What practical life skill should every child learn before leaving primary school? £100 voucher to be won

[CeriMumsnet]

As parents, we're constantly teaching our children life skills - from making their own breakfast and crossing the road safely to managing friendships and handling tricky situations.

But if you had to choose, what’s the most important skill every child should know by the end of primary school?

What practical skills do you make a point of teaching your children? Are there things you wish you'd learned earlier yourself? And how do you help your children build confidence and independence as they grow?

We're working with St John Ambulance to raise awareness of First Aid with Bertie - a fun programme that helps children learn essential first aid skills and feel more confident knowing what to do in an emergency.

Everyone who posts on this thread by 29 July will be entered into a prize draw to win a £100 Amazon voucher. (Prize draw fulfilled by Mumsnet - T&Cs here).

Money management, how to split finances into spending and saving, what are luxuries and what are necessities, the cost of everyday essential items in relation to the things they want (i.e. toys etc), the basic principles of owning a house. I have these conversations at a very age appropriate level with my two year old as he’s very into numeracy and can understand adding and subtracting. Sometimes when we’re shopping and I tell him the price of something he’ll say “ooh that’s expensive!” Often it’s not really but I like that he can use the word in context 😂

Tidying up after yourself and keeping your room presentable. Another biggy is personal hygiene

Basic DIY
Personal safety- how to seek help/problem solve.
How to use a public bus.
How to speak to a cashier when buying something.
Knowing where your food comes from.
Being able to use a microwave and toaster to make simple hot snacks.
How to stack a dishwasher.
How to load a washing machine & switch it on.
How to hang clothes on a line.
How to make a tea and coffee.
How to identify common domestic wildlife, birds, trees & flowers.
Basic gardening knowledge & skills.
Be able to swim.
Be able to cycle.
Typing
Basic laptop use.
Table manners.

A practical skill? So many although some are confused with learning a process (eg safe route out in a fire).

I think dialling 999 on a mobile, especially one that isn’t yours. Now that landlines and phone boxes aren’t usually a thing in people’s lives, understanding how to bypass a passcode and call for help if mum/dad is unwell, you are alone and gran has a fall etc.

Basic money skills. How banks work, how interest rates work

I can swim, but not well or confidently and I wish my parents had done more to teach me. I also had to learn pretty much every adult skill - from cooking a basic meal from scratch to laundry. So I try to get the children involved in every manner of day-to-day life.

As well as the above, I’m trying to teach my children money management which is hard when it banking is all app based now and they don’t have devices.

Someone made a point about dialling 999 with personal smartphones, and I think it’s really important point. Also knowing which neighbours would be the sensible ones to go to if anything happened and they needed help.

I think that the most important thing to know is what to do in a real emergency. Particularly on the premise that the parent/guardian is unable to do anything due to being unconscious. I have gone through this so many times with my nine year old daughter and shown her how to:
Access my phone for an emergency call
What to do if that’s not working
Who to go for to get help
How to get out of the door if it’s locked
To not try and get personal possessions
What to say for help

This could be life and death stuff so I think it’s essential to know how to do it as soon as possible, particularly for primary school aged children.

Very much in agreement with previous posters! My first thought was budgeting/money management. I work in social care & I see a LOT of people struggling with debt, it's something I have also struggled with, & I feel the key is to start educating children about money management & the real value of money from an early age & continue this learning throughout school.
Basic telephone communication skills - making & receiving a call with confidence.
First Aid is also a great one.

I wish my parents had taught me how to tidy/organise things from a young age. They just dumped cleaning jobs on me that they didn’t want instead.

Cooking skills. My mum was such a great cook when I grew up and I wish I’d asked her to teach me more. I tried to figure things out on my own when I went away to uni but never really seemed to grasp things by self teaching.

Time management - whether that be getting homework done, getting out of the house on time, organising stuff the night before if needed, keeping track of things that need to be done. An awareness of time has proved so important over the teenage years as they’ve grown more independent.

Basic self defence

Most important skill? Swimming and water safety awareness.

There's lots of useful skills, as posted by pp, but think increasing safety around water would be my no 1.

Others? Key safety ones

• Online Safety and awareness eg can't always believe what people online may say
• stranger danger
• what to do in an emergency at home/ out alone eg call 999, approach certain adults
• Road safety/ how to cross a road safely.

I wonder why public service announcements along the lines of Charlie says/ don't play with fireworks things stopped? They alarmed me as a kid but did drill certain facts home.

Lots of life skills like cooking/ money are important, but not my priority by end of primary.

How to ride a cycle safely.

Knowing their parent’s phone number, their address…. And their birthday! So many children don’t know anything about themselves…

•Swimming/ floating - I love the new advert that’s on tv/online that’s helping add awareness.

•Emotional intelligence- being able to identify emotions in themselves and others and what may trigger them and what helps resolve tricky ones as part of self management/ coping methods. Would help in emergency situations if taught while younger and before really needed. Have come across so many people who aren’t aware of what is driving them and they fit the bill for heading straight into a mid-life crisis and it engulfs their whole lives instead of being able to self-manage and avoid hitting self-destruct. Currently watching my brother go this way and he is sticking his head in the sand… wish he had had the opportunity to learn more about this earlier on in life as it could have helped.

•Safety around animals; hygiene coming into contact with them (hand washing afterwards, knowing about parasites etc) and how to keep themselves and others safe by noticing tell tale signs of distress and to not approach unless having explicit consent from the owner - and even then knowing when they may be feeling uncomfortable… every day my neighbours kids try to come up to my dogs and there are no parents around and it is so much work and stressful making sure the interaction is either safe,positive or swiftly avoided depending on the circumstances that day. Constantly trying to redirect/ reduce the possibility of a bad event; ‘X, let’s chase them, come on’… ‘no, that’s not a good idea at all…’. It’s a lot when just trying to leave my front door!!

•Managing money and things; need over greed, savings & investments, quality over quantity, avoiding clutter with paperwork or belongings and keeping things streamlined & easy to access; accounts, passwords, documents.

•cooking - and cooking on a budget/limited conditions e.g no ‘normal kitchen’ or access to running water! Useful all throughout life for keeping good hygiene priorities and saving money in hard times as well as keeping over consumption & waste down. Connected skills would be understanding composting and growing their own food/ animals.

•basic engineering- growing up I was most envious of the kids who were taught to change plugs, car tyres, fix radios etc. Endless practical uses in life that can contribute to homelife and studies/ a career.

Basically anything that helps them become successful and confident in being self-sufficient and also able to contribute to the world around them. So many skills could be suggested tbh!

Tying shoelaces, calling 999, asking for help, telling the truth, saving

Swimming/ Floating on back/ assessing water safety
Emergency skills - fire, accident, calling 999
Basic First Aid
Relationship Skills - what healthy friendships look and feels like, when another person is being unkind, how to recognise manipulation and who to talk to.

Unfortunately not all parents teach the basic practical basic skills and the only experience the children have is at school. Sad but true.

What to do in an emergency - including calling 999 but also how to ask for help

Make themselves simple meals

Think for themselves -not unthinkingly follow instructions.

Understand where to find sensible sources of information on the internet

Basic DIY for sure. It promotes resourcefulness and that can have a huge impact on approach to finances.

Either to swim or how to get to the edge of a body of water if you fall in fully clothed.

Everything else just takes care of itself.

How to cross a road safely. I'm astounded in the lack of awareness in the friends of my Y5 daughter.

Self belief

To understand what mental health is and how to look after it