life skills for kids
Let's face it, life is hard and being thrown into a world without some of the skills needed to get through the basics can be a little scary. Here you will find lots of ideas to practice with your kids to make their lives a little bit easier later on as well as some links to free and informative resources.
The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
- Mark Twain
COOKING BASICS
Food Preparation - There are plenty of things for kids to help with in the kitchen. Washing, peeling, slicing or dicing vegetables is a good one and kid safe knives are available if they're young. Tidy benches as you work, wiping down bench tops and packing the dishwasher.
Cooking Eggs - Cooking with eggs is a great place to start for kids who are learning. Scrambled, fried and hard boiled are all simple cooking methods that kids will enjoy, especially when they get to enjoy their creations.
Easy & Healthy - Egg & lettuce sandwiches, cheese & tuna toasties and tortilla pizza are all very simple meals that kids can learn to make.
FOOD SAFETY & HYGIENE
Food Poisoning - One of the most important things when working with food is the cross contamination of meat with vegetables and other foods. This often happens when vegetables are prepared on the same cutting board as meat which can lead to food poisoning.
Food Storage - Using items such as resealable bags, containers and cling wrap will help to prevent food from spoiling quickly. Food spoiling before it's expiry occurs when the food is exposed to oxygen. Keeping items wrapped will make your food last much longer.
BASIC FIRST AID
CPR - Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is a life saving skill to learn if possible. Other important first aid skills that we should all know is wound care, what to do when someone is bleeding heavily, when someone is choking or someone who's had an overdose.
St. John has a very informative page on their website with 30 valuable fact sheets about what to do in emergency situations.
LETTER WRITING - Business & Government Agencies
Emails are a fast and easy way of communication but what about when you need to write a formal letter to a business or government agency. Do you know how it needs to be set out ?
Australia Post provides a simple template showing how formal letters should written.
MANAGING MONEY
Budgeting - ASIC provides a nice simple budget planner. This can be used to teach children how to plan ahead.
Shopping - Take children grocery shopping to learn how to compare items and prices for the best value for money. Cheaper doesn't always mean better value (eg. why pay $12 for 250g of coffee when you can pay $15 for 500g).
Banking - Everything seems to be available online now and that includes the way we do our banking. In one way it's great as we get to keep track of our spending and what's happening with our money straight away rather than waiting for paper statements. It also brings a downside so teaching our kids how to notice a scam is of great importance.
Many scammers send emails and sms they look just like it came from the bank and asking you to log into your account after clicking their link. Once you've entered your details they can then access your account themselves. If you feel you've been tricked into giving away your sensitive details, change your password immediately and call your bank to tell them what's happened so they can watch for any suspicious activity.
Bills - Teaching kids how to pay bills and keep good records will help if there are any issues later that they need to follow up on and find references like account numbers, meter numbers etc.
Credit Cards & Loans - Teaching kids about credit and loans is important and it's just as important to teach them how dangerous credit can be if it's not managed correctly. Perhaps it's wise to encourage no credit and that we can only have something once we save for it and if we don't have the money right now we need to wait until we do.
Earning Money & Tax - It's lovely spending money but we need to earn it first and then comes the fun part of giving a lot of it away to the tax man. It's never too early to start explaining the basics of how tax works.
SKILLS TO LEARN OR IMPROVE
Handwriting - Practicing regularly will result in lovely neat handwriting. There are many free sites that offer practice sheets that you can print.
Paraphrasing - Read a paragraph and then write or explain it in your own words.
Research - This can be really fun and an excellent skill to learn especially if the kids can choose a subject they have a strong interest in. It's also a good family activity.
GPS - Learning to use a GPS an excellent skill building activity and can be fun for the whole family. There are many free geocaching websites that offer location points to search for using GPS and discover boxes with items inside that others have left.
Scan Documents - How to scan paper documents and turn them into a digital document called a PDF file (portable document format) that can be stored on your computer or sent to someone by email.
Digital Filing - How to name and file item in files and folders in a way that they can be easily found later when required.
Photography - Not as a professional or taken too seriously, just practicing on focus and getting the subject in the centre of the frame. Try a photo treasure hunt where the family makes a list of items that each family member has to get a photo of on their mobile camera and when you return, everyone shares their photos. (Subject ideas: a leaf, a cat, a house door, something gross, something pretty, something spotted etc).
COOKING BASICS
Food Preparation - There are plenty of things for kids to help with in the kitchen. Washing, peeling, slicing or dicing vegetables is a good one and kid safe knives are available if they're young. Tidy benches as you work, wiping down bench tops and packing the dishwasher.
Cooking Eggs - Cooking with eggs is a great place to start for kids who are learning. Scrambled, fried and hard boiled are all simple cooking methods that kids will enjoy, especially when they get to enjoy their creations.
Easy & Healthy - Egg & lettuce sandwiches, cheese & tuna toasties and tortilla pizza are all very simple meals that kids can learn to make.
FOOD SAFETY & HYGIENE
Food Poisoning - One of the most important things when working with food is the cross contamination of meat with vegetables and other foods. This often happens when vegetables are prepared on the same cutting board as meat which can lead to food poisoning.
Food Storage - Using items such as resealable bags, containers and cling wrap will help to prevent food from spoiling quickly. Food spoiling before it's expiry occurs when the food is exposed to oxygen. Keeping items wrapped will make your food last much longer.
BASIC FIRST AID
CPR - Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is a life saving skill to learn if possible. Other important first aid skills that we should all know is wound care, what to do when someone is bleeding heavily, when someone is choking or someone who's had an overdose.
St. John has a very informative page on their website with 30 valuable fact sheets about what to do in emergency situations.
LETTER WRITING - Business & Government Agencies
Emails are a fast and easy way of communication but what about when you need to write a formal letter to a business or government agency. Do you know how it needs to be set out ?
Australia Post provides a simple template showing how formal letters should written.
MANAGING MONEY
Budgeting - ASIC provides a nice simple budget planner. This can be used to teach children how to plan ahead.
Shopping - Take children grocery shopping to learn how to compare items and prices for the best value for money. Cheaper doesn't always mean better value (eg. why pay $12 for 250g of coffee when you can pay $15 for 500g).
Banking - Everything seems to be available online now and that includes the way we do our banking. In one way it's great as we get to keep track of our spending and what's happening with our money straight away rather than waiting for paper statements. It also brings a downside so teaching our kids how to notice a scam is of great importance.
Many scammers send emails and sms they look just like it came from the bank and asking you to log into your account after clicking their link. Once you've entered your details they can then access your account themselves. If you feel you've been tricked into giving away your sensitive details, change your password immediately and call your bank to tell them what's happened so they can watch for any suspicious activity.
Bills - Teaching kids how to pay bills and keep good records will help if there are any issues later that they need to follow up on and find references like account numbers, meter numbers etc.
Credit Cards & Loans - Teaching kids about credit and loans is important and it's just as important to teach them how dangerous credit can be if it's not managed correctly. Perhaps it's wise to encourage no credit and that we can only have something once we save for it and if we don't have the money right now we need to wait until we do.
Earning Money & Tax - It's lovely spending money but we need to earn it first and then comes the fun part of giving a lot of it away to the tax man. It's never too early to start explaining the basics of how tax works.
SKILLS TO LEARN OR IMPROVE
Handwriting - Practicing regularly will result in lovely neat handwriting. There are many free sites that offer practice sheets that you can print.
Paraphrasing - Read a paragraph and then write or explain it in your own words.
Research - This can be really fun and an excellent skill to learn especially if the kids can choose a subject they have a strong interest in. It's also a good family activity.
GPS - Learning to use a GPS an excellent skill building activity and can be fun for the whole family. There are many free geocaching websites that offer location points to search for using GPS and discover boxes with items inside that others have left.
Scan Documents - How to scan paper documents and turn them into a digital document called a PDF file (portable document format) that can be stored on your computer or sent to someone by email.
Digital Filing - How to name and file item in files and folders in a way that they can be easily found later when required.
Photography - Not as a professional or taken too seriously, just practicing on focus and getting the subject in the centre of the frame. Try a photo treasure hunt where the family makes a list of items that each family member has to get a photo of on their mobile camera and when you return, everyone shares their photos. (Subject ideas: a leaf, a cat, a house door, something gross, something pretty, something spotted etc).