I used to wonder why some parents don’t try to mediate between their kids when they are fighting; until I became a mom myself (it’s still a mystery to me: I can tolerate noise and not tolerate it at the same time😁). It is just one of those things that helps children with life skills application at home. Solving their own problems and learning to negotiate or showing empathy without adult intervention is key.
Home is a safe place to learn critical life skills such as solving problems, thinking critically, managing time and cooperating with others. Homeschooling provides a safe and warm environment to develop these skills. One writer put forth that if we can take care of trees; training and giving them the best, why can’t we do the same for these precious souls. And I agreed with them totally.
Character building at home
Some teachers often say out of frustration, ‘Manners should be taught at home; we teach Math and Science here.’ This is both true, and sad. On the other hand, you hear parents say, ‘They’re no longer teaching manners at school!’
Home is the best place to learn these self-control, social and communication skills. Children learn more from observation than lectures and talks. They watch how we yell impatiently and explode in bursts of anger and frustration. More often than not, they either need a good example to follow or simply need someone to listen to them; some of their behaviors are just a cry for attention.
Age-appropriate chores help with character building at home. I learnt well from the advice ‘never do for your child what they can do for themselves.’ When children do chores, they learn responsibility and accountability. Certain tasks teach them to apply themselves, think critically on how they can do the task (hopefully in the most efficient way possible), and stick it out until the job is done.
I caught myself early when I found it easy to send my 7-year-old daughter to help our 2 year-old son. Luckily, the little boy loves being independent (challenging at times, but it has to be so for his growth). It makes him feel ‘needed’ and a useful part of the family. He is now fully responsible for taking away table mats after dinner, and he loves it😍.
Basic life skills
People are talented in different areas but there are some basic life skills which everyone-regardless of gender- should be able to do. Survival depends on them. Cooking is an indispensable skill; we all need food to survive, right? So we need the kids to be comfortable in the kitchen: one of the favorite places to learn life skills application in our home. We play games gathering ingredients and decide menus together (sometimes).
House-keeping is important. The kids make their own beds-although imperfectly, but I care not. They also pick up after themselves. I give them bite-sized instructions like ‘Pick up that book, check under the bed’, to make tidying up their room less overwhelming. We praise and encourage them frequently because they tend to get distracted easily. Sometimes, implementing stricter measures can expedite task completion😒. Personal hygiene -bathing, brushing teeth, putting laundry away- goes without saying.
Thinking is a critical skill, adding creativity is a bonus. One mother inspired me by how she deals with her son. When he says he’s bored and doesn’t know what to do, she tells him to sit down and think of something to do. She says it doesn’t take much time before he goes off and invent a game to amuse himself!
In the same vein, we are also thinking of more critical life skills to teach the children: sewing, financial literacy and taxes. How can I let them out into the world before they learn life skills application at home?
