10 Essential Life Skills to Equip Your Child for the Real World by the Time They’re 10

With so much to learn kids in today’s high-tech world, are missing out on practical life skills, whether it’s washing, reading a map, or writing a letter by hand. A study found that while 58% of 3- to 5-year-olds in the U.S. can operate a smartphone, less than one in six can make their breakfast. The main problem is, instead of letting them figure out how to fend for themselves, many parents tend to do everything for their children.

10 Life Skills to prepare your child for the real world by the time they’re 10:

1- Help With Basic Chores & Clean Their Room

Cleaning teaches children how to respect their dwellings and put some order in their rooms as well as an appreciation for their belongings. Kids should be encouraged some form of play with sweeping, mopping, and dusting, but more importantly, made to understand the importance of having a tidy living space and how to organise their room on their own.

 2- Dinner Prep & Clean-Up & Have Good Hygiene

Childrencan be nagged to brush their teeth and take a bath, but if they are to adhere to these ideals, children have to learn to embrace them on their own. One way to do that is to turn something fun out of skincare, oral hygiene, dinner preps and bathing. By turning a chore into something fun, children will gradually embrace these activities.

3- Can Swim

Swimming Lessons provide kids with confidence, which is great for building positive self-esteem. Furthermore, your child will learn about water safety in regards to how to behave in water. Swimming lessons are extremely beneficial for children as it enhances their knowledge of safety around water as well as furthering stroke development. Swimming is also a great way to exercise and keep fit.

4- Preparing an Easy Meal

 Invite your child to help make meals often so that they get used to the idea of preparing meals, give them jobs to do and remain calm even when the flour spills and the eggshells scatter. A decent first DIY breakfast is yoghurt with fruit. kids can spoon yoghurt and add prewashed cut-up fruit into a bowl. Work on making sandwiches and smoothies with kids 5 and older (monitor the blender closely). Your kid can try toaster-oven classics such as English-muffin pizza around the age of 7 or 8, or make a quick salad by tearing lettuce, dumping croutons, and cutting tomatoes, cucumbers, and carrots. By the age of 10, children will use the stovetop for a grilled-cheese sandwich with supervision

5- Grocery Shopping Process

Try by all means to take your child shopping for groceries with you as often. Buy giving them access to the list of things needed in your home, you empower them with knowledge about the day to day needs of a household.  Give them a basket and ask them to get some of the easier items to find on your list for you until your child knows where the various types of products are shelved.

Every month, you can also keep your kid in charge of purchasing a few items. Snacks and juices will be examples of that. Don’t forget to teach them how to pay at the check out counter and make sure they retain the receipt

6- Basic First Aid

You can teach your children many aspects of safety, but first aid teaching can make them aware of hazards as well as how to properly treat accidents that might occur. Even if you want to prevent errors and do all correctly, mistakes will occur. Teaching children about safety needs to begin as early as possible. Teaching them how to be healthy and how to respond when emergencies occur is crucial. Learning basic first aid skills would encourage kids to support themselves, and maybe help others as well. It can give you a certain sense of comfort to know that your child is well prepared to handle an emergency. Plus, these are basic life skills and survival abilities that should be known to every person. Simple wounds, abrasions, burns, and bruises are several regular emergencies.

7- Use a Map and a Compass

Knowledge of space is not only a vital part of STEM education. It stops us from getting lost as well. Start by showing your children how their neighbourhood, school, or favourite playground can be mentally mapped. Then pull out the old-fashioned map and compass and go for a walk through the woods, invite your kid to one morning navigate your drive to school. It’s a good idea to make them learn to follow instructions. With technology deeply ingrained in every aspect of our lives, maps and digital compasses are now found on mobile phones. Teach your child to use these digital tools at an early age.

8- Simple Sewing Skills

Consider teaching kids how to sew so that they can have a hobby that will have a positive effect on their character development and mental growth. Sewing will provide them with educational, physical and mental benefits in a fascinating and fun way, in addition to encouraging them to sew on a button, repair their toys or make a beautiful and original gift for someone. On top of that, sewing could also become a valuable ability in their lives at a later stage, one that will prove useful through their adult lives and beyond.

9- Can Dress Themselves

Kids should know how to put together an outfit and dress themselves, this is not merely how to put on trousers and shirts. Children should learn how to dress nicely: selecting weather-appropriate alternatives, mixing and matching shades, pairing prints with solids. It’s a great way to help your child connect, develop their style, make choices, and feel confident in their style.

10- Can React to an Emergency

Your child should be able to cope with important first aid skills apply them in an emergency. Simple procedures like applying pressure to a wound that is bleeding, using ice on a swollen injury, running cold water over a burn, if clothing catches on fire, avoid running and drop and roll. Most importantly, children should know emergency numbers to call.

These life skills will help your child thrive as they will give them a sense of accomplishment and confidence to take on the world out there.