Mumsnet users tell IKEA which life skills they'd like to teach their children

[JustineBMumsnet]

This sponsored discussion is now closed.

Summer is often a time parents spend more time with their children and it can be a great opportunity to teach life skills: whether that’s cooking, reading, drawing, gardening, or maybe even playing a sport. But, with parents spending more time with their children than ever and home education due to lockdown, many have taken to teaching their children life skills as well as their academic learning. IKEA would like to hear about the life skills you’ve taught - or would like to teach - your children.

Here’s what Marie Tenglund, Interior Design Leader at IKEA has to say: “The ‘Wonderful everyday’ has never been more in focus than it is in our homes today. With so many of us having to support our children with school education at home, try also using this time to broaden the spectrum of learning.

At IKEA we believe teaching children life skills is really important. Sustainable living tops the list for us, so with summer arriving early – try growing produce, outside or inside whilst having fun, experimenting and learning. Harvest your crop together, use it to cook together and finally teach them how to sustainably get rid of waste as you complete the full circle.

Changing your lightbulbs to energy efficient ones, encourage the use or re-usable water bottles, labelling your leftovers in see-through containers for less waste are all simple life skills to share with your children.

Often it’s the smaller things that are easy to do but will have a large impact if we all do it together.”

Would you like to ensure your children have an impressive repertoire of meals they can cook? Perhaps you’d like them to have a healthy understanding of how to budget? Maybe you’re keen for them to learn how to make the perfect cup of tea for very non-selfish reasons? How does your children’s age affect the life skills you’d like to teach them?

Whatever life skills you’ve taught or would like to teach your children, share with IKEA in the thread below and you’ll be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £200 IKEA voucher.

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!

MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions apply

Washing the dishes and making a bed, very important

Research skills. These days it’s so easy to google ‘how to’ or watch a you tube video to learn how to do something. I think it’s important for DD to know that I don’t know everything so if something needs doing and I don’t know how we research it and learn it together. There’s really no excuse for kids today to say they were never shown how to do something, they can find out themselves!

I'd like to teach my children communication skills - how to be a good friend and caring family member, how to be compassionate.

Essential life skills as well - how to budget, eat well on a budget, take care of physical and mental health from young age.

Mine are really young but we are teaching them self care tasks, to make beds and tidy toys, put rubbish in the bin etc because it is all part of the team effort of domestic happiness! As they grow I want them to have the skills to collaborate with others and share and respect ideas. Definitely to be able to cook and budget and manage their time by prioritising the important stuff!

They love Ikea and a visit is like a day out for them (and us)!

Totally how to budget, and also how to do simple things like flat pack and put up pictures, hang curtains. How to fix simple things.

Tolerating others & having emotional resilience to listen to someone with different opinions to yours without getting annoyed or argumentative

All of the things you mentioned in the OP but picking one it would be how to cook a good range of meals, especially the basics that they can then build on. When I went to uni I had a very steep learning curve and was pretty useless to start with. They're really interested in it at the moment but I want to keep that interest going!

I really hope to be able to teach my children to find things that make them happy. Obviously nobody is happy all of the time, but I think it helps massively to find out what makes a person happy, so that they have something to do that brings them joy when life gets tough. Whether this be baking, going for a walk or singing in a rock band!
This is different for each person and I personally didn’t find my things till later in life. I think it would have really helped to have found the little things that bring me happiness earlier!

I have a 9 month old - I’d like to teach her to be resilient in the face of adversity and to be able to manage her money.

I love to let mine explore and learn what is best for them through mistakes. If always told what to do they will never learn how to resolve a problem. Playing in the garden, helping with pets (cat, rabbit and sheep for us!) and reading ALOT always show progress in many factors of life! We grow vegetables and they help me prepare meals. Main one is leaving them to play in the garden all day sometimes as they occupy themselves and learn to enjoy nature without a materialistic approach. No screens here apart from occasional tele or to look up a word or something on my laptop!

Patience! If my kids can be patient then that will enable them to learn all sorts of other things from cooking, to DIY, to cleaning properly. Nothing worse than a rushed job!

My daughter is 4 and I've been teaching her about the internal organs, their names, locations and jobs. Im also loving teaching her how to sew and how to change a plug and its fuses!

Teaching both our kids boy and girl DIY, you can save thousands of pounds over he years being able to paint, wallpaper, tile, fit electrical appliances. Then you can use that saved money for HOLIDAYS.

As well as the basic fundamentals (cooking, cleaning, budgeting), I'd like to teach them (in no particular order):

• how to read a map
• how to light a "proper" fire in a grate
• how to use a weather forecast and to recognise the signs that the weather is changing
• how to say "no" to people
• how to look after plants
• environmental responsibility
• how to be a conscious consumer

I've been teaching my children aged from 14 years old to two years old a number of life skills. They have learnt how to use a washer and dryer. Make beds. Put their washing away and putting food shopping away. I've also been teaching my 14 year old how to budget and arrange finances and how direct debits work

Lockdown has given me the perfect opportunity to instil some life skills in my children :
Learning how to make tea - need to keep my topped up whist at my work laptop
Helping to cook the dinner, prepping dinner, cooking it and clearing away
Putting their own washing on and folding it to put away
Basic DIY jobs round the house! They love painting

You can fix a starter motor by hitting it with a hammer.
Never buy second hand tyres.
The correct wattage on lightbulbs.
Not to overload an extension lead.
Don’t put furniture too close to an external wall.
Air your bathroom daily.
Mould needs cleaning off as soon as it appears.
When you buy a house, touch the walls for damp, clamminess.
Buying the structural survey on an older house is worth it.
Use a plumb line when wallpapering.
Don’t tile on top of old tiles, it doesn’t make them stronger (FIL this one is for you also)
Clean the toilet from top down.
Blue cloth is best for windows.
Half a teaspoon of sugar in a tomato based sauce is a game changer.
And finally, put your clothes in the dirty washing basket, not on the floor. Not just because it helps me, but because moths eat natural fibres and they love skin flakes 👍🏻

Thank me later, kids.

Although very challenging, lockdown has given us so much special time together as a family - it became clear very early on that my attempts at delivering any kind of structured numeracy or literacy lessons were not going to go anywhere!!
After much hand-wringing & stressing - we chose to focus on the practical stuff. My wonderful, energetic son loves nothing more than to be on the move - so we took advantage of the good weather & set to work on a little veg patch outside. We've learnt together about preparing the soil, adding manure, planting seeds, watering, etc & we are now seeing the fruits of our labours!
We've also done some DIY - sanding & priming the wood, painting - which requires time, patience & a steady hand - a lesson for all of us there! Also a great lesson in getting him to be a little less likely to say 'I'm bored!!' - nothing like watching paint dry to show you what boredom REALLY means!!

I think kids need to be taught confidence that if they try they can and will get pleasure from having new skills.
Don't need to be expert at any thing, just willing to give it a shot!

Reading is great for knowledge and relaxation, and learning anything is powerful.

Everyone needs basic sewing skills threading a needle and simple stitches, things can be repaired, repurposed and made.

Make a meal from a few ingredients, dose n't need to be fancy or costly.
food gives us pleasure and sharing with others is kind and socialble

Use power tools put up a shelf, change a bulb, open a car bonnet, try something you wouldn't.

Fresh air exercise and time for yourself all benefit you mental health and sanity.

Talk about anything thats on your mind set it free, someone can always help.

My youngest has been potty trained in lockdown. Definitely an important life skill!! My six-year-old has perfected telling the time and is now learning to tie his shoelaces. All important. Can’t wait for them to be old enough to make cups of tea though!

I would love to teach my kids Spanish language at least some basic words, as they are not so interested in language learning it could be more challenging!

Never too young to learn how to cook and tidy! And how to behave and interact with each other without killing one another!

How to run a house - budgeting, how to use washing machine and tumble dryer, how to use the dishwasher and wash by hand, how to work out what you need from the weekly shop and meal plan, how to cook and how to look at what you have available and make a meal from it

Anything I do I include them when it's age appropriate, even if it's just getting them to hand me screws or a hammer when I'm putting something together, they are still watching and learning and next time when they are a bit older they may have a go with the screwdriver with me guiding them etc

How to cook, manage money, handle certain situations. How to be savvy when it comes to shopping, maintaining a home. Basically just how to be independent.

I would love to teach my children to be able to cook from scratch (maybe with a slow cooker - throwing everything in meat, veg and some stock) it's cheap and healthy, and a full pot would last a couple of days.
To be able to get their pay and be able to budget for the month so they always have some money, and finally to treat the planet kindly by being green, recycle, compost and 'throw some carrot and beetroot seeds' on the raised beds and see what happens.