Many parents, especially the working parents these days often think, is my child self- sufficient? Will my child be able to look after himself when we leave him/ her alone for a long time? These concerns and mind- boggling questions make parents worried and overwhelmed as their child grows. But not to worry parents! Life skills always come to the rescue when it comes to making your child grow independently as an individual.
Life skills are abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enables kids to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of life. The term ‘Life Skills’ refers to skills that help you make most out of your life. For that purpose, any skill that is useful in life can be considered as a life skill. As kids grow, these skills will help them able to handle real life situations.
Some of the important life skills that every child should learn are listed below:
- Focus and self- control: Most of the children follow a certain routine, schedule and habits daily. Ask your child in the morning that what would he like to do during the day? Setting targets and planning up the day helps children feel secure, stay more focused and can achieve self- control. Giving your child target based engaging activities like solving puzzles, sensory activities and doing quiet activities together like reading a book will prevent him from get distracted thereby helping him stay focused.
- Communication: Children after the age of 3 years are very curious. Communication is a very important life skill in order to give justice to little minds curiosity. By making personal interactions frequently every day you help them build a healthy social- emotional bond. Communication also includes the ability to listen, understand and ‘read’ social cues. They must perceive what to communicate and the most effective way to share it. How can you achieve this? Simply talking to an interested adult will serve the purpose. Spend quality time with your child everyday listening and responding to him without distractions.
- Taking challenges: This important skill will help in shaping one’s personality and help the child grow as a confident individual in the future. Resilience, taking on challenges, bouncing back from failures, and the persistence to keep on trying are synonymous to taking up challenges. Children learn to take up challenges when we create a safe environment with a right structure. Motivate your child to try new things and allow reasonable risks like- teaching to climb a tree or ride a bicycle. Offer a new challenge every time when you feel your child is ready. Encourage him and focus on efforts rather than achievement. Appreciate and reward whatever they have done after they are finished doing the job.
- Problem solving and decision making: Making good decisions in life is a skill every child should know at an early age. In order to make basic decisions, it is important to differentiate between good and bad. You can begin with asking your child questions like “Which dress do you want to wear today – blue or black?”, “What would you like to play with today – cars or blocks?”, or “What would you like to eat today?” Asking these types of questions on a daily basis will help your child make choices for themselves. Decision making involves different steps like; walking your child through different options, evaluating the pros and cons and then making a final decision. Logical reasoning is an important tool that can assist children in solving problems and making decisions for themselves.
- Money and savings: These are very basic ones amongst the life skills. You can teach your child about money management and savings by giving them a certain amount of pocket money every month. To start with, aim at every 15 days. Teach them about how money can be spent wisely on essential needs and the rest of the amount can go in the piggy bank as their savings. Once they achieve and carry out this life skill appropriately, they can be awarded and motivated with an increased budget every month. Additionally, you can introduce your older child to different modes of carrying out a transaction such as cheques, credit/ debit card and payment apps.
- Data interpretation: Your preschooler might be more capable than you realize. Their little brain keeps on collecting information every time. Making use of this data by identifying, classifying in order to answer specific questions and solve problems is called data interpretation. It is important to inculcate this life skill way early in kids so that by the age of 5 years they become experts in grasping every event that is going around them. Data interpretation plays an important role in all aspects of life, from knowing which objects to handle carefully- if they are steaming, oven, iron, gas stove; to knowing which activities that require hanging on- playing on merry- go round, swing, poles etc.
These were some of the basic life skills every child must know between the age of 5 to 7 years. Your child’s education should go beyond what he or she learns in the school. Life skills are one of the most enhancing life experiences every parent should inculcate their child in order to make him an independent and successful individual in future.
My Life Skills workshop for 5 to 7 years covers the above topics in a fun and engaging manner. Contact me below for a free trial!
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