15 Valuable Life Skills to Teach Teens
As educators and parents, our job is to take care of and teach children until the day when they can head out on their own. While they might graduate from high school knowing how to read and write, there are other skills that are just as important that may not get covered in the classroom. Here are 15 important life skills to teach teens.
Life Skills to Teach Teens
Before your teen leaves home or graduates from school, ensure they’re ready to be as independent as possible and have a positive impact on the world. Of course this is not an all inclusive list, but take a moment to run down this checklist of life skills teenagers need to be ready to face the real world.
Practical Life Skills
Time Management and Organizational Skills
Teach teenagers how to manage their time. This is no small task. Be a positive role model for establishing priorities and dealing with distractions. Show teens how to schedule their time using a calendar and work backwards from a deadline. Many teens and adults find a planner helpful. Some students benefit from explicit instruction on how to get organized.
Study Skills
Teens need be taught how to study efficiently. Even though teenagers may no longer be taking classes when they graduate, they will continue to benefit from knowing how to learn. Encourage them to love reading. Demonstrate how to recognize key concepts, summarize, and design their own self-study skills for any material.
Teach them how to take notes. The Cornell Method helps students to take effective, organized notes and study the material. It was a system created by Walter Pauk, an education professor at Cornell University, to provide students with a systematic format for condensing and organizing notes.
Money Management
Teens benefit from learning how to create and stick to a budget. The choices your teen makes today will help to determine how much debt they accumulate during college and beyond. Warn them about the dangers of credit card debt. Money management skills are crucial for them to succeed financially. Give them a head start on developing financial responsibility by assigning them tasks like managing their allowance. Make sure they have the basics down first regarding money skills. If your teen has a job, help them open up a bank account so they can begin to save money.
Food Preparation
Not only do teenagers need to learn how to cook food they also need to learn how to eat well. Healthy eating habits start early. Show teens how to make a grocery list. Bring teens along for grocery shopping and invite them to join in preparing dinner. Teach them how to make a healthy meal. The meals you help them prepare can be simple meals. Stress the importance of eating a balanced diet rich in vegetables, fruits, and other whole foods. Once they can make basic meals, they will have a whole lot more confidence when it comes to cooking on their own.
Chores
It is pretty simple – teenagers need to clean up after themselves.
Kids who grow up doing chores will be more likely to take care of their first apartment and personal possessions.
Teach them how to vacuum, dust, do dishes, and do their laundry. They should know how to operate the washing machine and the dishwasher. If you would like to see your teen contribute to household tasks and take pride in their accomplishments, check out this resource to help your teenager get started.
Make Good Choices
Talk with teenagers about making smart choices and good decisions. Discuss protecting themselves online and off. Provide common-sense warnings and share your own experiences. Examine past experiences with them and what they can do differently the next time – this resource may help.
Emergency Skills
Don’t forget about one of the most valuable life skills to teach teens – how to handle emergencies. Does your teen know what to do if they have a fender bender or there’s a severe storm in the forecast? Rehearse how to respond to common emergencies. Do they know who to call? Teach them basic first aid.
Social and Emotional Life Skills to Teach Teens
Not only are their practical life skills to teach teens, educators and parents must also focus on social and emotional skills. Here are 8 examples:
- Clarify core values. The values your teen chooses will guide their behavior. Point them in a promising direction by ensuring they can articulate their beliefs and put them into action.
- Give generously. Your teen is more likely to succeed if they help others to do the same. Encourage them to share their resources and volunteer their services.
- Act mindfully. Mobile devices and the internet in general seem to be shortening the average attention span. If you want your teen to understand the power of mindfulness, you’ll need to teach by example. Give them your full attention when they’re talking.
- Deal with stress. Developing mindfulness will help protect your teen from depression and anxiety. They can also learn to relax by engaging in physical exercise and working on a hobby.
- Master phone etiquette. Even if your teen spends much of their waking life on the phone, they may not communicate effectively or be used to an actual phone call. Train them to identify themselves and speak clearly. Rehearse scheduling appointments or calling a professor.
- Talk face-to-face. Teens may be more comfortable on social media than having a conversation in person. Facilitate situations where they can practice.
- Cultivate relationships. Supportive relationships are vital to health and wellbeing. Coach teenagers on how to make friends and network. If they need extra help, check out these Making Friends Social Stories.
- Be assertive. Help teens to develop healthy self-esteem and advocate for themselves. Knowing how to share their wants and needs will bring them closer to fulfilling their goals. They will also have the self-confidence they need to deal with the challenges of everyday life.
You can ease a teenager’s transition into adulthood. Gradually give teenagers more and more responsibility so they can acquire the skills they need to live independently. Don’t forget to set daily life skills goals and objectives too!
The Life Skills Checklists help track progress towards routine life skills needed to succeed in the school, home, and community. The checklists have been created in Microsoft Excel. When you record a score for each life skill, it automatically enters into the graph for a visual representation of progress. If you are using the document in PDF format you will have to hand write in the score and the graphing information. This is a great resource for tracking quarterly progress and establishing goals.
