Five Skills Kids Must Learn During Home-Stay

“Today is a perfect opportunity to start building the tomorrow you really want”

-Jonathan Wells



Whether we have a curriculum in hand or not, there should be certain life skills, which we all want our children to inculcate. These life skills can be taught without any help of textbooks or schools. Certain life skills shall be naturally woven in them, through day to day routine. So, I would like to share my perspective on “Life Skills” through five important points. According to me, every child should learn these key skills during homestay.



 Being Independent :

We’re all life-long learners! We all get opportunities to learn new things every day. So, according to me being independent! I mean that the children should be able to eat by themselves, wear clothes by themselves and make their own decisions on what is right or wrong. The list maybe endless, as this depends how the individual child takes the skill as a day-to-day practice. Learning is a lifelong process. Making them independent from a very young age, will help them to become decision makers, creative thinkers, problem solvers and great communicators. This can be practiced in any part of the day.

Example:

1. Among all the meals that you have planned for your child, one meal should be such that they can have it all by themselves.

2. In a week, plan one day when they wear clothes by themselves under your supervision.

3. Daily make it a practice during their playtime to decide whether they wish to watch TV or want to play with building blocks or opt for any other options they like and enjoy.









 Being Spiritually Stable :

Children at young age can be molded easily in a better way. They have a short attention span which we can use to channelize on a spiritual level. So, in order to keep them stable and improvise their concentration, spiritual growth is very necessary. They should learn yoga and meditation which helps to increase their strength and flexibility. Learning mantras (irrespective of cast/religion they belong to) helps an individual to align the chakras, reduce stress levels and improves child’s immunity. I strongly believe that, when our mind is spiritually strong it leads to optimistic actions in life.

Example:

1. Make it a routine to chant mantras (respective cast/religion) daily during day time.

2. Start their day with meditation and yoga asanas as a morning ritual. Asanas like Dhanurasana, Bhujangasana, Bitilasana, Surya namaskars will help in their overall body development. And, Anulom- Vilom will help them intensify their inner strengths and enhances the divine powers.



 Self-Awareness :

It’s said that “In raising a child, efforts from both the parents play a major role”. So, there should be a constant effort on expressing your feelings in front of your child. It’s fair enough to share when you are happy or sad. If possible, you should always share the reason behind your particular feeling, as they are constantly observing your actions. This will eventually help them to recognize and understand the feelings of oneself and others. Self- awareness will help them to think upon their actions and behavior. They will also learn to accept negative feedbacks positively and spontaneously.

Example

1. Create an emotion chart in your bedroom. Put up all the emotions in a pictorial form on it. On initial stage, help them tick a particular emotion according to their behavioral trait in a respective situation. This should be a constant practice.

2. My personal favorite rhyme is “If you are happy and you know it clap your hands…” This rhyme can be sung when they are happy. On the contrary, whenever they are sad, a bear hug (big tight hug) and a forehead kiss saying “I am always there for you!” works wonders with them.



 Accept Challenges:

One of my most liked quote is “It’s never too late to learn something new”. When I say accept challenges, I mean the children should learn doing the household work. Tender age is the right time to inculcate such habits in them. Let them learn how to be financially secured. A baby step to make them learn this is, buy them a piggy bank and in no time they will understand how to save money. Whenever you are out for shopping, allow them to purchase a small thing that they like from their savings. This will help them to have value for things. Teach them no gas cooking (irrespective of the gender) and let them cook (no gas recipes) independently under supervisions (keep a watch from behind the doors). Bonding over food is an activity that all ages can enjoy together. It also teaches them an important value of taking ownership in certain situations. Time Management and scheduling work accordingly is also one of the biggest challenges they should accept these days. For an example, homework should be done first which will be followed by a playtime of one hour. During this homestay period, I would suggest all the parents to allow children to design and plan their own schedule. Summing up, I feel that “Accepting the challenges and dealing with the failure, makes us strong to face any hurdles in future.”



 Maintain hygiene :

Last but not the least habit is to, maintain cleanliness and personal and surrounding hygiene. Well, this pandemic has taught all of us many things and one of it is maintaining a good hygiene and healthy lifestyle. We all get a peaceful and calming vibe when things are organized and perfect in our surroundings. Each and every child should also learn this. For an instance, organizing their drawers, helping in putting away the groceries, cleaning the cabinets, helping you to clean the fridge shelves or the kitchen shelves, watering the plants or sorting out their clothes by colors, cleaning their bedroom by organizing things at their respective places. I am sure you are not forgetting to teach them the practice of keeping oneself sanitized, neat and clean all the time!















To summarize, good habits should always be a part of everyone’s lifestyle. There is a saying:
“Tackle life with all your skills,

Overcome each and every hill.

If you persist with all your will,

You will enjoy life’s thrills”

-Anonymous