Helping Kids with Life Skills
Many parents see the importance of teaching life skills and not just theory as part of the academic curriculum, so here are a few simple things to do at home to help.
I was very blessed to attend an inner city school in the 80s and early 90s. Yes, the schools were poor and there was violence and the other things, but I had teachers who focused on giving us practical skills and not just theory. The “teach to the test” was not in full swing, and many of my classmates were not on a college track, so we were taught things in Math like living on a budget and grocery shopping.
This had a big influence on the things I taught my kids and how I taught them. I focused on budgeting—which included running a small business—saving and watching for sales. My kids ALWAYS went with me to the grocery and they were sent all over the store to get things on the list and return telling me the price for each item. Sometimes we had to put things back because we exceeded the budget.
Even as I grew up and did eventually go to college, I found great value in the 3 most practical things my Dayton Public Schools teachers taught me:
Live on a Budget. My 5th grade math teacher, her name may have been Mrs. Wallace, spent an entire semester on a budgeting activity. I never forgot it.
Group tasks. Dr. Lloyd, my 8th grade English teacher told us how his friend was able to take more college classes and get better grades on all by taking related classes. I did that in college and still use that to this day.
If your teacher doesn’t assign you homework, assign it to yourself. Mr. Watkins, 7th grade social studies told me that. For the rest of my life, even through college, if I didn’t have an assignment, I reviewed and previewed material. And that is why, despite some initial struggles, I managed to graduate college with a 3.9 cumulative GPA. And I taught the same to my kids.
None of these things were earth shaking. They were practical and applied to many parts of life. They were simple. That is why they worked. My goal with Decision Tree Learning is to get back to some basics to help students see the practicality—efficacy—of learning, so they will enjoy learning again.
Along those lines I uploaded a video to my Balanced Life youtube channel a couple years ago. If you want to know how I taught my teens to help me grocery shop, go check it out. And thank you for reading this post. I hope you’ll subscribe.
Tiff
Here is the link to that video. Using your grocery list template to teach your kids about money and save yourself time!