Teaching Kids Life Skills

One of my big goals as a parent is to prepare my children for the real world. In addition to planting God’s Word in their hearts and academics in their brains, it’s my job to make sure they can live independently some day. I want them to have the skills to go out and get a job, run a home, and eat more than macaroni-and-cheese.

I am the oldest of four children. My mom was a single mom until I was in high school. While I could do laundry and take care of my siblings when I moved out, there was so much I was not prepared to do. I blundered my way through managing my home. I had almost zero money-management skills. I couldn’t {and still can’t} check my own oil or change a tire.

However, these are exactly the skills that I want my children – all of them – to have when they move out of my house. Yes, my sons and my daughters. I want my boys to know how to cook and clean, and I want my girlie girl to know basic car maintenance skills.

I realize that I am not the only one intentionally training my children to care for themselves and their families later in life. So, I thought I’d share what that looks like in our house. As I started writing that post, however, it just kept getting longer and longer. I decided to turn it into a series focused on life skills for kids.

Over the upcoming months, I will discuss various life skills that will teach our kids responsibility as well as prepare them to be able to manage a household one day. I will tackle one skill at a time such as laundry, chore systems, time management, money management, and more.

I will share the resources and systems we use as well as other resources available. I will include printables as often as possible, as well. I hope you will join me over the next few months as we intentionally prepare our children.