With summer here, so many of us are looking forward to the change in routine and hopefully slowing down of some of our schedules. While we’ll have a few things on our calendar each week (check our family calendar for ideas), our mornings won’t be quite as rushed and our days will include much more down time. With three kids to wrangle, it’s hard to find time before and/or after school to teach them things like how to make oatmeal or ride a bike. This makes summer the perfect time to work on life skills with my kids.
When thinking about what to work on with my kids, I ask three things.
- Will it make our lives easier?
- Is this a skill that my kids need to keep themselves safe?
- Can they actually accomplish this during the Summer?
In previous years, we worked on zipping jackets, putting on their own shoes, getting themselves basic breakfasts (think cereal, yogurt and microwave sausage) and unloading the dishwasher. They’ve learned to pack their own backpacks and consult our morning checklist. They have even learned to put their own laundry away (major game changer!). All of these skills set us up to have better mornings during the school year.
Here are a few things we will be working on this summer:
4 Year Old
- Memorizing our address
- Wiping herself after using the toilet
- Order at a restaurant
6 & 7 Year Old
- Memorizing our phone numbers
- Make Mac and cheese independently
- Load dishwasher properly
- Tie their own shoes consistently
I am confident that each of my children will be able to master these skills this summer, and when they do, we’ll make a big deal out of it. I also know that their accomplishments will make our lives and routine just slightly easier, which is always a plus.
