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**Check out Lessons learnt during COVID19 lockdown video on youtube**
Nowadays almost the whole world is in the state of lockdown. The pandemic has badly disturbed lives of people and they are forced to stay at home. Schools and colleges are not touted to open for the next couple of months Parents are concerned that learning of their child would suffer. Though online classes are compensating for a little bit of learning gap but in the wake of no peer/social learning lot remains to be desired. However parents can seize this opportunity to contribute towards the learning of the child in different and new ways. It is an opportune time to make kids aware of some basic life skills that would go a long way in making them confident and independent adults.
Given below are 6 most important and basic life skills that parents should focus on ingraining in their child.
1. Mealtime Skills
In year 10 child should know how to put a basic breakfast/snack for oneself. This basic level breakfast could comprise of bread, butter, milk or cereals. At 16 years of age your child should ideally know how to prepare meals not only for oneself but for the entire family. In a couple of years when these kids fly the nest they would be independent in arranging meals for themselves and not depend on unhealthy fast food deliveries from. While giving them necessary skills related to preparation of meals, kids should be taught about appropriate usage of kitchen equipments. The safety instructions related to gas knobs, microwave, OTG should be explained in detail to ensure their safety
For kids younger than 10 years, teach them to eat independently. In addition to mealtime independence kids should be taught proper mealtime etiquettes. They should know how to have proper body posture while eating meals (to assist digestion), how to handle food items and above all maintain cleanliness.
Kids should be sternly guided to follow “No-mess Rule”. ” No mess Rule makes your kid responsible for maintaining cleanliness of the work area while preparing and eating of meals. To leave the cleaning job for the maid of the house should be strongly discouraged
2. Laundry skills
It is a common scenario in many Indian households, that kids even when they are old enough have no clue about the important household chore of washing clothes. There is either a washing machine or a maid who does the needful.It is strongly recommended to all parents that they should orient their kids on how to operate a washing machine.This skill should be taught by the time child is 10 years of age. Older kids should also be taught on how to do laundry without a washing machine. This would come in handy for them when they fly the nest and live in hostels for their further education.
At home kids around 10-12 years of age should actively participate in loading and unloading of clothes from the washing machine. Even drying and folding techniques should be taught to kids. Younger kids in early years should also be oriented on not to leave their clothes strewn around They should be discouraged from this from an early age.
3. Washing dishes
At 10-12-years of age child must know how to wash the dishes at home. Child should actively participate in this household chore. Parent can follow different strategy on assigning this important chore among the family members. Each of the member can be asked to wash their own dishes or else every member can be designated a slot when he/she will have to wash dishes of all family members. The latter strategy has been found to inculcate sense of collective responsibility among the family members
Children should also be actively involved in laying and cleaning of the table during mealtime. Kids as young as 2 years should be asked to put their spoiled plates in sink after meals. Elders of the family should be oriented on encouraging these skills among kids
4. Personal hygiene and self-grooming
To keep oneself neat, tidy and organized is very important. Kids as young as 5 years should be taught to make their own beds. Even a 2 year old can be groomed to pick their own little blankets and put them on bed properly
Children should be taught about body areas that need to be appropriately cleaned during bath. These body areas would include underarms, hands , toes, area between the legs and area behind the ear. Habit of everyday bath should be inculcated early in kids. Along with it, the child should be taught to to brush two times a day. The kids should cut their nails at regular intervals and in a proper and safe way without hurting their fingers. Washing hands is very much necessary in the current state of the pandemic, teaching your children to wash hands properly at regular intervals is very important.
5. Greeting others and prayers
Teach your kids to start their day with thank you prayer early in the morning . Greeting their elders early in the morning is also a good tradition to follow. If such kind of practice is inculcated in their lives it will have life long benefits. Blessings of elders and words of gratitude to God khelps children to remain grounded in life and make them emotionally stronger.
6. How to use the internet and social media
In this world of technology our kids are continuously exposed to the larger world through social media. Social Interaction modalities are undergoing tremendous change. It is duty of every parent to appropriately inform kids about advantages and perils of using social media and Internet. Transparent discussion regarding the same should be undertaken among family members. It is also important for parents to install necessary softwares on all electronic devices to keep potentially harmful content at bay from kids
Age-wise list of skills for your child
We have listed below age wise life skills that parents should inculcate in their kids . List is not exhaustive in any way but can act as a good startig point for many of the parents.
Life Skills for 2-4 years
- Greeting elders every morning
- Saying prayers
- Having meals independently and attempt to be clean
- Toiled trained
- Bottle/Breast feed weaning
- Pick up toys after play
- Put dirty clothes/shoes and dishes at appropriate place
- Use of Golden words –Please, thank you, sorry, Excuse me
- Recognize own name in print, know parents name, address and mobile number
Life Skills for 4-6 years
- Greeting elders every morning/ Making Bed
- Saying prayers
- Having meals independently with No mess
- Helping Mommy in laying and cleaning meal table
- Pick up toys/games after play, attempt to organize play area
- Put dirty clothes/shoes and dishes at appropriate place
- Use of Golden words –Please, thank you, sorry, Excuse me
- Recognize own name in print, know parents name, address and mobile number
Life Skills for 6-10 years
- Greeting elders every morning/ Making Bed
- Saying prayers
- Having meals independently with No mess
- Helping Mommy in laying and cleaning meal table
- Washing small utensils and folding small clothes
- Undertake independent reading sessions
- Organize play area after play
- Put dirty clothes/shoes and dishes at appropriate place
- Use of Golden words –Please, thank you, sorry, Excuse me
- Helping grandparents in their daily routine
- Understand value of schedule/time/money
Life Skills for 10-14 years
- Greeting elders every morning/ Making Bed/ cleaning room
- Saying prayers
- Preparing basic snack and breakfast meals independently
- Helping Mommy in laying and cleaning meal table
- Should be able to do dishes independently
- Undertake independent reading/ study sessions
- Organize and manage one’s own room
- Should be able to do laundry
- Use of Golden words –Please, thank you, sorry, Excuse me
- Helping grandparents in their daily routine
- Understand value of schedule/time/money
Life Skills for 14-16 years
- Greeting elders every morning/ Making Bed/ cleaning room
- Saying prayers
- Preparing full main course meal for self and family
- Independently laying and cleaning meal table and doing dishes
- Should have knowledge on right way to use social media and internet
- Should have information on working of banking and financial instruments like credit card/debit card/ atm
- Organize and manages one’s own room
- Should be able to do laundry
- Helping grandparents in their daily routine
- Understand value of schedule/time/money
Conclusion
It would need persistence, commitment and patience from parents to teach above given skills to their kids. In times of lockdown when academic skills have taken a back seat it is imperative that we impart such skills to the kids and get them ready for life ahead. .
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