Which Are More Important - Life Skills or Academics?
Are Life Skills More Important than Academics?
Happy April! Here we go for only 5.5 more weeks of learning and growing together in elementary school! As the school years come and go, it is a joy for me to watch our children as they evolve into such fine young people with very bright futures. I may be a bit biased but I believe that the elementary school years are such an important time span in the character, emotional, behavioral, and academic development of our children. As they leave elementary school, it is crucial that they have strong skills in all of these areas in order to experience success in middle school, high school, college, and career. Helping our children learn skills to live independently can certainly start in the elementary school time frame.
As you may or may not know my school district, Jefferson County Public Schools, has just released a new vision document for our schools. Our new superintendent, Dr. Jason Glass states, "The vision document intentionally builds on the direction outlined in the Jeffco 2020 Vision. To profoundly change education for the better, we must have the courage to re-examine teaching, our existing notions of schooling, and the learning process itself. This may be a challenging concept for some, but it is also the right work for our schools, our communities, and, most importantly, our children."
Here is a link to the Jeffco Generations Vision:
Within the Jeffco Generations Vision documents you will find seven "generations skills" that we hope to instill in our students prior to graduation so that they are all college and career ready. These skills are listed here:
1. Content Mastery
2. Civic and Global Engagement
3. Self-Direction and Personal Responsibility
4. Communication
5. Critical Thinking and Creativity
6. Collaboration and Leading by Influence
7. Agility and Adaptability
It is interesting to me that of these skills (which are all important) only Content Mastery and perhaps Communication and Critical Thinking can be measured with a traditional standardized state assessment like the CMAS (Colorado Measures of Academic Skills.) So much of what it takes to be a successful adult is not taught through standard school academic subjects, but through the actual living and experiencing of life in community with others through authentic tasks and experiences.
I found this article in Parents Magazine about ten things we should teach our children by the age of ten. How many of these have you taught your children to this point? Why not make a plan now so that you get to all ten by the time your kids or even your grand kids are ten!
10 Life Skills to Teach Your Child by Age 10
By Michelle Crouch from Parents Magazine
1. Doing the Laundry - Too many teens head to college with no clue how to clean their clothes. Don’t let your kid become one of them. You can begin teaching your child when she is around 6. If you have a top-loading washer, keep a step stool nearby. Walk her through the process—how to measure and add the detergent, choose the settings, and start the machine. Amy Mascott, who blogs at TeachMama.com, taught her three kids (now 9, 10, and 12). She chose cute names for jobs: Wash Warrior, Super-Fly Dry Guy, Put ’Em Away Triple Play. Mascott says there have been snafus, like the time a whole load was folded and put away damp. “But I’m not aiming for perfection. I’m aiming for them to get the job done,” she says.
2. Planting a Seedling - Lots of preschoolers learn to plant seeds in class but not how to transfer sprouts into a garden. Whitney Cohen, coauthor of The Book of Gardening Projects for Kids, shares the basics. Ask your child to dig a hole that’s slightly larger than the container the plant is in. Once you remove the plant from the pot and place it in the hole, have her delicately push soil around it and pat it down. Let your child water it with a gentle stream from a watering can with a perforated nozzle. By age 6 or 7, your child can remove a seedling himself. Have him split two fingers apart so the stem of the plant goes between them, then squeeze the outside of the container until the plant comes out. If the roots are wound tightly, he should loosen them a few at a time before planting.
3. Wrapping a Gift - Your child already loves giving presents, and wrapping them makes it even more satisfying. Preschoolers can help cut the paper and stick on the tape, while kindergartners can complete additional steps with your help, like removing the price tag, finding the right size box, and wrapping paper all the way around the gift to make sure it fits before cutting it.
4. Hammering a Nail - Give your child a 7- or 9-ounce hammer. Home-improvement stores sell kids’ models as light as 4 ounces, but with those it’s harder to pound a nail. Use a piece of soft wood (such as pine, poplar, or cedar). You can hold it in place with clamps or a vise, or simply place it on the ground. Pick nails with a wide head. At first you’ll have to “start” each one for him. When your child is ready to do it himself, you can push a nail through a small piece of cardboard so it’s held in place as he hammers it into the wood. Make sure your child holds the edge of the cardboard instead of the nail (to protect his fingers). Once he’s mastered that method, have him try holding the nail. Be prepared for a sore thumb or two, but before long he’ll get the hang of it.
5. Writing a Letter - Toddlers can dictate a letter to a family member (enhanced with drawings), attach the stamp, and drop it into a mailbox. Teach an older child how to address an envelope and the five parts of a letter: date, greeting (“Dear…”), body, closing (“Sincerely”), and signature. You can also have them help with holiday cards, find a pen pal (sites such as Amazing Kids and International Pen Friends can help), or correspond with the POTUS by having them address a letter to The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500.
6. Preparing a Simple Meal - Invite your child to help make meals, assign him jobs to do, and stay calm when the flour spills and the eggshells fly, says Christina Dymock, a mom of four and author of Young Chefs. Yogurt with fruit is a good first DIY breakfast. Preschoolers can spoon yogurt into a bowl and add prewashed cut-up fruit. Work with kids 5 and older on making sandwiches and smoothies (monitor the blender closely). Around age 7 or 8, your kid can try toaster-oven faves like English-muffin pizza, or make a simple salad by ripping lettuce, dumping in croutons, and cutting up tomatoes, cucumbers, and carrots. By age 10, kids can use the stovetop with supervision for a grilled-cheese sandwich. Focus on safety and practice, and you might just have a MasterChef Junior on your hands.
7. Navigating - If you’ve ever gotten lost following a GPS’s turn-by-turn voice directions, you know why being able to read a map is essential (even if it’s one on your phone). These activities will build your child’s navigational skills. Hunt for treasure. Maps seem boring…until you use them to look for booty. Hide toys in your yard and then draw a simple sketch to mark their location. Show your 3- or 4-year-old how objects on the map correspond to those in front of her. Have her lead the way. Zoos, museums, and theme parks have colorful, easy-to-read maps. Ask your preschooler to track her path, and challenge an older kid to get you from point A to point B. Take up geocaching. Kids ages 5 and up love this outdoor treasure hunt game, which uses GPS tracking to find containers filled with trinkets. Learn more at geocaching.com.
8. Treating a Wound - Teach your child from a young age not to freak out when he sees blood (and don’t overreact yourself). Giving him a game plan will distract him from the pain and come in handy when you’re not around to kiss his boo-boos: Apply pressure until the bleeding stops, rinse the cut with water, dab on some antibiotic ointment, then apply a bandage.
9. Cleaning the Bathroom - Keep rags or a sponge handy for wiping toothpaste blobs off the sink. Toilet duties require greater skill. School-age kids can clean the lid, seat, and base with a disinfecting wipe. Make sure they wash their hands thoroughly afterward. Big kids can scrub the bowl with a nontoxic cleaner: Sprinkle the sides with baking soda, let it sit for a few minutes, pour in some vinegar, then scrub with a toilet brush.
10. Comparison Shopping - Teaching kids to be smart consumers takes practice. This three-step approach worked for our family:
• Explain as you go. Mention prices out loud and talk about your choices: “I’m getting gas at the other station because it costs 10 cents less per gallon.” I tell my kids about some things I’d like to have (Lululemon yoga pants, anyone?) but don’t buy because they’re not in our budget.
• Let your kid pay sometimes. Give him an allowance, and then designate items he is responsible for purchasing. My husband and I don’t buy any sweets. That’s forced our kids to become savvy shoppers. When the ice pops at our local pool began putting a dent in their cash flow, they pooled their money and bought a box of 12 to keep in the freezer.
• Play the grocery game. At the supermarket, challenge your kid to find the least expensive brand of paper towels or tomato sauce.
I hope you found these tips interesting. Thank you for the partnership that we enjoy as we work to help the Mortensen Mission become a reality!
Our mission is to nurture, empower, and inspire all of our students to become successful learners in a world full of possibilities!
Sincerely,
Karla B. Hankins, Principal
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