5 Basic Skills All Children Should Learn

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It is our job as parents to equip our children with as many life skills as we can. Of course, we aren’t infallible, and we don’t know everything - but what is essential, is that we lack the skills we seek out others who can teach it. 

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Photo by Hannah Tasker on Unsplash

Here are a few skills that all children should learn, that will be useful for life. 

First-aid

Sadly not enough adults have first aid training either. So this makes it the best thing to do as a family or for one of the adults in the family to take a class or a course with their children. The idea is you can never know when it might come in handy, you child might have an accident themselves or be around someone who is choking or has a minor burn - and they will be able to help to the best of their ability while calling for help. 

Swimming

There are so many drowning accidents every year when children who aren’t strong swimmers or have no swimming skills hop in the water only to find it overwhelming. As soon as you can, you should get your children swimming lessons. Swim classes will equip your child with the basics, and then moving on from that they can earn a range of badges and swimming accomplishments. 

Cooking

So many children grow up into adults and move out before they really learn how to cook. And while that can be a lot of fun, if you teach them some basic meals as they grow up, they will be pretty self-sufficient when they leave home. 

They don’t have to be able to handle hot pans and thing fresh from the oven, but if you include them in chopping herbs, mashing potatoes and learning to measure flour and other ingredients they will have all the basics ready for when they are responsible enough to use the oven or hot pans. 

Money

One of the most crucial life skills is going to be money management. There are so many adults who are in deep debts, sometimes through no fault of their own and other times it is because once they hit 18 and got offered so much credit, they didn’t know how to manage it properly. 

There are a few options like children's bank accounts that have a simple debit card. Or if you would prefer they really understand money, they can do chores and earn cash for each one. Having cash in their hand will mean they need to calculate how much they have versus how much they need for what they want. 

Finishing

Set tasks that can be completed by your child alone. This will teach them that they can do things independently. Making beds, tidying the table ready for dinner, cleaning the floor. Simple tasks that need to be completed and are safe enough not to need a watchful eye all the time. 

So there you have it. 5 simple skills that can help set your child up for adulthood. Of course, you don’t want your children to grow up too quickly, but helping them on the way to being self-sufficient when they leave home is an excellent thing for them, and you.