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Important Life Skills Activities For Your Homeschool
Life skills play an important role in becoming a well-adjusted, independent adult. You begin learning these basic skills as a child and continue to grow and improve upon them throughout life as you experience different things. As homeschoolers, we can easily add life skills activities into each day to help prepare our children for adulthood.
All parents have the opportunity to help teach these skills to their kids and it’s never too early or too late to get started.
Life skills include:
• Communication
• Decision making
• Problem solving
• Money management
• Time management
• Critical thinking
• Creativity
• Responsibility
Teaching your kids these important skills will help them grow into happy, healthy, responsible adults. Adults that have the ability and tools needed to lead a successful and meaningful life.
Here are six practical ways to tackle life skills in your home:
1. Allow your kids to make some decisions by themselves. For example, let them pick out their outfits, choose the movie for family night or even choose which restaurant to eat at once in awhile. This will help build your child’s confidence and decision-making skills.
2. Give your kids some space to settle disagreements or problems that arise between them and their siblings or friends on their own. It will help them develop good communication skills and they’ll learn how to deal with conflicts in a calm and rational manner.
3. Get your kids involved in family things. Cook, clean and do home repairs together as a family and your kids will learn how to do these things for themselves when they’re older. Older kids can even help plan meals, do the laundry and assist with other chores around the home. Assigning chores will help teach your kids good time management skills in addition to teaching them self-discipline and how to stay focused on the task at hand
4. Start building money management skills by giving them an allowance and by letting older kids sit in when creating the monthly budget and when paying bills. Kids learn the importance of money and how quickly it can disappear when they receive an allowance for doing chores. They’re often hesitant to spend the money on toys and other things when they had to work for it.
5. Lead by example. Teach your kids how to deal with disappointment and how to react when things don’t go their way by setting a good example when things happen in your life. When the car breaks down, you get called in to work on your day off, or when everything seems to be going wrong, handle these things with a calm and positive attitude.
6. Use real life scenarios with age-appropriate activities. Play games that require communication, problem solving and/or critical thinking skills. Choose activities that require teamwork to teach kids how to work well with others. These activities will also help kids learn how to be a good sport when they win and when they lose. Teens may need a practical approach to teaching everyday life skills. Here are some great ideas to help teach your teens real world life skills in high school.
Every Day Life Skills Activities To Incorporate Into Your Home and Homeschool
Budgeting
Write a Check
Use a Debit or Credit Card
Complete a Receipt at a Restaurant and Tip
Sort the Family Mail
Make a Grocery List and Shop
Budget and Cook a Family Meal
Serve a Family Meal
Laundry
Clean House
Make a Doctor’s Appointment
Sewing, Mend a Button
Write a Letter, Postcard
Mail a Care Package
Buy Stamps
Plan a Party and Host
Create the Packing List for a Family Vacation
Iron
Create a Mock Interview
Fill a Tank of Gas
Wash the Car
Gardening
Lawn Work
Shake Hands
First Aid, CPR
Driving
Organization
Table Manners
Donate to Charity
Life skills will help your kids grow into confident adults with the ability to effectively communicate with others, settle disagreements, handle conflicts and solve problems at home and in the workplace. They will also have the knowledge to handle finances, manage a home, and make important decisions about his or her life and future.
Teaching your kids these skills is an important part of parenting and the practical tips above can help you be successful.
