What Are 5 Crucial Life Skills Kids Must Learn?

What are life skills?

Is it to know how to talk? how to sit? how to behave? Not exactly. It’s way more interesting than that and way more important than this.

There’s so much going around in our children’s lives today that it’s fairly easy for them to miss out on some important life skills. But before we start with it do our children know what is the real meaning of life skills. Life skills and development are deeply interconnected and can help our children succeed later in life — professionally and personally.

Apart from academics at school, children are busy with additional classes for sports or music or other activities to get ahead in the job or career market, due to which a life skill education is a must to be taught to children.

While it’s true that children need an extensive grounding in education, in addition to non-academic activities, but all that leaves them with little time for life skills, which are important for their comprehensive development.

Far from taking time away from our children’s current educational and non-academic engagements, several skill-based activities can be worked into their daily schedule at home so that they can learn life skills while not disturbing their daily routine. A whole package of life skill education must be introduced to kids in order for them to know what are life skills, their meaning, and their importance in life.

Teaching our children life skills is not only important for self-care and sufficiency, but it also empowers them and improves their self-esteem, social skills, and thinking abilities.

There are no particular life skills by age chart to understand and develop; they all are equally important. But, to comprise them all, here are five important life skills to teach your children-

Here are five important life skills to teach your children.

Decision making

We all know the importance of making the right decision at the right time. Children should be taught and must learn to make decisions at a very young age as it helps them stay ahead of others and make the right judgment when the time comes.

Tell your child to begin with fundamental decisions like choosing between rubber or plastic balls, strawberry or vanilla ice cream, ball or plastic ball, toy guitar, or keyboard.

These are small things, but that’s how kids learn to make decisions. Tell them how decision-making can help them not just now but in adult life as well.

Teach them how to look at all existing options and weigh all the pros and cons. This is how your kids will learn one of life’s most essential skills.

Time management

We all know how important time management is in our personal and professional lives. Not just adults, but time management is also crucial for kids as it helps them stay ahead of time. It teaches them to master the time at a very young age to do everything on time, such as getting up on time to going to school on time, and everything in between.

Hygiene and health

Teach your children the importance of hygiene and health. Children are too young to know the importance of health and personal hygiene. Start by telling them why eating fruits and vegetables is essential for a healthy body, regularly washing hands, brushing twice a day, taking a shower every day, changing their undergarments, and others. As adults, we are too busy with our daily chores and often do not tell our children about the importance of maintaining health and hygiene.

You must start by explaining why kids should never ignore health and hygiene. Later you can help plan their hygiene schedule by making or keeping a record. As your children grow and follow these health and hygiene habits on their own, you can get rid of the record and stop monitoring them.

Money management

Many people say that for children it is not very important, but we stand to differ. Money management is one of the most crucial and far more essential life skills to be known and practiced by anyone from any age group, and it should be underlined and counted in the necessary life skills list.

When we teach our children to count and some basic math, why not extend that to counting money? Teach your children about the importance of money at all stages of life.

As adults, we know how important money is for us, and we can manage it pretty well, but do children know it? They learn everything from their parents, so it’s essential to teach them.

Teach your children practical money management skills such as saving, spending wisely, and using cards moderately.

Getting organized

Children can learn to become organized if taught at an early age. Skills such as preparing school bags, picking out the clothes for the next day, getting ready on their own, making the bed, doing laundry, keeping the dishes in the sink are all early steps to becoming organized.

As and when the child grows-up, the tasks can get tricky and can include more significant duties. These skills are fundamental and should be evident in the necessary life skills list. It is through these tasks that your child will learn to stay organized. There are other essential life skills that you should teach your child, and those include:

• Focus
• Self-control
• Perspective
• Communication
• Making connections and networking
• Critical thinking
• Facing challenges

And it would be best if you did not wait for life skills by age chart to appear in front of you to teach your children all such good and necessary life skills.

Most of the skills that children need in this competitive world are not taught in the classroom, and that is why, when asked, most children don’t even know the real meaning of life skills.

They are learned only with experience at home under their parent’s guidance. It depends on you as a parent on how and when you want to teach your children these skills. The earlier you start, the better for your child.