• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Me, Them and the Others

Work at Home Mum. Free Range Parent. Mildly Amusing.

  • Parenting Life & Humour
  • Babies and Toddlers
  • Older Children
  • Work at Home Mum
  • Baby Names
  • Seasonal
You are here: Home / Older Children / Homeschooling and School / 50 Life Skills to Teach Your Children

50 Life Skills to Teach Your Children

Written by Josie

When I was a careers adviser, I did a course on careers education where we were set an exercise to try and fit careers education into the curriculum alongside all of the other statutory stuff schools have to teach. It really made me realise how little time schools have to fit in the practical life skills that all kids would benefit from learning. I’ve put together a list of all of the life skills I think primary school age children should learn. Some of these are things I have already taught my kids and some are completely new.

Financial Life Skills for Primary aged children

Money makes the world go round but isn’t something that schools have much time for in the curriculum. Teaching your kids about money is a great way to get them using maths in the real world and help them understand why maths is important. Santander have this great list of books about money for kids . You might also want to consider a prepaid cash card for kids instead of cash.

  • What taxes are
  • How a bank account works
  • What interest is
  • How a mortgage works
  • What our household expenses are
  • Benefits the government provides

Life Skills Need to Run the House

Many students these days arrive at university with no idea how to look after their new homes. The skills below should make sure they can do the basics as well as taking some pressure off parents while they are still living at home.

  • How to do a load of washing
  • How to wash up
  • How to clean the bathroom
  • How to empty the bins
  • How to do the hoovering
  • How to load the dishwasher
  • Change bed sheets

Home and Vehicle Maintenance Life Skills

While we live in a society that tends to “get someone in” for a lot of our home maintenance, there are some jobs that we should all really be able to do ourselves.

  • Mowing the lawn
  • Hanging a picture
  • Painting a wall
  • Checking car tire pressure
  • Checking car oil levels
  • Filling up car screen wash
  • Painting fences/decking

Gardening Life Skills for Kids

I can remember as a child, I was always amazed that my Mum seemed to know the names of every plant we saw. As an adult, I know more than I did, but still not as much as her. I’d like to pass what I do know onto my kids along with some other basic gardening skills.

  • Identifying common plants
  • Weeding
  • Planting seeds
  • Growing fruits and vegetables

The Ultimate Life Skill: Cooking

Luckily my kids love cooking and my oldest can already do lots of these. I’d like to get them both to the point they can do all of them with limited supervision.

  • How to make a cake
  • How to make a basic pasta dish
  • How to cook eggs in 3 different ways
  • How to make bread
  • Make tea and toast

The Skill to Make Healthy Eating Choices

While we’re at home all the time, my kids are of course demanding snacks what seems like every 3 minutes. I’m hoping that if I educate them about food, they might understand why I wont let them eat ten kitkats a day! I’m also hoping it might help my fussy daughter to consider eating a wider variety of foods.

  • Learn food groups
  • Understand food labels
  • Understand the relationship between everything and food
  • Understand how food effects health

Physical Life Skills for a Complete Childhood

While they may not use all of these in adulthood, I think these are skills that will enhance childhood as well as coming in handy if and when they have kids of their own. My kids were very impressed when I demonstrated a forward roll last week! These also work well as part of a family sports day.

  • Skip with a rope
  • Roller Skate
  • Ride a bike
  • Ride a scooter
  • Hula hoop
  • Do a cartwheel
  • Do a forward roll

The Skills Needed to Understand the World of Work

As a former careers adviser I might be a bit biased on this one but I think its important for primary aged children to start to learn about what is involved in choosing a career and getting a job.

  • Understand the some jobs require certain qualifications
  • Understand what a CV is
  • Understand what a job application form is
  • Understand what an interview is

Miscellaneous Life Skills Children Should Learn

While having a miscellaneous category always feels a bit like cheating to me, these are important skills that don’t quite fit in anywhere else.

  • Learn to Sew
  • Read a map
  • Read a compass
  • Time management
  • Learn their own address & phone number
  • Writing formal letters
  • Wrap a present

Have I missed any? Let me know in the comments!

Enjoyed this post? Why not pin it for later!

Life skills to teach your children

Filed Under: Homeschooling and School

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

What’s This All About Then?

A blog about trying to raise independent kids while retaining a sense of humour. Me: I’m Josie, a 43 year old introvert and former librarian. Them: My husband Chris, Boy Child who is 11 and Girl Child who is 9. The others: Hera the cat and Baxter the dog. Read More…

Social

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Search

Buy the Book

How to become a work from home mum book cover

Disclosure

I am an Amazon Affiliate and I earn from qualifying purchases. You can read more in my Disclosure Policy.

Important Stuff

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Get in Touch
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclosure Policy