Big 5 and Life Skills
I did not know that “Life Skills” was an actual subject area until I started researching homeschooling! Since learning about it by browsing Facebook groups and blogs on Homeschooling, I have come to the realisation that it is quite an important subject to include in your homeschool routine. I also appreciated that the content in this subject area depends on what you value as a family and that a lot of it is common sense 🙂
Ever since my husband and I heard about “Life Skills”, we have talked about a few things we wanted to teach:
- Instilling habits: waking up on time
- Personal hygiene
- Tidying up (at home and outdoors)
- Money management – spending, saving, giving
- Surviving in the woods (my husband’s idea!)
This is just a small list, there are lots of information out there on the internet if you need inspiration. I found that beginning to think about “Life Skills” in general was a good first start and then thinking through what you want to teach your children (some immediately, some eventually) depending on their age and ability levels.
I read a post on this lovely blog where the author talked about something called “The Big 5” which I was intrigued about and subsequently copied. Basically, you trace your husband’s hand onto a piece of paper and write five things on each finger of activities (or life skills) they need to do as soon as they wake up. My list was:
- Wake up at 7 am (my kids are early risers)
- Tidy your room (the first couple of weeks, this had to be taught as they were normally used to me doing it, plus their duvets are quite big and heavy).
- Take off pyjamas and fold them neatly
- Put on new clothes
- Bathroom and brush teeth
And then, if they completed all five of these activities, they get to…give Daddy a Hi-Five as a fun reward!
They were enthusiastic about the activities on the first week but later (as human nature would have it), they started to slow down and even complain/whine about it. However, my husband and I have been encouraging them every day, sometimes with words or actions – sometimes this meant folding someone’s duvet if they were too tired that particular morning.
We plan to change up the activities as time goes on but for now, I think this has been a good, first, tiny step towards developing sound habits and life skills.