Summer is the perfect time to teach kids practical life skills without the pressure of school schedules. This post shares why summer works so well for learning new skills and how to teach them gradually and intentionally.
Once you have a child who goes to school, it can get difficult to find a good time to teach that child new life-skills. Certainly a first grader has not learned nor mastered all of the life-skills you hope to bestow upon the child, so the finding the time to teach is necessary.
Summer break is a great time to do this! You can also do other longer-breaks throughout the year. Some of the easier skills can also be taught on a Saturday.
Each summer, I evaluate what chores my children are able to do and decide which chores each child needs to add to his/her repertoire. For example, my children do not start out cleaning the entire bathroom as a chore. I teach one part of a bathroom at a time. I leave toilets for an age when they are a bit older and able to clean it well and also wash their hands well following the job. I leave mirrors for when the child is older so the child can reach the full mirror safely.
It is also a good time to work on teaching how to cook new foods. The kitchen is another area where my children learn “line upon line.”
I saw this great idea for a sewing school on How Does She. She did a five week course to teach her daughter basic sewing. This is brilliant.
So if your child has a new skill or ability you want to teach, think it through and come up with a plan for teaching your child. You might even be able to find outlines like I found for sewing online.
Related Posts:
- Tips to Help Your 1-4 Year Old Rock Chores
- Your Roadmap to Teaching Kids Self-Sufficiency
- 11 Ways to Make Chores Fun for Kids
- In Efforts To Help, We Might Actually Hurt Our Kids
- Our Chores for 5-8 Year Olds
- 8 Rules for Kids Chores at Home
- How to Teach Children Life Skills: 10 Steps
- Sample Summer Schedules for Kids
- How to Balance Summer Fun and Routine for Kids
