As a parent, there’s plenty of things you’re going to teach your kids. This naturally includes assorted life skills necessary to becoming functioning, well-adjusted adults. Review some of the numerous essential life skills you absolutely need to impart so your kiddies contribute to the world instead of the other thing.
Cooking
Help your children learn how to cook! Start with small, easy tasks when they’re little and eventually graduate to full-fledged meals. Emphasize that cooking is about reading and following directions…and little else. As long as they can read, measure, and stir, they should be just fine. Experiment with a wide range of dishes to help them learn that cooking is fun–who knows, you might have a burgeoning chef in the house!
First Aid
Discuss first aid with your kids and perhaps take a class together. Children tend to be injury-prone, so the more you can teach them about protecting themselves, the less skinned knees and broken bones you’ll have to deal with. Discuss the importance of cleaning and bandaging wounds, remaining calm in emergency situations, and how to call for help. Go a step further when they’re old enough, such as talking about why you shouldn’t move an injured person’s head if said person sustained a blow to the noggin.
Swimming
Teach your younglings to swim even if you do not live close to water. This is a life-saving skill they need to know, so visit local pools or those at friends’ houses, as well as recreational lake areas, if applicable. Make sure to stress that swimming in rivers is never a good idea, because unlike the ocean river currents go every which way and will easily tire them. Talk about the importance of letting an ocean riptide carry them out a little ways rather than trying to fight it, as that’s how people become exhausted…and drown.
Other essential life skills to teach your kiddies include wilderness survival skills, money management, time management, and defense skills.