Tips for Developing Important Life Skills

Friday, October 22, 2021

From Jason Wojnicz, Principal of JB Akron

Life Skills are an important lesson for all students whether they are 5 or 15. This article provides a list of 15 valuable life skills that can be started at a young age to prepare our students for the future. A few of the key skills that I find so important to work on with all our students in grades K-8 are Cultivating Relationships, Acting Mindfully, and Managing time.

Cultivating Relationships

Relationships are a huge part of who we are at JB. Many of our students have come to JB lacking trust and confidence due to previous struggles in schools. When a student knows that people care about them, and are interested in their success, they put that much more work and effort into their day.

Acting Mindfully

With technology taking over, being able to have a face-to-face conversation with somebody's full, undivided attention is so important. We teach our students to pause, take a deep breath, gather their thoughts, and speak in a calm voice. Teaching our students through conversations in which our undivided attention is provided is vital. It goes along with relationships. Students see that when you provide your undivided attention you truly value what they have to say. As parents, think about how you listen to your children and how you respond. Are you providing them with your full attention when they talk, or are you distracted? Take the extra time and fully listen.

Managing Time

Time management is critical to student success at home and at school. Knowing how to prepare for the day and what to expect allows our students to be successful. You may have heard of micro-schedules. Micro Scheduling is the process of breaking a daily schedule into small increments – typically 10-15 minutes. You can help your children with time management at home by providing calendars, talking about when events are going to occur, and breaking the evening up so they know what to expect. Sometimes it is beneficial to provide visual timers for our students to see the time remaining before an event begins (i.e. dinner will be in 30 minutes - with a timer showing the count down).

You can read more life skills tips, here.

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