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

[JustineBMumsnet]

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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

My DC are still quite young but already we're teaching cooking/ baking, laundry & cleaning.
We're also growing things in the garden as I think it's important they know where food comes from / how it is grown etc.
As they get older we'll teach them more diy / practical things like fixing things, changing batteries, changing a light bulb etc.
And how to make the best cup of tea!

How to make a sandwich and change a duvet sheet.

Budgeting, DIY and cooking. They're too little at the moment but we've started doing baking together and they help out with gardening so they're getting a feel for it. It's remembering to involve them in things as soon as they're capable that's difficult, not just doing it for them.

Learning to put things away as you go along. Not only will it help my sanity but will provide them with enough space to play, dance, draw and generally enjoy our living space! The added bonus is they should know where their belongings are rather than having to remember the pile of mess where they last left them! They are 7 and 9 and if they crack this now I think it will help them a lot in life.

Cooking
Cleaning & laundry
And the basics of sewing on a button /mending a tear.
Also think it’s really important to teach children how to budget and shop, I try to do this by including them on shopping trips (for obvious reasons this has been curtailed recently)
Decorating is a useful skill to pass on too, I had t thought of that one! Thank you fellow MN’ers

So far we have done cooking basic meals, cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms and basic gardening. I want to add simple bike maintenance and, for my older child, financial management and meditation/mindfulness.

I would LOVE for my kids to be able to cook, clean and be able to do some diy! They are all academic or sporty but shy away from these!

I think the ability to research and think for oneself. If you can do those then every other skill is within your reach.

I'm going to teach them how to cook, how to decorate and also self care and self respect as well as for others. I also hope they will be mentally quite strong as well as I suffered from anxiety through much of my childhood and no one helped.

I think it's important for them to learn everything from how to sew on a button and cook simple meals to looking after their finances and maintaining a car.

So far in lockdown I’ve tried to teach my kids

• cooking
• cleaning
• laundry
• Fixing a ikea chair that needed a new screw
• growing veg
• using tools safely to make a big house

DD age 11 has taught herself how to make sushi!

I try to get my DC involved in most things that I do around the house so they have an idea of how to do it themselves in the future. In fact, I'm struggling to think of anything I don't teach them.

I LOVE fruit and veg growing, so I really hope that my dc absorb what I've been teaching them, and also the wider messages about food miles, wastage, welfare, fair treatment of producers etc - and how to cook and eat a balanced diet without getting obsessive.

To be able to do basic DIY, decorating, painting, how to measure what you need for a job, and that quality is better than buying cheapest.

I want to teach my toddler about life! She's learning new words every day and since being in lockdown over 100 days with us as we're shielded she has learnt so much. She has learnt to adapt to a completely different lifestyle for a short time and we're really proud.

She has learnt what ingedients I need to make certain meals and gets the necessary things out of the cupboards to help me cook, she has learnt to use a mug and cup properly and loves to have a 'cuppa tea' with us on an afternoon.

She has learnt how to make her bed, tidy her clothes and toys away in their designated places. She has learnt to be careful around house plants and helps water them when they need it.

She has learnt how to get her own nappy and clothes.

She has learnt empathy in a new way, and is beginning to better understand what is and isn't okay.

She continues to learn all the jobs Mummy and Daddy do at home to make it a nice home to live in.

She has even 'helped' with building furniture, handing us things we need (and sometimes don't need) to put it all together.

We are teaching our daughter 'life' outside of children's play (as that isn't an option for us at the moment), as well as the usual letters, numbers, colours and things.

Thanks x

Cooking is the obvious one - and being able to cook a meal from what you actually have, not just where you go out and buy all the ingredients. And that links into not being wasteful, managing money and planning. All useful life skills.

Mine are only 3 & 1 but are currently very interested in how things fit together. We like building things and recently turned DS's kura bed do he sleep "up high", the whole family was in his little room helping pass things and fetching the right tools.

They help with washing a baking and tidying up - not reliably but we're working on it. I'd like them to be able to cook a meal by the time they're early teens and take care of their own laundry by the time they leave school and I think that should set them up well.

Mine are little but I plan to teach them:
How to cook.
How to save money on various life administration.
How to put up shelves/pictures/use a drill.
How to assemble flat pack furniture.
How to make mummy a cup of tea!

A key life skill I want my kids to learn is setting boundaries. It’s so important to know how to say no.

Definitely cooking. Being able to eat healthy is so important to feel good and be able to get on with your day. Also if ever low on money being able to cook will help them be able to budget and crest nice food so they don't go hungry!

I’m currently working on laundry and cleaning skills. So important but I don’t think they get taught in schools these days. I can remember learning about how to wash and iron clothes and it was very useful to know how to do it properly.

For all the personal negatives of the recent lockdown, positives have included my 3yo potty training (mostly), learning about recycling, helping with laundry, and generally becoming more active/less passive in activities and tasks not directly benefitting her.

I'm already teaching my 8 year old how to use the washing machine and how to peg out properly.
He has a go henry debit card and is learning how to budget and save. This is something I had no clue about and as a result I ended up in financial trouble early on! And finally he's learning how to put together flat pack furniture. His room is full of trofast units and he helped me to put them all together by reading the instructions for me.

When I left home at 18 and moved in with friends I was woefully under-prepared for the daily grind of running a household. I tell my DC about this whenever I am trying to teach them life skills!

Some fundamentals I've taught the dc:
Changing & washing bedding
Doing laundry
Tidying rooms then cleaning them (haven't done the bathroom with them yet; I can see they are not keen!)
Recycling
Washing dishes even though we have a dishwasher
Budgeting - the teenagers get £x pocket money a month and from that they need to pay their train fare to school & dinner money so making sure there is enough left for the end of the month
Decorating but not wallpapering yet as I haven't wanted wallpaper anywhere in a while
Some basic cooking but not much
Basic DIY including building furniture (dd1 built her new double bed last week)

I wouldn't say they are fully equipped to leave home and dd2 looks likely to live in a midden when she gets her own place, but they're not completely helpless!

Oh, we've also covered the art of small talk and how to show an interest in other people by asking questions and listening properly to their answers and we have talked about how to be kind/giving without being taken advantage of.