Some life skills come in handy throughout one’s life. Make sure your kids learn these.
Staying at home has been tough on kids as it limits their outdoor activities, and sometimes frustrates them. However, you can use this time at home to teach them about few basic lifeskills.
In this article...
- Cooking
- Cleaning
- Shopping
- Meditating
From making one’s bed to making tasty sandwiches for those hunger pangs, there are some important skills that youngsters often miss on. These skills may look tedious to kids and they might pout and make excuses such as ‘I will do it when I am older’. However, these are skills that come in handy throughout one’s life and highlight one’s personality and attitude towards life.
So, here are a few life skills you can teach your skills in this pandemic.
Cooking
Children need to learn to cook as more than a skill, this is an essential part of life. There is nobody on this Earth who does not get hungry, and we need to teach our kids to be independent when it comes to food. Up until last year, common answer kids gave to their parents was “if I get hungry when I live alone, I will order food from outside”. This made sense because a few clicks and different cuisines were available at your doorstep. However, this pandemic has shown us the importance of home-cooked meals. Ordering food from outside, during a pandemic, carries the risk of getting infected. So, scoop out your cookbook and get cooking with your kids. You can also see our series titled “Cooking up a pandemic” for easy and quick recipes.
Cleaning
Shoes under the study table, bed unmade, jeans hanging on the door and a hurricane in a dusty cupboard! Cleanliness is an important life skill to learn because it not only helps you stay organised and hygienic, but it also boosts up your productivity and mental health. It is believed that if you sit in a dirty and messy room, your energy level will reflect the same. So, inculcate the habit of making beds before brushing teeth in your children. Make sure they keep things back in the designated areas and dust their shelves at least on every alternate day.
Meditation
It is often said ‘look inside you for the right answers’. What does that mean? No, you do not have to peek inside your mouth or your clothes.
Practising breathing exercises, meditation and yoga help one attain a sense of calmness and peaceful mind. While meditating, you sometimes end up finding solutions to your problems as your brain is calm during meditation. This will also help children destress from their busy schedules and the rat race when they grow up.
If your children are hyperactive, this will help calm their energy down and they will start putting their energy and mind at the right places.
Grocery shopping
Well, it sounds like a grown-up job, but trust me, children need to learn how to shop for essentials. When you head out for grocery shopping or order online, make your children sit next to you and observe. From making the ‘to-buy’ list to choosing which product to buy, make your children a part of the whole process. This will teach the children about sorting essentials, comparing products on basis of ingredients and quality, and the importance of money, because once they realise how much one bag of their chips costs, they will not throwing the half-eaten bag away.
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