Life Skills Every Child Should Learn

Grouped by when each becomes learnable rather than by category, because the timing is the part parents actually need. A few of these are quietly the hardest to acquire late.

By about seven

• Dress themselves completely, including laces and buttons
• Make simple food without heat: sandwich, cereal, cut fruit
• Tidy up after themselves without supervision
• Carry and look after their own belongings
• Cross a quiet road with an adult, running the routine themselves
• Ask a stranger for help appropriately
• Say what they need to an adult who is not you

By about eleven

• Cook one meal from start to finish
• Use a washing machine and put clothes away
• Manage a small budget across a week
• Wake themselves up with an alarm
• Pack for a trip from a list they wrote
• Basic first aid: cuts, burns, when to fetch an adult
• Look after a pet or plants entirely
• Find their way somewhere familiar alone

By about fourteen

• Cook several meals properly
• Do a full wash cycle for the household
• Use public transport confidently, including when something goes wrong
• Phone an organisation and sort something out
• Manage a monthly budget for a real category
• Basic repairs: a bulb, a button, a bike tyre, a blocked sink
• Say no to a friend and stay friends

By about sixteen

• Feed themselves properly for a week
• Understand a payslip, tax and what things actually cost
• Make and keep an appointment without being reminded
• Write a formal message that gets a result
• Recognise when they are struggling and ask for help
• Be alone for a day and manage it

The four that are hardest to learn late

Worth prioritising, because they are built from habit rather than instruction and a young adult who lacks them finds it genuinely difficult.

Noticing what needs doing without being told. Built by having genuine ownership of something from early on.

Tolerating a task that is dull. Built by finishing things.

Asking for help. Built by asking having gone well previously.

Living with a decision that went badly. Built by being allowed to make small ones with real consequences.

How they are actually acquired

Not by teaching sessions. By being included in the running of a household from young, doing things badly for a while, and not being redone afterwards.

Every item on this list is something a child learns by being trusted with it slightly before they are ready.