It's been months since we've been holed up at home riding out the pandemic. It's no secret that keeping the kids busy remains to be a challenge. The lockdown is the perfect time to teach them practical life skills that they otherwise wouldn’t learn in school. These can easily be part of your daily routine.
1. Making food from scratch
What happens to the dough after it goes inside the oven? How many eggs do you need to make a pancake? How many teaspoons of this and that should go into the mix?
Instead of making the kids wait for the food to be ready, get them involved in the kitchen. Of course, make sure they use age-appropriate tools in the kitchen for safety reasons. When that’s set, teach them how to follow a recipe. The best way to teach kids about making healthy food choices is to prepare meals together. As they become more confident in the kitchen, they can take on additional skills like preparing their own snacks and planning on what they want to eat.
Not only are you setting them up for a lifetime of culinary know-how but they’ll also learn about math, science, literacy, and nutrition.
2. Growing your own garden
Whether your available space for plants is on a windowsill or in a big backyard, there are many learning opportunities which come with taking care of a plant.
Since the pandemic, our backyard garden has been transformed into an outdoor classroom where I let my four-year old roam around. We let her hands get dirty as we both learn about plants and what they need to grow and survive.
Tending to her plants has also taught my daughter to be responsible as she have to make sure that the plants receive adequate water and sunlight every day. As most of the plants she tends to are herbs and vegetables, she gets to have an understanding of where the food we serve on the table comes from. There is nothing more exciting than harvesting from your own patch of land.
If you haven't tried introducing this activity to your child, you may start with easy-to-grow seedlings like tomatoes, basil, okra, or eggplant.
3. Doing chores
Sometimes it's easier for us parents to do the cleaning ourselves; we know what to clean and how to do it. But it will be a missed opportunity for us to teach our kids the value of doing chores which they will find useful in the future.
Aside from asking them to put their toys away after playing, involve them in doing chores around the house. There are so many things they can do such as sweep the floor, wash the dishes, do the laundry, fold the clothes, set the table, etc. As soon as they wake up, they can start by making their own bed.
Teaching your children these skills will not only help them later on in life but would be of use to us, too.
Did you know that by assigning your children responsibilities at home, you're also building their confidence in the process? Instead of reprimanding them should they accidentally break a glass while doing the dishes, look at it as a way for them to be careful the next time around. Allowing them to make mistakes and learning from it will empower them and make them feel like a grown up.
There is really no better time to teach them these practical life skills than now. Remember these skills when done on a regular basis will develop into a lifelong habit that will benefit your children for the rest of their lives.
