00:00 - Janae Daniels (Host)

Okay, so your child can recite the slope-intercept formula Yeehaw, but can they plan a week of meals, budget a paycheck, fix a basic home repair or problem, manage their time and care for their body without you? Well, today we're going to be talking about five practical life skills that every child needs to know before they leave the house. But before we get into this topic, just be sure to join us every third Wednesday for a free live online workshop where we discuss all sorts of different parenting and homeschooling topics. It is free, but you do have to register at school2homeschoolcom to save a seat, because I do like to keep these classes small. And if you'd like to sign up for our weekly newsletter, it's also at school2ohomeschoolcom. And if you'd like to support this channel, be sure to check out our Etsy page in the show notes below. But with that let's get started. Hello and welcome to School, to Homeschool.

01:00

I am Janae Daniels. I'm a wife, a mother of six and a former middle school teacher turned homeschool mom. I have kids in their 20s, all the way down to elementary age and everything in between. Are you thinking about pulling your kids from the school system, like I did, but you're scared to death and don't know what to do next. My friends, I felt the same way and you have come to the right place. I wanna help your family leave the system so that you can take the hearts and minds of your children back. Okay y'all? I am always dumbfounded at the amount of teenagers and young adults who don't know basic care for themselves and their belongings. They don't know how to cook they would probably die if you asked them to shut off a water valve and so there's some basic things today that I want to talk about that every child needs to know, and there might be some things that you're like oh wait, I have never learned that. And so these are great skills for you also to know as we are adulting. That are important skills to just have just in case of an emergency, and there's five things that we're going to cover today. We're going to talk about household management, cooking and meal preparation, money management, time management and health and fitness. So with that household management, our children need to have basic chores like making their bed, managing their belongings and contributing to household upkeep. Those things are important. Number one it helps build resilient children and thriving children. But number two, they're going to need to do it when they have roommates someday, if they ever do have roommates, or when they get married and have children, if they do get married and have kids. These are things that they're going to need to know. They know the emergency basics.

03:01

And in your own family, do you have emergency basics set up? Do you have a family plan that if there is a flood or a fire or something happens in your home? Do you have a communication tree? Do you have a go bag where, if there is an emergency, that you can grab your bag, pick up and leave quickly? Do you know who to call? Do your kids know what to do? And this could be like a whole family unit study that you could do together, or it could just be a one night thing where you're like, okay, if there's an emergency, what are we going to do? But that way, if and when an emergency ever hits, your kids already know what to do. And when an emergency ever hits, your kids already know what to do. Um, do you know? I keep all of our of our important documents insurance, government documents, passports and everything in a fire proof, waterproof, safe, just in case of an emergency. That way I don't have to scramble in the future to find those things. If there was an emergency, I could just just grab that. It's portable, I can just grab it and go. So make sure that you have some emergency basics and that your kids know those emergency basics.

04:15

Number two utilities and home systems. What's a breaker? Do they know that? And if something shorts, do they know how to shut off and turn on a breaker? Do they know how to shut off water and know where the water shut off valve is? Do they know who to call? Do they know how to change an air filter for the HVAC?

04:38

So in February our basement flooded and my husband and I were out of town and it flooded while we were out of town and so we called the kids and unfortunately, y'all, we had not showed our kids how to shut off the water, so we had to explain it to them over the phone and then we had to get on FaceTime to to help them figure it all out so that the water wouldn't keep pouring in the basement them figure it all out, so that the water wouldn't keep pouring in the basement. Had we been prepared and done that with our kids, it would have been a lot easier and a lot less stressful, not only for us but for them, because it was stressful for them. Our 23 year old was like, uh, yeah, so that's good to know that that was good information to have already had had. I had it. So do they know basic um utilities and home systems and things like that? Um, so do they know basic utilities and home systems and things like that? Do they know where the, the fire smoke detectors and the carbon monoxide detectors are and do they know how to change the batteries? Those are super important things because those things save lives. So that's something that we can teach our kids today that they're gonna need to know in the future. Do they know how to do their laundry and treat stains and read fabric labels? Do they know that you're supposed to separate colors and whites, and you should probably separate lights and darks as well? Do they know those things?

06:04

I had a friend who our first year of college she had never in her life done her own laundry, and our first semester she went to the same university as me and I knew her family really well and they had cleaners who would come in and her mom would always do the laundry and it would always be folded and everything was always perfect, whereas I learned really young that I had to do it myself and I learned at a very early age that if you put darks in with a beautiful yellow t-shirt that's your very favorite, it will get ruined. I learned that as a seven-year-old never did it again. Well, my friend learned that as a college student, except for she put all of her whites with all of her darks, and all of her whites got ruined and she's like what, what happened? And I'm like well, fabrics bleed and then it ruins your clothes. And so do your kids know that? Do they know how to treat stains? Um, by the way, my favorite favorite stain treater is Mama's Secret Sauce, but or Grandma's Secret Sauce, and I'm not being sponsored by them or anything. I just have had used it for years and years and years, and you can get it like at Walmart or fabric stores or things like that, but it's called Grandma's Secret Stain Remover.

07:20

Do they know digital safety? Do they know when they get they might get weird payment requests on? You know if they have an email or if they have a cell phone? Do they know how to look out for potential scams so that they don't get scammed? So do they know basic household management. Do they know what to do? Do they have basic chores? Do they know how to clean? Those are important things for them to learn in their childhood and teenage years.

07:47

Okay, second thing is cooking and meal preparation. There are so many kids who have no idea how to cook anything except for frozen pizzas. But yet this is a lifetime skill to develop, and the younger that you can teach them, the better. Um, and because so? I used to teach cooking camp with my mom when I was a teenager and I would complain all the time and say, mom, when am I gonna ever use this? Because I was a dumb kid and I didn't think, oh, I'm gonna have to feed myself for the rest of my life. Like I didn't think about that. Um, I didn't think about that someday as an adult. That means that you're going to have to think about what you're going to eat every single night for the dinner for the rest of your life. Somebody else is not going to do that for you, and so Are you giving them practical experience in the kitchen so that they can feed themselves healthy meals? And maybe you're like I don't know how to cook? Well, this is a perfect opportunity to learn with your kids. You can teach them things like knife skills, how to pinch and grip. You can teach them basic chopping, how to chop, how to mince, how to julienne. If you don't know those things, you could look them up too, because they're super helpful and handy to have.

09:01

Can they read a recipe? Do they know food safety? This topic came up in the Daniels household last week as I made chicken fettuccine and one of the kids had put it in our laundry room fridge because he wanted to eat it later. And then everyone was mad because they thought it all got eaten. But then yesterday came around and we couldn't remember exactly which day we made it. Um, I had thrown away the meal plan and I didn't. I didn't remember what day we made it, and so we were like, debating, like, and I was like um, so if chicken's more than four days, you can't eat it? Um, and so the kids are like oh, what do we do? But do they know basic food safety? Do they know when to toss expired items? Do they know how to, how to read a recipe and follow a recipe? These are all things that we can start them very, very young. Now. It's really cool.

10:01

There's some different, like knives you can get for little kids, or cutting gloves that you can get for little kids. That are they're a little bit duller knives, but it gives them the same experience or cutting knives or cutting gloves that little children can put on, and it helps them not get cut if they're using a sharp knife. I teach my kids pretty young how to use a properly use a sharp knife and we're talking they have to be able to grip it. Like five and six years old Three-year-olds not so much, but a little bit older they're capable of chopping. My nine-year-olds uses a sharp knife all the time, do they? But they do. They know how to follow a recipe, use basic skills. Do they know basic food safety, like my kids know? Okay, meat has to be cooked at a certain temperature. Look at you know, if you cook with raw eggs, you can't eat it because of salmonella, things like that. So those are things that they're gonna need to know to feed themselves in the future.

11:01

Start them young, have them practice, have them be your sous chef and then let them be the chef and you be the sous chef. Give them opportunity in the kitchen and don't be afraid of them experimenting. Y'all Jacob started. He saw a YouTube video all about sourdough starters, which we had gone to a sourdough place and learned all about sourdoughs before a couple years ago. But he wanted to relearn and so he has been baking sourdough and then regular bread as well, and selling it. But now he knows the timing of everything and he's become quite adept in the kitchen like he's. He's, he's very, very, very good in the kitchen and he knows how to saute and things like that. You know, he josh, just taught josh how to make a roux. Um, but if these are not your skills, they are skills that you can acquire with your kids, which is part of the beauty of homeschooling.

11:58

A couple of things you could do you could have your kids practice dicing an onion, julienning a pepper, mincing garlic, and you could do institute like each night a different child has a cook night where they plan the meal Kind of a fun thing to do and they actually really like it where they have to plan a healthy meal. We always are like okay, okay, does it have a vegetable? Do you have a? Uh, uh, like a, a starch, like rice, even though I mean technically, vegetables are technically considered carbohydrates. So we go do you have a vegetable, then do you have like a starch, like rice or potatoes or pasta, and then do you have a protein, and so we can make it a somewhat balanced, healthy meal as best as possible.

12:45

So the next thing that we want to teach them is money management. Number three we need to help our children understand the value of money, how to budget and how to manage their finances responsibly, and how to manage their finances responsibly. I am always dumbfounded at the amount of young adults who have no idea how to manage finances because they were never taught, and if they don't learn in your home, they're gonna have to learn the hard way. So some of the things that we need to teach them are budgeting basics. Maybe we teach them the 50-30-20 or 40-40-20 rule, which is how much do you save, how much do you spend, how much do you give? You can create a simple sheet and track that and help the kids track that. Maybe you have a little I have a little bank for my younger kids where there's three slots and they can put you know, spend money, save money and then give money, um, and so have you taught them basic budgeting basics on on how to control their money? Um, do they know? Do they know and understand compound interest? There is a really cool calculator. It's called the SEC calculator and I'll put it in the show notes where you can find it but it teaches how to calculate compound interest so that if they do decide that they want to go into investing, that they'd be able to calculate how much compound interest that they'd earn. Um, are they? Do they understand about banks and how banks work? You could totally do a whole field trip, which I've done.

14:31

In march we did a field trip to the bank. Um, it was actually a credit union. I had pre-arranged it and they were fabulous. They gave us even workbooks. Like I talked to the bank, it was actually a credit union. I had prearranged it and they were fabulous. They gave us even workbooks. Like I talked to the branch manager, I said, listen, I'm a homeschooling mom and we want to do a field trip learning about how money works at a bank. And so they did workbooks. They had my kids fill out checks and we had a couple other families with us and they got to see the vault and they explained how money worked with the bank and it was super cool and my kids came away like understanding. So there were some teenagers with us that were my daughter's friends, and they're like what I had no idea, right.

15:09

Super important things to know is how does money work and how, um, how can we make it work for us so that we are not slaves to the lender, that we live in savings rather than in a spending mindset all of the time? Khan Academy offers a personal finance course and so that they talk about savings and debt and all of that good stuff. So if you're looking for like an actual curriculum, khan academy does have one, and some things that you could do. A quick activity you could have the kids do is write a one-page money plan for like a real goal, like I want to save 300 for a guitar, um. Or you could have them play with the sec, um, compound interest calculator, um. The other thing that they could do is they could log one week of spending and identify something that they'd want to cancel or change. Okay, so that's money management.

16:08

So number four, then, would be time management. Do they know how to organize their time effectively, which is crucial for both personal and professional life? Some different things that you could teach with time management is how to block schedule their time. So, with block scheduling. You look at a calendar and then you block off so much time for specific tasks and then, once that time is done, you move on to the next task. Another time management tool is the Pomodoro focus blocks, which is you have 25 minute blocks of time that you have to do something and then you take a five minute break. 25 minute block, take a five minute break. 25 minute block, take a five minute break. You teach them that early on and and teach them that, okay, in order for us to get somewhere on time, we're gonna have to plan accordingly so that we can get to our appointment or whatever on time. This becomes super important and the older kids get, the more they're going to want to have that freedom to plan their own schedule, to plan their own time. So give them that opportunity to plan. Another thing is you can teach them weekly review ritual where you plan and prep materials and then you talk to them about like, what are the top three things that you want to do tomorrow, so that they understand planning ahead and planning their week schedule.

17:45

Um, when katie hit about 14, she started wanting her own planner, wanting to use her own calendar. I and I think it was interesting because she had always used a planner in school, but they they never actually wrote in it, or if they did, they'd like write three things and then never talk about it again. But by the time she was 14, because she was starting college classes, she wanted to be able to plan her time accordingly and be able to see it in writing and then plan out her classes, and that's something that we were able to go over, which she still does and still uses. Another really cool time management tool is the Eisenhower matrix, and so you have and I'll explain it here you have four blocks, so you're gonna draw a two by two grid and create a four quadrant square and then you're going to label the axis label one axis as urgent and then the other not urgent, and the other important and the other not important and then you're going to categorize each of your tasks into one of those four quadrants based on its urgency and importance. So quadrant one.

19:04

Quadrant one is it's urgent and important, and you're going to do these tasks immediately. For example, addressing a critical bug before a presentation, responding quickly to a family emergency, like those are urgent and important. Quadrant two is schedule. But it's important, but it's not urgent, so you schedule these tasks to be completed later. Maybe you're working on long-term goals, you're scheduling the time for your exercise, things like that. Quadrant three is delegate. They're urgent but they're not important, and these are tasks that you can delegate to other people. Now, your kids are not going to necessarily delegate these tasks, even though I do have one child who tries to delegate all of his chores to his siblings. Thank you, joshua, um, but it might be like, okay, cleaning up our you know, um, so we make the beds first thing in the morning, but are there other chores that need to be done, but they're not pressing chores. Maybe there are things like cleaning the bathroom, which happens once a week, or things like that that we can put on the kid's schedule and discuss. And then quadrant four is delete. They're not urgent and they're not important, and so we can talk about, okay, what tasks are filling up our day's kids that are not urgent and they're. And so talk to the kids about what those things are and what they look like, and so that's.

20:28

Another option is the Eisenhower matrix to. As for time management, that would be more for teenage kids or young adults, because it is a little bit trickier and more complicated, but there's some different ideas for you for time management techniques. There's some different ideas for you for time management techniques. Okay, so then, beyond time management, the last thing that we want to talk about is oh, and some really quick you could set up. Um, you could.

21:01

For a quick thing that you could do with your kids to teach time management is you could do the. If you did the, like the Pomodoro technique, you could be like okay, we're going to spend the next 25 minutes cleaning our rooms. You know I'm going to be cleaning this, or I'll help you clean your room, and then we're going to take a five minute break as soon as the timer goes off. So we're going to set the timer, let it go for 25 minutes, do and so we can. That's something that's actionable, that we can plan with the kids and do with them, and I found and I've mentioned this in previous podcasts before it is so much easier for kids if, if we are doing the chores with them especially little ones, but even teenagers sometimes are like mom, can you help me, it's just been a day, can you help me do this?

21:49

So last night I helped Josh unload the dishwasher, and really he just wanted to talk to me. That's that's the reality is. He just had some things on his mind. He said can you help me unload the dishwasher? It wasn't that he actually needed help, he just wanted to talk. There's other situations where a child legitimately needed help. They're like I just don't even know where to start with this task. Can you help me? And that is a beautiful time again for them to sit and talk to us, but then we are teaching them cleaning techniques and things like that and time management. There's all sorts of things, and we're growing together, as in our relationship, so it's beautiful, okay.

22:28

The fifth and final thing that we need to teach our children is health and fitness. Now, uh, when we're meal planning and taking care of cooking and things like that, that's perfect time to teach healthy meal preparation. And, uh, heaven forbid we don't learn it at school, because the school lunches are always terrible and they, for the longest time, were teaching the food. First it was the four food groups, and then there was the food pyramid, and, as I've spent the last two and a half years losing weight, I have learned neither of those are effective. Right, the food pyramid, if I ate as many carbs as they want us to eat. I would gain all 100 pounds back that I have taken two and a half years to to lose. But, um, so now we teach our kids more about okay, so we need you've got to have protein and vegetables in every one of your meals. You have to have protein and vegetables and then you can have some carbs too, but protein and vegetables, and then you can have some carbs too, but protein and vegetables are super important. The other thing that I have switched in the last two and a half years is teaching my children about strength training and exercise.

23:40

Do our kids know how to take care of their bodies? Let's start with the littles. Do they know that they need to brush their teeth and how to get dressed and take baths and, as they get older, take showers? And that understand that they are supposed to use shampoo to wash their hair? And I say that because with my oldest son, I I didn't think about oh, I better explain to him how to wash his hair. Uh, until until y'all.

24:08

So embarrassing. He was 12 and he kept smelling really, really bad and he'd get out of the shower and he'd still his hair would smell so bad. And so finally, one day I was like, hey, kiddo, um in in the shower, um, um, what are you doing? And he's like, I stand there and I let the water just run over my body and it feels so good. Like, and do you use soap? And he's like, uh, nope. Like, do you are you washing your hair? And he's like, uh, nope. I said, okay, do you are you washing your hair? And he's like, uh, no. I said, okay, do you know how to wash your hair? Y'all, even though I had. You know, when he was little, I helped him take a bath and I use shampoo and I use soap. Somehow that did not translate, and so I had to go and explain to him this is how we use shampoo and this is how much we use, because otherwise they'll use half the bottle. Um, and I had to explain to him because I it didn't sink in when I was giving him baths when he was little.

25:16

Um, so it's important that we explain to them, especially the tweens who stink, I, we got to share with them that they need deodorant. You know, um, I remember, when I was a tween, my mom sharing a story. It's a little bit embarrassing, but I think it gets the point across. She said once upon a time, janae, there was a lady who stunk all the time, so she went to the doctor. She said, doctor, I don't understand, I smell all the time. And he said are you using soap when you shower and bathe? And she said yes. She said I wash as high up as possible and I wash as far down as possible. I said, okay, are you washing possible? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. You know what I'm talking about, moms and dads. And the lady was like, oh no. And he's like wash possible, okay? So our kids don't naturally know these things. We have to explain to them that they have to wash all of their body parts so they don't smell bad, and that they have to use deodorant, that they have to change their socks, or that they have to wear socks with their tennis shoes. Thank you, little boys who, whose feet are so re-steeped when they don't wear socks, okay, we have to teach them personal hygiene.

26:30

So, going on, are we teaching them fitness? Are they getting movement every day? Are they getting outside, whether that's? Do we take them on a brisk walk? Do we let them ride their bicycles, jump rope, run really hard? Boys need exercise to the point of exhaustion. They need exercise to the point of exhaustion and we need to make sure that they're getting that kind of exercise. Their bodies have to move. Are we teaching them to get at least 60 minutes of exercise? Now, I actually only do 30 minutes of exercise a day, but then I also do five days a week of strength training. Are we teaching our kids muscle days a week of strength training? Are we teaching our kids muscle and and bone fitness and strength training?

27:12

And if you're listening to this and you're like I am not fit and I've never been to a gym in my life or they scare me to death, do something from home. Start with 10 minute yoga with Cassandra on YouTube. That's what I actually started with was 10 minute yoga with Cassandra. It's a good place to start with your kids, it's easy and it's 10 minutes long. And then go on a brisk walk and I actually don't even walk briskly, I walk slowly, but I still get the exercise that I need.

27:40

So are we teaching our kids good habits for our bodies? One of the things that I realized is I drink a soda every day, like I drink a diet Coke every day. I give up Celsius, but I'm like, oh my gosh, this is the habit that I'm teaching my kids. This is not good Like. This is not a good habit to teach them, so that's something I'm trying to quit. But also, are they getting enough water? Are they drinking enough water and are they getting enough sleep? And so those are things that they desperately need sleep and they desperately need to be hydrated every single day.

28:17

And so, kara, I wasn't doing this and Kara, my nine-year-old, came to me and she's like Mom, so-and-so's mom, always said hey, have you drunk your water? I need you to take a little sip. And it was some families that we were doing, um, some co-ops with, and she heard these moms say to their kids you know, did you sip your water? Just so, you know, I'm in Colorado and, for those of you who don't live in high altitudes, if you don't drink enough water, you get really, really, really, really bad headaches. And so here we have to remind our kids to drink water. Well, I wasn't doing that. And Kara came to me and she was really sad and she's like how come you never asked me to drink water? And I'm like, uh, I just assumed you were. And she's like I just it just felt like those other moms cared a little bit more about their kids than you care, because they're asking them to drink water and they remind them every few minutes and they say, honey, did you drink your water? And I'm like, oh, do you want me to do that for you? And she's like, yes, I do. Please ask me, kara, did you drink your water? And I'm like, okay, another mom fail, okay.

29:36

So those are the things we can do as far as taking care of ourselves, health and fitness. Are they eating well? Are they drinking water? Are they getting enough sleep? Oh, another thing with health and fitness is do they know where a first-aid kit is and how to use it? Do they know where the band-aids are? Those are great things to for kids to know is this is where the band-aids are, and you might have to hide the cute band-aids, otherwise they'll use them all. But try to teach them only one. Only one band-aid is all. That little cut means um. So some quick activities you can do is you could create a little first aid kit with your family. You could also talk about different ways of movement. Or you could make plans like okay, three times a week we are going to go on a walk as a family, or we're going to do this as a family.

30:26

So those are the practical life skills every child needs to know. They need to know household management, cooking and meal preparation, money management, time management and health and fitness. Now, in the coming weeks, we'll also be talking about emotional preparation for kids. How are, how are they critical thinkers and how do we teach that? How do we teach resiliency in children? How do we teach emotional intelligence to our children? All of those good things, but in the meantime, these are some five practical life skills that they need to know before they leave your house. So with that, mamas and papas, grandmas and grandpas, you're doing better than you think you are. You got this. We'll talk next week. And we have a super cool guest that the interview is already done, but it's not posting till next week. So with that, we'll talk next week. If you found this podcast helpful, sign up for our newsletter at school to homeschoolcom, where there's also lots of other resources. You can also subscribe to us on YouTube at school to homeschool or join our private Facebook page, school to homeschool. You've got this, my friends.