Life Skills To Start Teaching Your Kids At An Early Age
Too many kids grow up without basic life skills that all humans will require throughout their lifetime. Most kids don’t learn how to handle real-world situations until they’re in high school, not because they don’t want to but because parents think its more convenient and easier to just get it done.
It’s never too early to start handing down valuable lessons to your kids, find below 8 life skills you can introduce to your children as soon as possible.
1. Decision Making Skills
Making good decisions is a life skill every child should begin learning at a young age.
Begin with basic decisions like chocolate versus vanilla ice cream, blue socks or white socks, playing trains or playing cars. When kids reach elementary school age they can begin learning about the rewards of good decisions and the consequences of bad decisions.
2. Health And Hygiene
Your kids are never too young to begin learning about health and hygiene. Help your kids to form healthy habits including handwashing and
3. Time Management
Every parent knows how important time management is to keep your family on track. But it’s also important for kids to start learning time management lessons now. keeping to a schedule help make your days easier, learning this life skill also helps them become masters of time so they can do everything from get up on schedule to someday getting to work on time.
READ ALSO: Six Tips On Raising Money Smart Kids
4. How To Cook
Even the youngest children can learn how to prepare a meal in the kitchen. We’re not talking about a five-course dinner, of course, but you can teach preschoolers how to fix a sandwich and elementary school kids can be taught how to use the microwave. And from tots to teens, your kids can be your sous chefs when it comes time for you to cook.
5. Money Management
Exposing children to money sets the groundwork for financial literacy in the same way that reading out loud to them sets the groundwork for literacy.
Teach your kids effective money management so they can learn how to save, spend wisely, make change, and understand that writing a check or using a credit card isn’t free money.
6. Cleaning
Sometimes it’s easier for parents to do all of the housekeeping themselves. It’s a missed opportunity for us to teach our kids how to keep the house clean, which they’ll eventually need to know when they leave for college and someday have a house of their own to take care of.
Start with age-appropriate chore charts that include learning how to make the bed, empty the dishwasher and dust.
READ ALSO: 10 Practical Chores For Your Toddler
7. Organization Skills
Kids love to help around the house and there’s always light maintenance that they can pitch in to do. Easy tasks include showing them how to sort the laundry or bag up the trash. Older children can learn how to change a light bulb, fold clothes and organize the cabinets.
8. Getting Ready
Kids can learn how to get ready on their own at an early age. Let them pick out the clothes they’ll wear the next day before they go to bed. Choose an alarm clock that’s easy for them to set.