How to Teach Kids Life Skills
- 1). Develop a system of action and reward. Action implies the chore or activity that the child must do to receive a reward. Activities include cleaning the bedroom daily, clearing the table after dinner, or taking out the trash. The reward should be a monetary reward system. Base the monetary value of each action on your own finances and beliefs. A quarter is a substantial amount to a 4-year-old but not so much to a 10-year-old.
- 2). Set up an amount of each reward that can be spent and how much must be saved. For example, taking out the trash pays 50 cents. You established that the child must save half of everything he or she earns. The child then can spend 25 cents and must save 25 cents.
- 3). Write down the expectations, rewards, and saving or spending expectations on a piece of cardboard paper. Display the paper in a prominent place; taped to the wall or attached to the refrigerator are good options.
- 4). Have the child begin to keep a register book of his or her income if the child is old enough to read and write. Help the child develop the register or do it for the child while talking him or her through the process.
- 5). Have the child record each instance of income earned. He or she took out the trash which pays a quarter. The child then writes down the date, the activity, how much he or she earned in the register and how much of that earnings must be saved and how much can be spent.
- 6). Allow the child to take the register with him or her when shopping so that he or she can purchase an item with the spendable amounts if the child desires to do so.
- 7). Open a savings account for the child and deposit the earned monies into that account once a month. Allow the child to be a portion of the bank visit. Deposit money into the account totaling the earned but saved amount and allow the child to choose to deposit the spendable amount.
- 8). Add additional duties to the list as time passes to increase the duties and responsibilities the child has while increasing their earning potential.
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