How to Teach Domestic Skills to Your Kids

Give your child every opportunity for success in life by teaching him or her domestic skills. The ability to cook and clean will make your child a great roommate or spouse one day. Confidence at home will translate into confidence in other areas of life as well.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• recipes
• kitchen gadgets
• baking pans
• an iron
• ironing board
• sewing supplies

1. If your child did not learn to sew in a home economics class or earn a sewing badge in Girl Scouts, practice with her to make sure she can repair her clothing. Start by teaching your son or daughter to sew on a button. Next, move on to repairing or creating hems in pants.

2. Shoes are expensive and therefore, it's worthwhile to know how to care for them. Extending the life of shoes and boots saves money. Get out the shoe polish and demonstrate for your kids how to clean and polish leather shoes and boots.

3. Not only do your children need to take care of their clothes and shoes, they need to know how to cook before they leave home. Teach your kids how to shop wisely at the grocery store. Help them prepare a full breakfast, lunch and dinner for the family. Enhance their cooking skills by having them make bread and a cake from scratch. No cheating by using a mix!

4. Knowing how to wash clothes without ruining them is a skill that every person should have. Explain to your child how to sort laundry into darks, lights and whites. Make sure that hand washables are separated as well. Show your son or daughter how to choose the proper water temperatures and wash cycles. Giving similar instructions for the dryer is important too.

5. Although having clean clothes is important, your child must also know how to clean a house. Vacuuming, sweeping, mopping floors and doing dishes will help your child in the long run. Show your kids the proper way to clean a bathroom as well, taking care not to spread germs to other surfaces.

[FrazzledNanny]

on 9/24/2009 Very important article. Males and females need to learn basic domestic skills. 5*

[sonni57]

on 8/23/2009 Good tips on getting kids to be domestic.

[maiden239]

on 8/14/2009 Excellent article! Great suggestions! 5*

[clark711]

on 8/4/2009 the cooking and cleaning is a must! You can save so much money cooking as opposed to eating out!

[Merriment]

on 8/3/2009 Excellent suggestions to teach kids domestic skills; which they will benefit from for the rest of their lives!