Elyce at Home

So the question on the table is…

What skills and knowledge will the kids need in the real world?

My husband and I have been going back and forth on this for a while. We both agree that having exposure to a wide range of math, science, history, and literature is a good thing. One never knows where one will find his or her passion.

But we also agree that unless something is useful or interesting, it will not be remembered.

My husband loves history. While he and I each had many history courses growing up, he retained much more knowledge than I did because he found it interesting. Truth be told, I probably did better on the tests, though.

But back to our question…

What skills and knowledge will the kids need in the real world?

From our traditional schooling, we agreed on basic math – addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Possibly fractions, percentages, and some basic geometry would be helpful, too.

Reading and writing well are essential.  Basic knowledge of history and science also give you a foundation of common language references.

But here are the topics and some of the associated subtopics we came up with that are not taught in schools…

People Skills

·         Establishing rapport

·         Relationship skills

·         Conflict resolution

·         Etiquette

·         Public Speaking

Money Skills

·         Budgeting

·         Credit

·         Taxes

·         Investing

Time Management Skills

Space Management/Organization Skills

Decision Making Skills

Home Skills

·         Basic home maintenance and repair

·         Cooking

·         Cleaning

·         Lawn care

Car Skills

·         Knowing how to drive in all conditions

·         Basic maintenance

·         Dealing with an emergency – changing a flat tire and using jumper cables

Health Skills

·         Nutrition

·         First Aid

·         Dealing with illness

 Self-care skills

·         Stress management

·         Hygiene

·         Finding your passion

·         Knowing and living what you believe

Safety Skills

·         Emergency preparedness

·         Basic self-defense

·         Personal boundaries

·         Personal protection on the internet

Living On Your Own

·         Getting your first apartment

·         Paying taxes

·         Reading a paycheck

·         Insurance

·         Roommates

I am sure we will come up with more as we go along. But for now, we’ll start with these.

We decided to start with people skills. I have been gathering information on people skills from many different sources to pull together a People Skills course for my children. You can follow our lessons at www.fiveminutelifelessons.com.

Filed under: Uncategorized on January 13th, 2009