9 Life Skills Every Parent Should Add to their Homeschool Curriculum

When we think about homeschooling our kids, we tend to focus on building a well-rounded syllabus that covers the main school subjects.

But it’s also important to teach your kids the valuable life skills that’ll serve them well as they grow up. They might not need Pythagoras’ theorem when they’re 30, but they will need to know how to set a budget and manage their time!

To set your children up for success, it’s essential to incorporate life skills into their homeschool learning…

What are life skills and how do you teach them?

Life skills help us to be fully functioning members of society. They include abstract things like critical thinking, having perspective, and reading social cues. But life skills also refer to practices like money management, goal-setting, cooking, and reading maps.

You can introduce activities into your homeschooling practice to teach your children life skills from a young age. What you teach will depend on their age, but you should start with the basics like communication and independence. As they get older you can teach things like setting a budget and public speaking.

The best bit: you don’t have to devise lessons for each skill, as many of them are learned indirectly through experiences.

9 essential life skills to teach your kid(s)

Focus

We are constantly surrounded by potential distractions, so focus is an essential life skill. It’s also something you can easily emphasize in a normal homeschool routine. Quiet activities like reading or doing a puzzle can help kids focus on one thing at a time, but it’s also important for them to get used to working in loud environments.

Games like ‘Simon Says’ and ‘Head, Shoulder, Knees, and Toes’ are great for honing concentration and focus.

Communication

Effective communication is an essential life skill. This includes talking, but also active listening and body language. Kids need a lot of interaction and socializing to build adequate communication skills, so involve them in as many activities with other children as possible.

Kids will naturally pick up on social cues from adults as well, so be sure to carve out some time each day where you interact with them one-on-one without any other distraction.

Critical thinking

Every day, adults face situations that require critical thinking (analyzing information and making complex decisions). There are plenty of ways to develop these skills in your children while they’re still learning and developing — age-appropriate riddles, sudoku and puzzles are a great place to start.

Similarly, most card and board games require children to assess situations, take risks, make mistakes, and find solutions — all of which build their critical thinking skills.

As your children get older, you can have discussions about current events or books they’re reading to let them practice forming their own opinions.

Time management

Learning proper time management can be difficult, but necessary.

Make a schedule with your kids and stick to it, and whenever they do a school activity, give them a timeframe in which to finish it. If they’re struggling, you can show them how to break big tasks down into small, manageable chunks.

Independence

Kids who are homeschooled tend to be a little more independent than those in mainstream school — and this quality is worth encouraging. During lessons, ask them to complete assignments on their own, without asking for help until the very end. Most often, they’ll be able to solve issues with a little critical thinking as soon as they realize they can’t rely on you.

Some children are naturally curious and inquisitive, but for those who aren’t it’s important to encourage a love for learning. Get them to read books and ask questions. Work with them to do extra research on topics they’re learning at school. Model behavior by showing your own curiosity about the world around you — go to the library or watch documentaries as a family.

Money management

Adults know the value of a good budget and how important it is to be sensible with money. If you learn this at a young age, becoming financially independent is a much easier adjustment.

Give your children a small amount of pocket money each week and teach them about saving up for something they want. Be open with them about money — talk about things that you want to buy but can’t afford, to help them understand that items and experiences have certain values.

Shopping

Anyone can go to the grocery store, but it takes a little planning and foresight to do it well. Bring your kids shopping each week and talk through everything you do. For example: “I’m buying this cereal because it’s healthier and has less sugar” or “We only have three carrots left and I need four for a recipe”. When they’re a bit older, you can give them a budget and put them in charge of buying certain items.

Comparison shopping goes hand in hand with money management and it’s the kind of thing you can teach by doing. Talk about prices with them, e.g. “I’m buying gas here because it’s 10 cents cheaper than the place near our house.”

Reading maps

Yes, we all have easy-to-follow GPS in our pocket at all times, but learning to read a map and having a good sense of direction is a valuable skill. Make treasure hunts through the neighborhood with hand-drawn maps or try geocaching.

Next time you’re at a theme park or zoo that has a map, put your child in charge of leading the family.

Perspective

We live in a world where everyone has different experiences and viewpoints. When your child is forming opinions, it’s important for them to understand that theirs isn’t the only one. Kids in mainstream schools pick up on this pretty quickly, but homeschool kids shouldn’t miss out.

When they talk to you about a situation or problem with their friends, encourage them to try and view it from the other person’s perspective. Also, take opportunities to explain emotional

reactions where possible, like why somebody might be sad or angry.

It can sometimes feel like there’s so much you have to teach your children, but they’ll pick up on a lot of these things naturally, or with just a little coaxing.

So don’t stress!

Just by reading this, you’re already doing a great job to equip your kids with all the life skills they need.