40+ Life Skills to Teach This Summer
If you are looking for the printable copy of these life skills you can teach over the summer or anytime throughout the year, pop in you email address below!
A few weeks ago, someone asked if I had a list of life skills kids could work on during the summer.
I didn’t, but I asked my Instagram community for suggestions and they came pouring in, from fun skills like learning to solve a Rubik’s cube to learning how to fold laundry.
Whether you want practical life skills, fun skills, or a combo of the two, there are LOTS of great suggestions here!
FOOD
Cook/Simple Meals/Follow a recipe –
This is probably the first thing that comes to mind when talking about skills to teach a child. Being able to whip up a few things to feed yourself not only helps out when you are living at home, but definitely when you are away. Here’s how we got Ella started with cooking. One follower gave this idea below which I thought was genius!
“We started using summer to teach our kids to cook and we eat our big meal at lunchtime. We typically have a little more flexibility then and plenty of time and energy to clean up after. It’s amazing how learning a few skills can make following a recipe a breeze!”
Sourdough baking – This has really made a comeback in the last couple of years. I haven’t jumped on the bandwagon, but I know a lot of people who find this very enjoyable.
Meal Plan – I’m definitely into meal planning and over the past few months, my girls have started helping my husband pick out the meals for the week each Sunday afternoon!
Grocery Shop – To pair with meal planning, teaching your child how to grocery shop after meal planning is a great idea. Whether you go in store or do it online, it’s good to teach them to know how to find specific items, check prices, and look at ingredient lists.
Learn how to safely use the BBQ – Grilling does require a bit of knowledge before starting up, from getting a new propane tank, hooking it up, lighting the grill, turning off propane, cleaning the grill and even how to use a meat thermometer. My kids would be all about this.
How to prepare/store food to prevent spoiling – Nobody likes getting sick from spoiled food or tossing it out because it went bad too soon. Simple habits, like rinsing berries right after shopping or storing leftovers in airtight containers, can make a big difference. It’s also helpful to explain why some foods need refrigeration while others belong in the pantry.
HOUSE
Laundry – A very essential skill to have in life with some specific details that you wouldn’t know about unless taught. There is sorting, usage of the washing machine and dryer, hang drying necessary clothes, stain treatment, and putting away clothes. (Details about how we manage laundry here!)
Bathroom Clean – There are a lot of steps to clean a bathroom, plus becoming informed on what cleaning products you can use on what surfaces. (And extra points if they know how to plunge a toilet!)
Load/Unload Dishwasher – This is a great task for kids of all ages, and is a great prerequisite to hand washing dishes!
Vacuum – I felt like this one was so self explanatory and my kids had seen me do hundreds of times. But when I asked them to do it, they all went nilly-willy about a room, only going where they could visibly see something. It’s important to teach how to create a pattern and maneuver the vacuum over all of the carpet.
Change Sheets – If you really want to go above and beyond, teach them how to fold a fitted sheet. I’m still only about 40% good at this one.
Clean windows – Getting a streak free window is so satisfying! And is there anything better than having clean windows?!
Change air filters – The easiest task yet something a lot of kids leave home without knowing how to do.
Clean car – Little kids can easily help with this one. You can go crazy detailed on how much of a deep clean you would like. From gathering all of the items out of the car, to vacuuming, to wiping the inside and outside of the windows, etc.
HEALTH/HYGIENE
Basic Exercises – It’s so good for everyone to have a foundation of some very basic exercises. I would say those included but not limited to are sit ups, push ups, jumping jacks, squats, and planking.
Bathe/wash hair – Cleaning behind your ears and in between your toes is something most little kids don’t think about doing. And properly washing and rinsing your hair takes a bit of practice to get good at.
Comb and style hair – Combing is definitely something the younger crowd can do. Styling is a little trickier and is geared for those who are a bit older. My girls have loved practicing different kinds of braids on each other (and me while I read aloud to them at night!) and are getting really good!
Shaving – This is a skill for the older tween/teen crowd and it needs a little bit of direction the first few times to keep them safe.
Basic First Aid – Whether it is cleaning out a scrape and applying a band aid, or taking out a splinter with tweezers, this is a great skill to master (especially during summer when all the bumps and scrapes are plentiful!).
Trim finger and toe nails – Avoiding ingrown toenails or cutting yourself, plus knowing how to cut the correct shape are great life skills!
EDUCATIONAL
Writing and mailing letters – Some might think this is a thing of the past, but I don’t know many people who doesn’t love opening up the mailbox and finding a personal letter inside!
Learning cursive – We have been practicing cursive with our homeschooling curriculum. This is the book we use! Think about all the primary documents and even grandparent letters that might arrive in cursive – I’m shocked how many kids can’t read cursive at all!
Memorizing all the capitals or states or countries – I’ve been all about geography with homeschooling and think it’s really important for my kids to know geography of the world. We’ve used this giant map!
Telling time on an analog clock – If you don’t have an analog clock somewhere in your house…now is the time to get one! (Or analog watches are a fun way to practice with kids.)
Counting money / providing change – Playing grocery store, restaurant or even doing a lemonade stand is an easy and fun way to learn this!
Coding / Typing – We have used and loved these free typing programs! For coding, we love CodeSpark. You can try it out for $5 for two months here!
SOCIAL
Since we live in such a digital world, these skills have become something that aren’t as natural as they used to be. Practicing each of them and talking about the importance will provide them with the confidence they need!
Making eye contact – It shows you are truly listening! Plus, I say if you don’t know someone’s eye color after talking to them…you weren’t making good eye contact.
Introducing themselves and others – This is always the first step at making friends and SOOOO important!
Shaking hands – For older kids, a nice firm handshake (with eye contact) when meeting an adult or superior can really make a difference.
Receiving compliments – Even for adults this skill can be difficult! The younger they start, the easier it will be when they are grown.
Screen Time Control – Whew! I think we can all relate to this one! Knowing when to shut off the screens takes great skill, self-control, and responsibility (I have a whole post about managing screen time in the summer here)
Making an appointment (doctor, dentist, hair appt, etc) / phone etiquette – Have you seen the video online where the teenager is calling to make an appointment and when asked if he’s diabetic, he looks to his mom for the answer?! Definitely trying to avoid that!
FINANCE
Earning money – I love when kids have entrepreneurial spirit! Ella started her own face painting business and I think any child can take a passion or hard work and make their own money. Plus, so many other skills can be learned through starting a small business!
Saving – Most kids have holes burning in their pockets, who can blame them?! Saving can be hard, but the payout is fantastic – definitely a skill worth building. I know a lot of people do the 1/3 to spend, 1/3 to save, and 1/3 to charitable giving to make it easy when they are young. (We use Crew for our kids – it is similar to Greenlight but doesn’t have the monthly fees of Greenlight!)
Investing – This is a topic that even a lot of adults don’t know much about. Our girls have RothIRAs for money that they’ve made, and we love talking to them about compounding interest. It’s the long game!
Basic Budget – I could talk about money for HOURS! And this is something that I am planning on talking about and doing with my girls early and often!
How to find a job – For older kids, learning how to search for a job, create a resume, submit an application, and interview skills can make a huge difference in their future job prospects.
Research, purchase, and return items – Shopping seems so easy, but there is a lot that goes into it: researching a product and deciding based on price or reviews, the act of actually buying an item at a store (whether using a card or cash), and how to return an item.
How to tip (servers, hair stylists, etc.) – When your child goes out to eat for the first time on their own, you want to make sure they know how to tip, what percentage, and how to find that percentage.
FUN SKILLS
Artistic – My girls are so artistic! Some fun art skills that any kid could develop include: cake decorating, calligraphy, crochet / embroidery, watercolor, photography, nail art, and working with clay.
Logical – For kids that love to use their brain and think strategy is a game in itself, learning chess, getting really good at advanced board games, solving a Rubik’s cube and completing Lego sets are some great skills to add to the list.
Active – Getting outside during the summer is the best way to pass the time and get some fresh air. Some fun skills to develop while outside include Double Dutch/jump rope, roller skating / roller blade, golf, handstands and cartwheels, and archery/ax throwing.
Musical – Summer is full of extra time to practice and play – what a great time to learn and hone musical skills like the ukulele, piano, or voice lessons.
Outdoorsy – Over the summers we love going camping and hiking, so special outdoors skills like knot tying and identifying bugs or plants would be so easy to implement while we are out there.
And if you’d like a printable copy of this list of life skills that you can take to your library or screenshot on your phone for easy access, just pop in your email address below and it’ll come right to your inbox!
