12 Essential Life Skills to Teach your Kids by the Age of 10

Kids are reaching puberty faster than they were years ago and by the age of ten, they should know right from wrong. Their bodies and hormones are also changing and your shy little preschooler is now a social butterfly on their phone or tablet all of the time. There is more to life than social media and it’s good to start teaching your children life skills at a young age, so parents can build on their knowledge.

All people need to learn these important skills in order to survive and to succeed in life. Education is an important life skill, carpentry or building are good life skills for kids, understanding the mechanics of a car are important life skills. Cooking and baking are good life skills, and so is housekeeping and babysitting. There are many more life skills and it depends on what parents feel is essential for their children to learn.

1. How to Manage Money

Schools have many classes on finance, accounting classes etc, but they don’t talk about how important it is to start saving. It’s important to teach your kids how to live within their means by helping them create a budget. In addition, it’s also essential to help them learn how to manage their money and learn about the tax system. Kids have to understand the value of a dollar because not all kids come from wealthy environments.

2. Mental Health

Mental health is very controversial in today’s world, so it’s important to prepare your children to learn about mental health. There are many illnesses and people that live in our society that have not been properly diagnosed. Your children might attend school with these children or eventually work with them. During the course of their life, they will come in contact with someone suffering from mental health issues. It’s better to prepare them now so they can help the children or gain an understanding of what is going on with mental health.

3. Relationships

This is also another essential life skill children should understand as they progress on to middle school. Some kids are brainiacs and will succeed all through high school and college and be on the honor roll. The problem is they have never been properly taught about the importance of having a loving relationship with their parents or their friends as they get older.

Many people don’t understand the concept of love because somewhere down the line, they missed the boat, and now they have problems with relationships because they spent so many years working towards their dreams. Now everyone is all grown up with families of their own. Parents have to set the example at home and answer any questions their children might have, so they understand what it’s like to have a strong, solid relationship.

4. Repairs, Management, Maintenance

These aspects are not emphasized enough when children are young. Take your kids with you when purchasing a home, or buying and selling a car. Kids get out of college and don’t have a clue about any kind of simple repairs, including home and car repairs. Mom and Dad buy them their first car and they have no clue how that works either.

You have to teach your kids how to talk to salesmen because they are rather shady at times. You wouldn’t want your son driving up in a 20-year-old jalopy because he listened to a cut-throat salesman. Teach your kids that cars need insurance, oil changes, tire rotations, and maintenance at intervals and they should be good to go with learning how to be independent.

5. Family and Marriage

Raising children later in life is not easy breezy all of the time. Emergencies happen and budgets get tight and kids need to be aware of this. In addition, marriage takes a lot of work and team effort to raise a family and succeed.

This is one of life’s skills parents need to teach their children, and they can start by setting a good example. This doesn’t mean that their marriage will be perfect, but parents can set the groundwork by teaching their children that two people bond together and raise a family. They stay together through thick and thin and reap the rewards by having a loving family.

6. Credit Card Debt

Debt is not something you want your children to wrack up when they get out of college, so this is another essential life skill that parents can teach their children at the age of ten. Talk to your kids about the importance of good credit and show them how to look at the interest, rewards, and points that come as a value with choosing the right credit card.

Teach them to pay off their balances early so they avoid interest and only have a few credit cards for emergencies. Tell them the importance of having good credit so they are able to buy a house someday.

7. Manners

Manners are another essential social skill that should be taught with kids as young as one. As soon as they begin to talk, teach them to say please and thank you, and have them build on their manners as they grow up. There are many people in the world who are just plain cranky and slam doors in people’s faces, are bad communicators, and don’t know how to act in professional settings.

This is because they were not taught proper manners or etiquette. People used to write invitations and thank you cards, and now they post these events on Facebook and no one knows if they are invited or not. Teach your children the importance of manners and sending out invitations and thank you cards after they have received some special gifts, this way they can pass it down to their children.

8. Cooking

Preparing a meal is an important life skill for children to learn. Both boys and girls should know how to cook and bake. There are many male and female chefs and pastry chefs that design beautiful pastries and great meals that look like a work of art. Every kid should be able to cook something by highschool and if you don’t, hang around your grandmother, because she will teach you some great culinary skills. You will raise kids that are pros by the time they get out of college. Check what kitchen toys we have to offer.

9. Time Management Skills

Many people don’t realize the importance of time and therefore they are late for interviews, their jobs, schools, and appointments. Some people have pet peeves with their friends who are late so it’s important to teach your kids the importance of time management.

Teach your children how to set aside time for homework, hobbies, playtime, gaming, etc. Teach them how to pace themselves and also teach them how rude it is to be late if the grandmother is waiting for a lunch date.

It’s important how you teach your kids how to spend their time and it’s also critical. Time never stops and always keeps moving. The problem is the majority of people don’t know how to manage their time. When you teach your kids time management, you are teaching them how to set goals and stay focused and disciplined. It’s sad but many kids that graduate from college still don’t have their time management skills intact.

10. Understanding Failure

This doesn’t mean you lost in the game of survival. Many young Americans think they are invincible and make a huge mistake and think they failed, so they hit a brick wall. This is the start of many life learning experiences. Failure is a huge part of success and this is what is important in life skills for kids.

This is the only way the lightbulb will go on, and they will face the fact that their failures have made them stronger. Teach your kids how to set new goals if they feel that they failed. There is no such thing as failure, it’s just another life learning lesson.

11. Survival

This is a great essential skill for kids to learn and they can learn about this in scouting. Survival skills aren’t taught in school unless you send your children to a private specialty school that teaches survival skills. There are schools available that teach these skills, but they are extremely costly.

Scouting gives kids the opportunity to learn how to read a compass so they know the four directions. They learn first aid skills in case a friend gets hurt or there is a family emergency. They learn CPR, how to swim, how to make a bonfire that is done safely.

They can earn badges after they have achieved these essential life skills. In addition, they learn how to change a car tire, create smoke signals if they are lost or someone is hurt and map reading.

Map reading might be becoming a lost essential life skill, due to maps on cell phones that guide people to their destination. There are many more life skills that kids learn in scouting. Everyone wants their children to be able to think for themselves and know when a situation is dangerous or life-threatening. Scouting can teach them these skills.

12. Job Applications

Most people don’t have a clue about how to find a job or complete an application properly. You can teach your children what resumes are, and talk to them about headhunters and temp agencies. If you happen to be looking for a new job, include your child, so they can learn about the beginning procedures of job hunting and the application process.

You can also talk to your child about interviews and see if their school offers any type of these classes in middle school. You want to teach your child how to find a good job and tell them this is an important life skill that will encourage them to gain more confidence and achieve their goals and dreams. Just remember, kids love being around their parents and they love to learn new things!