By Kylee Harris
Kiwi parents want their children’s schools to teach life skills, based on a survey of over 500 families. It is well and good to have schools be a partner in raising kids and teaching them necessary life skills. However, as parents, it is part of the job description to equip children with skills that they need to be fully functioning members of society. On that vein, what particular life skills does your child need to learn?
Home Economics
In New Zealand, it is found that only 13 per cent of teachers actually include lessons for cooking, according to research from Massey University. The topic of home economics has several branches that include cooking, budgeting, nutrition, and many other areas that govern the upkeep of a home. Knowing how to sew and repair clothing or textiles falls under the umbrella of home economics. Children need to learn how to care for themselves and their eventual households. As a parent, you can help them start by giving them chores around the home like dishwashing or food preparation.
Proper Conflict Resolution
Your children will eventually come across conflict in their social and professional circles. Proper conflict resolution is an important life skill that they’ll need to learn to obtain smoother relationships. You can help them learn it by helping them identify the conflict, teaching them coping processes like counting until calm, and eventually dissection of conflict through communication.
Analytical Decision Making
Making decisions is an unavoidable part of living. It involves every minutia of daily existence from what to eat or dress to what course to pursue in university. Children need to develop analytical decision making to pave the way toward wise choices and active participation in the future. You can help by building a safe environment for them to practice making decisions and slowly introducing more complex decision making such as which chores they’d like to do first.
