Huemanity Life Skills Series - Part 1

Learning how to set the table is a skill kids love!

Part of my job as a child care provider is to not only provide loving care and protection for young children but it is also to help them get the best start in life possible. Children spend upwards of 10 hours per day in child care making it a valuable and important time period in their young lives. Learning new life skills can and should occur in a child care setting.

This series will focus on three key areas: personal care, eating & drinking, clean-up & tidy and indoor/outdoor safety. One of the secrets to raising happy and confident children is to give them the tools they need to take care of themselves and solve their own problems. By helping children learn to care for themselves and the world around them we also plant the seeds of empathy. The great thing about many of these skills is they don't require sit-down instruction, reading or writing skills or a great command of the english language which makes life skills relatable for all children at all stages of development.

Personal Care Like Skills

Personal hygiene is an important aspect of our health as well as our presentation. Knowing how to properly care for ourselves gives us confidence and the earlier children learn these skills to more time they have to practice and master them, alleviating some burden on their adult caretakers. Below are the personal care skills I like to focus on with the children in my care as well as my own children:

+Proper toothbrushing

We brush our teeth after breakfast and lunch every day. It is important to build the habit of brushing teeth after every meal even if we know by adulthood we are down to only twice-a-day (hopefully!). There are a number of great resources in print and online that instruct children how to properly brush their teeth. When explaining to children why it is important they brush their teeth I give them two reasons: to clean them and to freshen our breath for our friends. I also mention that having problems with our teeth due to not brushing properly can lead to problems like teeth that hurt (cavities) or getting sick.