As parents and educators, we all strive to provide our children with the best possible foundation for a happy and successful life. Although academic achievements are crucial, life skills-based education is equally important and will help them in the real world. Using these skills in life, children can build strong rapport, navigate the complexities of adulthood, and pursue their goals successfully.
Let’s explore the seven fundamental skills every child should imbibe to do well in life.
Table of Contents
1. Communication Skills – Building strong relationships
Effective communication is the foremost requirement for success in personal and professional realms. Clear expression of thoughts and ideas must be taught to children as life skills for students. Verbal communication, such as active listening, and nonverbal communication, such as understanding body language and facial expressions, are equally important. Encouraging children to engage in open-ended conversations, sharing stories, and participating in group activities can help them hone these skills. Also, our actions should exemplify respectful communication, so the children can follow the lead.
2. Problem-solving and Critical Thinking
Cultivating a solution-oriented approach is of extreme importance nowadays. Critical analysis, creativity, and patience are required to effectively tackle any problem. Rather than fearing the outcome, children should be encouraged to explore alternative solutions and learn from their mistakes. Some ways in which we can build these skills in our children are:
- Involve the children in activities that require critical thinking, such as puzzles and brainteasers.
- Children should be made to feel comfortable to ask questions. Every question has some learning associated with it.
- Life skills activities that require planning and execution should be promoted occasionally. A child’s curiosity should always be fulfilled with meaningful answers.
3. Emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand, recognize, and manage one’s emotions and empathize with others. It is an important skill when it comes to handling social situations confidently. Children with vital emotional intelligence can keep a calm mind in awkward situations and handle them gracefully.
Various ways in which we can develop Emotional intelligence in our children are as follows:
Self-awareness – Understanding our strengths and weaknesses. Acknowledging our weaknesses can build trust, and showing our strengths can help others. Thinking skills are essential to cultivating self-awareness.
Self-regulation – managing one’s own emotions is also equally important. Self-awareness leads to self-regulation.
Empathy – Active listening helps develop empathy. Understanding how the other person is feeling can mellow the situation and help in amicable conflict resolution.
Motivation – A top skill is self-motivation and the ability to motivate others through exemplary actions. Staying calm in difficult situations and the zeal to reach goals permeate others.
Social skills – This is a subset of self-awareness, empathy, and effective communication. Once you identify the other person’s emotional state, it gets one step further to address the situation. Through effective communication and an empathetic approach, any goal can be surpassed.
4. Adaptability and resilience
In this ever-changing world, adaptability and resilience are traits of a successful person.
Children should be taught to embrace changes, adjust to circumstances, and devise alternative ways to achieve goals.
Here’s how we can develop resilience and adaptability in our children:
- Encourage learning skills from experiences.
- Application of the learning in other scenarios.
- Tracking progress, lauding achievements, and motivating others to persevere.
- A solution-focused approach, and not shying away from experimenting or trying for alternatives.
- Understanding one’s strengths and weaknesses can help a child channel their efforts more effectively.
5. Time Management and Organization
Highly productive people always tend to plan and prioritize tasks efficiently. Effective time management is a skill that is required to do well and reduce undue stress in daily life.
We should teach our children to:
- Have realistic expectations and set goals likewise.
- Dividing tasks into manageable steps and tracking the progress of each step.
- Model priority setting and good time management habits.
- Modern techniques, such as scheduling apps, and older ones, like calendars and planners, should be encouraged.
6. Self-Discipline and Self-Motivation
Maintaining a disciplined and focused approach is crucial to success in all life realms. Children should be taught to be always motivated, self-regulate their behaviors, and avoid procrastination.
To inculcate self-discipline and motivation in children, we should:
- Model goal setting and their perceived outcomes in children.
- Accountability for the tasks should be delegated to others.
- Prioritise tasks for effective delivery of the goal.
- Controlling urges so that time is utilised efficiently.
- Use strengths to overcome weaknesses. Although working on weaknesses is important, using strengths can make up for lost progress while working on the weakness in the background.
- Rather than overthinking a task, devise alternative ways to reach a goal.
- Instill belief in willpower. If we believe we can, we can. If we don’t, we can’t.
- Prepare backup plans. Always keep moving for the intended course; however, having a backup plan can save energy for sudden decisions unaffected by the current emotional state.
- Having a disinterested mentor share regular feedback will have a significant impact.
7. Financial Literacy
Financial stability is the foremost goal that we all strive for in life. Teaching our children the importance of managing finances at an early age will definitely help them lead a stress-free life.
The concepts of saving, budgeting, and investing are essential education skills that can be taught to children as follows:
- Differentiate between needs and wants. A child should be able to tell what is absolutely required and what can be sacrificed.
- Realising the importance of saving. Saving should be encouraged at the start rather than what’s left.
- Budgeting resources in an efficient manner and sticking to the budgets.
- Monitored usage of modern-age financial tools such as bank accounts, debit cards, etc
Conclusion
Although learning is lifelong, teaching our children these seven essential skills early in life will gear them toward life’s challenges. These skills should be taught through exemplary actions of parents, educators, and caregivers. These skills will enable children to be more confident and empathetic in handling situations. Patience is the key to these skills. Developing these skills will take time. Hence, regular reinforcement of learning and constant monitoring and feedback are required.
Every child should strive to learn, unlearn, and relearn. Books can teach only so much; real-life experiences guide our daily lives.
We should encourage children to get involved in real-life situations. Fostering a learning mindset, free from the fear of failure, goes a long way in developing innovative and confident children. While lauding efforts and progress, regular feedback should also be provided to children to guide them on areas for improvement.
At Pragyanam, one of the top CBSE schools in Gurgaon, we firmly believe that the ultimate goal for a child is to lead a fulfilling life that offers happiness and satisfaction. To conclude, inculcating these life skills in our children will help them become confident and capable individuals ready to take on life’s challenges and equipped to adapt and thrive in an ever-changing world.
