Worried about how your children will fare on their own when the time comes to step into adulthood? Sweep that worry away by simply involving them in daily activities to provide a nice, basic foundation for the rest of their lives. For example, remember when your mom showed you how to boil water and pour the macaroni in? Or how to cook chicken nuggets, make cookies or grilled cheese? A few of the first things my mom showed me how to make were salmon patties, sausage balls, spinach dip and mashed potatoes. To this day, I don’t use a recipe for those! I’m sure you have such memories from your childhood. Your children will carry your memories forward to their own children.
Here are some skills you can fit into their young lives:
Simple Meal Preparation
As I mentioned, foods your family loves are the foods they will want to cook. No matter whether you are vegan, paleo or something else, indoctrinate this lifestyle into your kids, and they will adopt it as they grow older—or at least keep facets of it in their cooking.
Swimming
Whether you live near a shore or not, learning to swim is an essential for your child—for both safety and fun! Kids can learn at any age, but the American Association of Pediatrics recommends parents wait until kids are at least a year old before taking formal swimming lessons. This doesn’t mean you can’t get them comfortable around water at any age though.
Laundry
Even before they are able to run the washing machine themselves, kids can certainly begin helping. Show them how to fold towels, put their own clothes away and learn not to litter their bedroom floors with their dirty clothes. Around 11 or 12, they should be able to wash clothes—especially if they want to wear a favorite outfit all the time. Try labeling the washer and dryer so the kids know which settings to use.
Basic Car Maintenance
Girls and boys should know how to take care of any car or truck they drive. They can even learn this before they are old enough to drive. Changing a tire, checking and changing the oil, rotating the tires, checking the antifreeze and washer fluid and keeping an eye on the windshield wiper blades and noticing anything abnormal are important skills. One local dad says, “I wanted my son to learn how to wash and wax and detail his truck himself. I wanted him to know that his vehicle was something to take pride in.”
How to Manage Money
As soon as your child is old enough to earn an allowance and understand how money works, she’s old enough to start picking up financial skills. It’s a good time to teach her to wait before she buys something and distinguish between wants and needs. Kids ages 6 to 10 can learn about comparison shopping when you’re at the mall or shopping online together, and log onto a savings account you open with them to track their money.
Basic Hygiene
Parents can instill this in kiddos from an early age. The American Dental Association recommends parents brush their children’s teeth when the kids are younger than 3, and supervise children’s brushing from ages 3 to 6. After that, your child can brush his or her own teeth. Children will watch their daddy shave, their mom pluck her eyebrows and know the difference between shampoo and conditioner. As they get older, place a checklist on the mirror with reminders of how long to brush teeth, to put deodorant on and how long to shower. Remind them that if it smells, clean it!
Taking Care of a Living Thing
Another lifelong learning skill is helping children stay involved with the care of the family dog, cat, gerbil, fish or bearded dragon. Show them how to make sure the animal is fed and the cage or litterbox is clean. And have your child accompany you when you take the animal to the vet. Taking care of plants is another valuable learning tool. Children should not babysit other children until they are at least 14; check applicable state laws.
Navigating
In today’s high-tech world, most children learn at an early age how to use a GPS. How about showing them how to use a map—either a paper one or on the phone? Try hiding toys in your yard then draw a sketch to mark the location. Zoos, museums and theme parks have those colorful maps, and you can hand one to your child and have him or her lead the way. Or, try geocaching. This outdoor treasure hunting game uses GPS tracking to find trinkets. It also teaches young people to notice their surroundings.
An avid outdoors girl, Judy Goppert live in Lee’s Summit and enjoys all seasons, especially summer. She enjoys drawing on her personal experiences to write about the nuances of everything wonderful about life.hacker.com, Parents.com