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With the hysteria that we witnessed during our recent coronavirus pandemic it has become obvious to me that not only are our children and young adults ill-prepared to handle any such circumstance where they may have to be self-reliant. They lack the basic skills of survival! Planning ahead, being organized, and utilizing their resources in order to thrive!
With that I got to thinking. How can we better prepare our children (and ourselves) for the future? What skills did our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents have, that we threw by the wayside and now lack? And last but not least, how can we begin to shift this paradigm back? We can start today, by teaching our children the essential skills that generations past relied on in order to survive!
5 Essential Skills Every Child Needs Before They Leave The Nest
- Baking Bread
- Growing a vegetable garden
- Sewing and Mending
- Deep Cleaning
- Cooking from scratch
Baking Bread
Baking bread is number one on my list of essential skills every child needs. Bread making is one of those age-old skills that was essential for generations before us. Bread has been a dietary staple for a number of reasons, number one being that it is inexpensive to make, in addition, bread is filling and only takes a few ingredients to make, most of which are non-perishable. Making bread is seriously so easy and so rewarding! Do your kids a favor and spend a day or two a month teaching them this valuable skill!! If nothing else it could very well become a great past time for them and a wonderful bonding experience for you!
Growing A Vegetable Garden
As a child gardening with my grandmother was one of my fondest memories. I’ll let you in on a little secret, my very very favorite task in the garden was picking potato bugs! LOL! My grandma had an old tin coffee can with a little bit of oil in it, and I loved the task of picking those little buggers off of the potato plants and dropping them into the can of oil! Crazy as it sounds, this is something I am totally looking forward to in our own garden this year!
Whether your child chooses to embrace this age-old tradition into adulthood or not, I still feel that this is a critical survival skill that needs to be instilled into our children. Not only does it teach your child to value the labor and dedication that goes into the food on their table, it also provides them the ability to provide essential nutrients for themselves at a lower cost than buying produce at the store, and gives them a greater appreciation for the Farmers and Ranchers who spend countless hours raising the food we consume.
Sewing and Mending
Ok, so full disclosure here. I can barley sew a button back on a shirt. But nonetheless, I think this skill is so important. We live in a disposable world, where buying new when you are tired of the old is just the way it is. But think for just a moment, what would life be like if you only had that single pair of holey socks? Or you couldn’t just buy a new shirt when the button fell of the one you had? Sewing is an old fashioned survival skill that has gone by the wayside. But it shouldn’t have. Teaching your kids the value of being able to hem a pair of jeans, patch a tore out knee or sew a slip in that gorgeous prom gown (lets teach some class while we are at it momma’s!) Is a invaluable skill that may come in handy someday!
Deep Cleaning
Are you guilty of letting your kids slip through the cracks when it comes to pitching in on the housekeeping? I know I am. This is truly one of my biggest struggles, plagued partially by the guilt of feeling like it is my responsibility to care for them in every way shape or form (this does not translate to do it for them, I know, I’m working on that!) And simply being to lazy to enforce the rules, because lets face it moms, sometimes it is just easier to do it ourselves, this is a huge struggle for me.
Growing up, this was a biggy. We had saturday chores divied out each week between the four of us, with each child getting an age appropriate work load. What we also had where expectations. We where expected to do a good job and to the task in what my parents considered its entirety. The result of this, we grew up in a clean home but more importantly. We all know HOW to clean, although I don’t always seem to be able to uphold the standard to the same degree, I’m really working on it!
Teaching our children HOW to clean is so important, but teaching them the value of WHY we clean is even more critical in my opinion. We maintain a clean home for a number of reasons, hygiene, allergies, functionality and pride of self to name a few. There may be some who don’t agree with me on this but as an adult who had parents who made us clean. I am so glad NOW that I’m not a kid anymore, that they did.
I’ve been working on just enforcing complete jobs as part of our cleaning routine. As an example, cleaning the kitchen after dinner SHOULD include, dishes, counters, stove, garbage and floors. Not only dishes! We are still a work in progress, but its getting better!
Cooking From Scratch
This goes hand in hand with growing your own food. Teaching your kids to cook a filling full course meal is an essential survival skill that no human should ever be with out. As a child we where given the task of cooking for our family one night a week starting around the age of 11 or so. We most definitely where given some guidance on what to make and had the ingredients on hand when we where first starting out, but as we got older the responsibility become solely ours. We did not have the luxury of much for processed or pre-made foods, so we learned at an early age the value of seasonings and spices. We also honed in on the amazing skill of being able to make something out of nothing! I value this skill to this day, beings as we live so far from town and running to the store to grab something is usually not an option, having the ability to improvise and substitute has saved me a million times over!! Cooking can be so fun, let it be an outlet for your kids creative juices to flow and jump on the opportunity to educate them on nutrition as well!
Instilling these 5 essential skills into your children before they leave the nest will most definitely set them up for success as they begin to navigate the murky waters of adulthood!
I would love to hear your suggestions! Do you think these are essential skills? What other skills do you feel are critical in today’s world?
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