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Teach your teens basic life skills- 28-Dec-2013
To be truthful, they are nowhere near to enough.
Being adept in academic areas are not going to help youths out of some critical situation they are likely to face in the upcoming years. Certainly, most of those predicaments probably will have nothing to do with Shakespeare, Trigonometry or World History.
They will have know how to handle at times when their cars break down or they get sick? How to go through a job interview or a lunch with co-workers? To be responsible with money?
Only a very few schools teach these skills, either directly or amalgamated into other academic subjects. But its the responsibility of the parents to make sure their teens can take care of themselves in this demanding world.
Here are some skills that educators think that are crucial to be an independent adult and means to teach them to your teens.
Budgeting & Money:
Its very important for teens to know how to work out interests and how to track their bank accounts online.
Make sure your teen has a bank account, and if they dont, take them to a bank, open one. First of all, it is important for kids or teens to know how to use the bank in person before they start managing accounts online.
Help your teen to practice managing money by giving them a monthly pocket expenses. Have them come up with a list of what they need, where they will buy the needs and how much they will cost. Ask them to review their budget to prioritize and make adjustments as necessary. Be firm about the spending limit for that month and encourage them to save little out of the money.
The entire concept of this is that 'this is your amount', and with the allotted money, if they want to spend on designer jeans or executive shoes or anything is fine, but only with that fixed amount and not more. Provide the kid or teen with a debit card to teach them how to have all control of it and if prudent learn how to save too.
Handling such monthly expenses will help your teen learn how to set a household budget and work within it. Managing home finances is a key skill, according to a technical education specialist.
It will have lasting impacts on their financial welfare throughout their lives, being able to make good decisions.
Handling emergencies:
Most teens in India do not know how to deal with insurance without help. Most essentially in the days to come they need to know what to do if they get involved an accident or have to go to emergency care in a hospital.
Teach health-insurance payments or other billing procedures to your children and make sure they know how to go about the entire process without much trouble and what kind of identification they will need to provide.
In small incidents of vehicle crash, teach your teens to call police and move the vehicle to the side of the road if possible.
Empower them with a list of information they will need to exchange with the other driver: name, address, phone number, insurance information, drivers-license number and license-plate number.
Take your teens to the insurance agent when you add them to your policy and have the agent explain what they need to do in an accident.
Additionally, make a trip to the police station, so an police officer can explain what happens when youre in involved an accident or if you are caught for any other incident.
Help kids develop basic skills, apart from digital skills:
Teens should be encouraged practice basic skills that have nothing to do with technology.
Make sure that your teen knows how to read and write in cursive and that he can sign his name steadily. Kids need to know how to fill some basic applications, bank remittance slip or DD slip and write a check, as well.
Urge your teens write and speak in complete sentences without using the shorthand that goes with texting or social media.
Most youngsters shorten everything they do with technology these days, sending little messages where everything is abbreviated. They need to get out of that habit because when emailing to their professor or mailing for a job interview they cant use such form of representation.
Develop people skills:
Todays teens may know their way around an iPhone or latest gadgets blindfolded, but to be successful in the workplace, they need learn good manners and to be able to communicate and collaborate with others.
Key skills include being able to meet new people and have successful interactions with them.
These skills are highly vital as they are called character education.
Most important, teach them to treat other people with respect. Next, at work place, to do their share of work earnestly rather goofing around.
In the present global work environment, its very important to posses these rudimentary skills, not to excel but to sustain in a workplace.
Your teen must know how to shake hands and look in to the person's eye, while communicating.
Furthermore, it is important to posses interpersonal skills. In particular, all kids need to have some public-speaking abilities. Parents can facilitate teens to read aloud or write a speech and present it in front of a mirror or the family. They need to practice making eye contact, breathing and speaking slowly.
According educators, individuals who are able to articulate and can present himself to a group of people goes a long way.
Being able to defend your belief is itself a skill you need for the rest of your life.
Managing time:
Teens should be able to use a personal calendar by the time they graduate, in order to track appointments, important dates and assignments.
Encourage them to start using a calendar application or an online calendar while they are still in high school to get them in the habit of keeping track of everything. The earlier they start, the better.
They also need to plan their study time.
Often, they are groomed up in protected environment in the household, with a set study space and time for the kids, and when they move on to college, theyve got a messy, noisy dorm room. They stand shattered!
Doing household activities:
Some basic home skills such as taking care of your laundry may look simple, but they are not as they seem.
Teach your teen not only how to sort out laundry but also how much detergent to use, how to treat stains and how many items of clothing to put in the washer at a time.
Parents assume a lot about what their kids can do and dont realize how much structure theyve provided for the student before he or she is grown up.
Many parents carry out all of these activities when their teens are in high school, and then later most of them end up not able to manage their time and forget to do laundry, forgetting to study, especially because theyre not in the habit of doing these things.
Certainly, none of these things are earth shattering or too demanding, but they do add up a lot to better life.
