distract him from the pain by giving a game plan; this will come in handy when you are not around them to make them feel better by kissing his boo-boos.

If your kid is a little older, teach them how to stop bleeding and clean the cut using a cotton pas and water, apply an antibiotic, and then cover it with a bandage. 

8. Cleaning the Bathroom

Teach your kids to keep the bathroom clean. Keeps sponges at a reachable place to wipe any toothpaste blob off the sink. Teach your kids about toilet duties.

A school-age kid can clean the seat, lid, and base using a disinfectant wipe. Teach them to always wash their hand thoroughly after. You can ask big kids to scrub the bowl with non-toxic cleaners. 

9. Comparison Shopping

Teach your kids the life skills of being a smart consumer. Follow this approach: 

  • EXPLAIN AS YOU GO. When you go out shopping, keep talking about prices and why you choose a particular product with your kids. Like you are buying a certain product because it’s cheap but not the other because it is too expensive.
  • LET YOUR KID PAY SOMETIMES. You can give your kid a small allowance and then tell him what he has to purchase with the money. Do not buy unnecessary items when shopping with kids; this will make them savvy shoppers.
  • PLAY THE GROCERY GAME. Challenge your kids to find the cheapest paper towels when you go for shopping the supermarket or ketchup.

Final words by Newsdone

Different types of life lesson skills for kids play different roles in the growing years. Life skills help in making your kids self-dependent. Kids pick up things very quickly at a young age. You would want your kids to grow up into a responsible and independent adult. Take some time in your everyday life and involve your kids in doing easy household and other works.

Shubhrata Choudhary