As the popular saying goes, children are the future of society, as they grow up to participate in it and perhaps have children of their own who will in turn shape new generations. Therefore teaching them important skills can make a huge difference in terms of their eventual social and economic success. However, many of these lessons can be instilled in children without the need for costly programs or long-winded lectures, as they sometimes simply involve actively participating and engaging in their very own daily lives to some degree. With this information in mind, the following are 5 fun ways to teach your kids useful skills.
Grocery Shopping
The first fun way to teach your kids useful skills is to have them participate actively in the process of buying groceries. While this task can quickly become mundane, having children participate makes it less so. In addition, the children can have a more active say in what sorts of foods they like and need. This can be as simple as printing a list of items, which the children can cross off as they shop and indeed beforehand while looking in the fridge or pantry to see what items are needed or not needed. This task impresses children the ability to work and plan important things on their own, which will undoubtedly benefit them later on in life.
Shoe Cleaning
The second fun way to teach your kids useful skills is to have them clean their dirtied shoes and boots, which are almost certainly inevitable as children will likely want to jump in puddles of water or mud. Rather than doing it all for them, you can make it a fun activity for them by laying an old sheet of paper or another fabric on the ground, providing the children with the needed tools, and showing them how to do the job properly. Then let their creativity and inner playfulness take over as they take learning into their own hands.
Household Cleaning
The third fun way to teach your kids useful skills is to give them a microfiber piece of cloth and a spray bottle with a natural solution of water with a smidge of lemon juice or vinegar and have them clean parts of the house. Younger children can clean smaller household items while older children can clean windows and other larger parts of the house. It’s important to provide them with a squeegee as well as for instructions on how to do the task.
Table Setting
The fourth fun way to teach your kids useful skills is to have them learn to set the table. Preparing meals can be hectic and time-consuming for parents, and children can sometimes be a further handful. Have utensils easy to access so that they can have success while still working independently, and work with them more directly for larger tasks like pouring water in the cups or glasses for all the family members to be seated at the table.
Cooking Practice
The fifth and final fun way to teach your kids useful skills is to have them bake. As reading and navigating a recipe list or book can be a rate-limiting factor for keeping kids interested, using a pictorial version with ingredients that can be simply checked off can help make the task more accessible. Children will likely need some assistance when they first begin, but trying, again and again, will help them gain mastery and learn to deal with failure. Furthermore, having them make a recipe for their school lunch can help kill two birds with one stone. As an alternative to baking something, the children can make something like dal makhani or anything else, in particular, they may have a taste for.
Teaching children useful skills they will need for the future may seem like a looming and nebulous task, but it can end up being as simple as channeling their innate excitement and wonder into everyday duties, which may seem boring and mundane to a parent but to a child may be something new and fun to try. By giving them the needed tools as well as the needed space, the children can gain confidence and independence by completing the tasks successfully and creatively on their own and in their own way, while taking a load off of the parents.
