5 Old-Fashioned Skills to Teach Your Kids

It’s not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make the successful beings.

Ann Landres

Our grandparents grew up learning these old-fashioned skills but they started to get lost in the generation of our parents and are just about completely lost with millennials. Time to bring them back!

Today it seems like most kids are glued to some form of screen and have forgotten the value of learning skills through play and imagination.

These five skills will have not only you being self-sufficient but also your child, and at a very young age, too. 

Think of it like your grandparents or great-grandparents. 

Kids were often left to fend for themselves and expected to put food on the table for supper, mend the clothes they wore day-in and day-out, garden or else they wouldn’t have food to eat, and gosh darn-it that fence better be built strong or Bessy’s going to knock it down!

Kids are strong.  They are resilient, and they have a thirst for knowledge, especially at a young age. 

The real world is their world.

My son was 2 when he first picked up a hammer.  Let me tell you he was so proud when he finally hammered that nail all the way in and wanted to do it over and over.  The strength improved with each stroke, and his aim got better and better. 

Kids will surprise you if you’re willing to let them try and figure it out.  Hell, my kid just drove the tractor, with a loaded trailer on it and he shocked the heck out of me! 

He self-corrected, figured out the best way to get from point A to B without driving on areas he shouldn’t (which meant the correct way had more turns and obstacles he would need to navigate around), and did it LIKE A BOSS! He just turned THREE!

This was his first time on the tractor this year too and last year he never made it longer than 5 seconds without turning to look at something and being completely distracted by it.  I still can’t get over it. 

Him checking the load every so often just like an adult would do and knowing when he needed a wide turn versus a hard turn… damn, I’m so freaking amazed still.  But that’s my point! 

When you let them take the reins, they can freaking blow you out of the water!  Especially when you give them the reigns more and more and act like it’s an expectation that they learn and figure it out. 

The Future

So why bother with getting your kids to learn these skills, I mean, it’s not like there’s a cow in their backyard and they don’t need to grow their own food eith easy grocery store access, right?

Wrong.

1. Quality food does not come in the grocery store.

And what is there isn’t as good of quality (or flavour) as homegrown. Many kids these days are so far removed from real food and where it comes from that they can’t even identify a potato.

Knowing how to cook and grow your own food is an integral part of our human nature, and has huge impacts on our overall health and mental health.

Get in the dirt and in the kitchen!

2. Responsibility

I have heard over and over again from both parents, teachers and employers that the upcoming generations are lacking a sense of responsibility.

Learning these basic life skills allows ownership and pride.

Having jobs starting from a young age teaches skills, money management, and responsibility.

3. Problem-solving skills

If there’s one thing I keep hearing on repeat – and I do have to say it surprises me each time because it’s so simple – is that many youth don’t know how to do anything.

Kids are so distracted by instant gratification and glued to an electronic device that doesn’t require more problem-solving than finding a treasure or not getting killed.

They aren’t experiencing the real Macgyver lifeskills needed to get through life without massive disappointment or mental health struggles.

When your kid is given the job of painting something and can’t figure out where to find the paint, what to use, or how to do it, that’s a problem. Especially if they’re over the age of 14 and that’s being quite generous.

And it’s not a one-off situation. Kids aren’t being taught to think for themselves. To work through problems and find a way. Where is their pride being developed? How will it serve them in the future?

What Can We Do Differently

As parents, caregivers, teachers, employers we can give them access to these 5 life skills that are really survival skills.

With them, your child, and you, are capable of taking care of yourself well.

Starting from a young age, just like our grandparents and great grandparents.

And there’s plenty fun to be had! A child’s play is life. Work is a child’s play.

Top 5 Skills to Teach Your Child

Sewing

Learning how to sew is a fantastic skill to have. Even just the basics of how to sew by hand and with a machine.

They will use math skills with measuring and angles with patterns. Cutting, planning, stitching, problem-solving and even coms up with their own patterns and ideas.

Helps with dexterity, hand-eye coordination, find motor skills, problem-solving, and the ability to clothe and provide for oneself.

It shows value of work put into textile products, rather than the low-quality fast fashion industry.

With this skill you can fix clothes, make clothes, bags, gifts, household items, and have numerous creative entry points for work in the future.

Exploration Ideas

Let’s look at a few ways of how sewing skills can be incorporated.

• If a stuffed animal or blanket needs repair
• Making gifts
• Carrying case for toys
• Making a special outfit ie. Graduation
• Making a quilt or blanket, or quilted decor item
• Sewing household items

Gardening

Everyone needs to eat. Doing gardening or even taking care of household plants can be an introduction to this skill set.

Learning the basic skills of gardening and plant care can lead to your child eating fresh, sustainable food, saving money, knowing where food comes from and the value.

It teaches them patience, environmental care and impact, also planning, problem-solving and math skills.

If you have a picky eater, getting them involved in growing food can make them more interested and willing to try new foods.

They learn self-sufficiency skills and are outdoors and in beneficial mud that’s going to support their immune system and mental health.

If there’s one skill to teach or learn with your kids, it’s this one. This should be the first one and all others will stem off ot it.

Exploration Ideas

• Indoor herb garden
• Household plant tending
• Plant “salad bar” garden
• Foraging
• Visiting greenhouses
• Learning plants on property and their uses

Building

It may seem counterintuitive to give a child a hammer but with it comes the reward of your child learning.

Hand-eye coordination, force, respect for sharp and heavy objects. I have found that the younger “risky” items are introduced and given the opportunity to explore with (under supervision), the faster they learn and treat it respectfully.

Picking up tools and building something, even if its nailing a few boards together is so invigorating to a child! They’ve created something!

Not to mention the math, problem-solving and language skills that come with building!

Exploration Ideas

• Build a garden planter or trellis
• Hammer four board together into a square shelf.
• Have them operate the drill, hold a level, be involved with household repairs and ask questions
• Give hammer, nails, pry bar, boards and see what they come up with
• Have them walk you through how they would build a project ie. A treehouse – let them do it! Not to code and all.

Cooking

Gosh, the age of the instant meal. Let’s bring bake the art of cooking from scratch!

It’s actually less expensive and often takes less time than it would to get takeout or even heat something up from a box or can

No need to go all extravagant with the meals but a child who is familiar with the kitchen becomes a resourceful adult.

From managing finances at the grocery store, to problem-solving when ingredients aren’t available, converting recipes, measuring, reading, writing – there are just so many skills developed in the kitchen.

Cooking is also one big chemistry experiment too which is always fun for the tastebuds!

Breaking bread with others is what our history has been built on. Sharing a meal can change everything. Can you imagine mending fences or meeting a neighbour over instant noodles?

Hand-eye coordination, self-confidence, creativity, appreciation for the value of food and a willingness to try new things all get grown when learning to cook.

And overall you eat better, healthier food!

So blare the tunes, make some fun family aprons and get dancing around that kitchen with your kids!

Exploration Ideas

• Baking
• Making a meal or snack
• Measuring
• Getting ingredients or supplies from cupboards
• Reading recipes

Natural Remedies

Self-healing is so important. We don’t need to run to the doctor or pharmacy for every little sniffle.

Ma Ingalls did not have anything more than her herb cabinet and that was quite often enough.

Teaching and learning with your child about natural remedies and the role they play with your immune system is a great way to steer them to better health.

Let food be they medicine, and plants heal.

They will also gain a better awareness of their own body. How to listen to it, when to know if something is off, and have tools and resources to find out how to come back into alignment.

Yes, it may sound woo woo but where do you think pharmaceuticals came from? Plants.

Just plants can’t be patented (well they can, thanks Monsanto), and people actually getting better through natural remedies would mean a big loss for the pharmaceutical industry. Hence the woo woo and voo doo labels given to tranditional plant medicine remedies.

Your child will have better tools to channel and process their emotions, reduce their risk of chronic illness, and have a greater respect for outdoors.

Natural remedies empower you and your child to care for your own health, leading to a more knowledgeable you and a stronger immune system.

Exploration Ideas

• Making simple salve or lip balm
• Applying essential oils
• Make a natural tea for a sore throat
• Take elderberry syrup for a cold
• Five minute meditation breathing or yoga with kids
• Gratitude journaling
• Discuss how the body and immune system works (or whatever level necessary) and how plants support it to do its job.
• Forage weeds in your own backyard!
• Make anything with non-sorsyed dandelions.

Learning these skills and incorporating them through play and exploration can save money, build confidence and have your child flourish with pride in their skill set and interests.

The thing about play and risky play is that that freedom actually allows the interest and inquiries to blossom.

Working in the garden might produce and environmentalist.

Building things from scraps might produce an architect or engineer.

The same way we let kids get messy and explore with paints (under relaxed supervision obviously because who wants paint on the walls!), we need to let them explore in other areas.

Getting hurt is also a part of life yes, I said it. Your child will get hurt learning these skills and that’s ok!

They may hammer their finger, slice it, scrape their knees, stab a finger, sew a finger (yes, I’ve done that as an adult even!).

It happens and its through life’s experiencing that we learn and find a better way to operate.

So bottom line, teach your kids these skills. Learn with them if you haven’t been able to explore either.

You never know what kind of fun you might have and how that desire for self-sufficiency and more freedom will spark!