Monday 25 November 2013

Teaching Life Skills

As a parent I know I need to teach my children various life skills to equip them for their later lives. Of course I have to ensure that they are capable of them before letting them loose! The purchase of a flat pack guinea pig run on Saturday was a great opportunity for my daughter to hone her assembling and screw driving skills:


flat pack guinea pig run

First of all following the instructions and putting things in the right place:

assembling guinea pig run

At this point she pointed out that I had omitted to screw the first panel on to the triangles and she set to screwing them together:

using screwdriver

The reward for her labours? A mug of soup in the cold garden whilst watching the guinea pigs have their first experience of grass:

watching guinea pigs

As for her little brother who is a little young for flat pack furniture he was getting in some valuable practice at washing up:

boy washing up

What essential life skills are you teaching your children for independent living when they grow up?

11 comments:

  1. Good practice. There is always something that needs fixing. Kids or relationships or cupboards or assembling guinea pig runs.

    Try to let them learn everything. Next lesson (well maybe when bit older) how to change a car wheel. As I see you have previously got them involved in furniture assembly, painting, wallpaper and looking after pets.

    What is next on the things you need to know how to do?

    ReplyDelete
  2. If only relationships were as simple as flat pack ;-) car tyre will be vital skill but bike maintenance will come first!

    ReplyDelete
  3. plumbing you also need that everyday (and I had thought I had snuck the relationships bit past you :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I don't really think about things like this yet as our little one is still teeny but i hope to introduce her to lots of life skills and equip her for adulthood! I hate it when you meet people who can't do simple everyday jobs/tasks!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Cooking is a good one which I hope will become more fun and less fraught in the coming years. Also, trying and failing is ok. Yep- that is the biggy I reckon, getting involved and having a go.

    ReplyDelete
  6. WifeMumStudentBum29 November 2013 at 23:03

    I am a great believer in teaching kids life skills. We can't do everything for them because when they are adult they will have no idea. Tonight I made a pie, and my daughter was telling me how much she loved it and I said "You know what, next time I do it, I'll teach you" ... x

    ReplyDelete
  7. yup like young adults at uni who can't cook even the basics..

    ReplyDelete
  8. always good to learn how to fail ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. ooh can't wait to read how that goes :-)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Life skills are a must! I cant wait to teach my little girl to bake as well as how to do DIY

    ReplyDelete
  11. Most definitely cooking and cleaning! I'm not doing that forever and a day! ;)

    ReplyDelete

I love it when people leave a message