5 Important Life Skills That Can Lead Kids to a Better Future
- Written by Diana Smith
We can’t know what our own future holds, let alone the future of our children. It’s true that we are the makers of our own fate, but no one has the magic ability to see past tomorrow. However, as parents, we can always equip our kids with the confidence and skill set that could come in very handy when the moment comes for them to make important decisions on their life’s crossroads. As you can probably guess, life skills are things that one can perfect for as long as they live, but the core of these skills can turn out to be incredibly strong when introduced at life’s root, i.e. early childhood.
1. Receiving nature’s gifts
Everyone can benefit a lot from spending their time outdoors, but this is especially true for children. During their childhood when they get to discover their likes and interests and have a relentless desire to explore the world around them, letting the kids spend as much of their time as possible outdoors will undoubtedly boost the child’s mental and physical development.
Breathing in the fresh air, relaxing, and sharpening their eyes as they witness natural beauties and colors, playing and running around with other kids their age, getting dirty, falling down sometimes, and getting back up, are just some of the many amazing things that await your kids outside of the home’s walls. It’s too easy to forget the wonders of nature when you live in concrete jungles of cities such as Hong Kong, for example, but even the most urban cityscapes have a lot to offer nature-wise.
Essentially, natural surroundings are a great environment to encourage the kids to use their critical thinking ability more as well as improve their fitness levels and physical development through movement. The freedom of open space will lead to more open social relationships with other kids too, together with the overall boost in creativity and teamwork. With their love of nature born from the early days, children will find a way to utilize this gift as grownups even better.
2. The love of reading
Encouraging your kid’s love of reading is a life skill that can benefit them in the future in many obvious ways. Keep in mind that it’s never too early to foster the love of written word in your kids. Even babies can enjoy your voice as you read them stories from favorite children’s books. After all, this is how you’ll get to eventually spark their interest in picking up the same book on their own.
Discovering the magic world of stories from an early age won’t only make it easier for kids to accept the concept of reading and learning later on, but it will also provide them with a constant flow of new information and fresh vocabulary. With a healthy learning habit comes a healthy brain, creativity boost, and a growing curiosity to explore more.
3. The readiness to learn new languages
Many parents refrain from exposing their kids to a foreign language due to the fear that the new language would disturb the natural process of their native language acquisition. However, nothing can be further from the truth. Actually, the sooner the kids get exposed to a foreign language, the faster their brains will develop and efficiently learn how to store and recognize different language structures. Almost magically, this will provide the kids with the right skill set and learning ability to understand and acquire more foreign languages easier as time goes by.
You might be worried about the learning environment when it comes to the introduction of a new language, which is completely natural. But with just a little bit of research, you’ll be able to find that there are language schools, such as the popular Monkey Tree in Hong Kong, that offer specially crafted curriculums tailored to different ages, from 3 to 12 years old. These classes are filled with songs, constructive playtime, and fun lessons, perfect for the youngsters to engage in wholeheartedly.
4. Tackle problem-solving
The problem-solving skill is something kids can benefit a lot from throughout their life, especially when they’re taught to tackle and face the problem from an early age instead of getting stressed out and ignoring it completely. Not only does this work on logical problems that require some critical thinking, but various situations in life as well.
A rather obvious way to inspire your child’s will to tackle problem-solving is to introduce them to the fun range of interesting puzzles and logic games. There are plenty of those to play on digital devices, too. Of course, don’t hesitate to lead open discussions with your kids about their feelings and experiences of the day. That way, they’ll be able to process things that happened to them and come to their own conclusions with a lot more confidence, a much necessary bonus for the future.
5. The best way to handle money
It doesn’t matter how much money you have – your child will still come to a point in their life when they’ll have to handle their finances on their own. With that in mind, it’s important that you familiarize them with the concept of money and financial responsibilities in an age-appropriate manner.
You can start slowly, and once the kids are able to understand what money means and its purpose, you can make the most out of their pocket money and chore rewards in order to help them further understand the value of it all.
Remember, children are never too young to be encouraged to experience and learn something new, as long as you take an age-appropriate approach. The above-mentioned life skills sowed in early childhood will allow the children to reap a bunch of benefits in the future.
