Jul 31 , 2020
ESSENTIAL LIFE SKILLS FOR KIDS DURING LOCKDOWN
With the closure of schools and after school classes for kids, it is natural for parents to think about ideas to entertain the kids at home or plan activities that will help them learn something new. Well, with the lockdown imposing work from home order, planning activities for kids can become the last priority for working parents.While there are many worksheets, DIY activity kits, board games, and online learning tools that work as rescue agents for busy parents, for teaching the essential life skills to children you don't need any of these!
What are the essential life skills? The WHO defines "life skills as the abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life".
Here are some ideas to get you started at home:
1) Involving kids in house chores and doing their work independently:
Giving kids the responsibility of simple house chores like mopping their room, clearing the play room or making their bed can help children enhance their skills of planning, decision- making, time management, etc. These chores will not just lend you a helping hand but also teach the children to take responsibility in finishing their work independently.
2) Managing time: Learning to manage time well will help children not just to perform better during exams but also let them think ways for managing time to be more productive. Let them plan their own schedule, make use of planners to help them note down the things to do or an alarm clock that they can use to set time. For example, to wake up on time on their own, instead of parents waking them up.
3) Involving them in cooking: Without being gender biased, to be able to make your own food is an essential life skill and plays an important role to encourage children to eat home-cooked healthy food!
4) Care for nature: Give your children the responsibility of watering the plants, think how they can reuse water and help conserve it. Get them to practise eco-friendly habits in everything they do. Teach them about sustainability and imbibe the same in everyday life.
5) Be kind and helpful: Give opportunity to your kids to be helpful and kind towards the less privileged. The quality of compassion and kindness towards our fellow beings is a much-needed life skill in these challenging times.
6) Stay Positive: Children see and imitate us from an early age. If we want our kids to learn good life skills, we as parents must set an example. In these challenging times when kids are forced to stay indoors without going to school and playing with friends, we as parents must stay positive and ask our kids to face every situation with more positivity. Here’s a list of 20 positive things about lockdown which a 7 year old girl penned down recently.
Developing life skills are important so that kids grow up to be independent, make their own decisions and learn to take responsibility for their actions. Thankfully most of these life skills can be taught by involving kids in our daily tasks!
So which idea are you starting with today?