As adults, there are many essential life skills that we use every day and take for granted. But for preschoolers, these skills don’t develop straight away: they need to be learned and perfected through practice. Here we’ll take a look at the key life skills every child should learn in their early years, with some examples of how we encourage this at our nursery. We’ll also explore lots of easy ways to incorporate these skills at home.
What are life skills?
Life skills can be defined as the ability to do the basic tasks that we need in our daily lives. They’re building blocks that your child will use at all stages of life, from having fun in the playground to succeeding in their future career. Life skills that every preschool-aged child should develop include:
- Focus and concentration: developing the ability to concentrate on a task without being distracted
- Understanding others’ points of view: knowing that other people may have different likes, dislikes and feelings
- Communication: both verbal (developing language skills) and non-verbal (reading social cues from others)
- Risk-taking and resilience: having the confidence to take the plunge, sometimes make mistakes but always learning from them
- Critical thinking: exploring how things work, experimenting with different methods and results
- Identifying patterns: making connections between different things and seeing what they have in common.
How life skills are developed at nursery
At our nursery in Sutton Coldfield, we work hard to encourage all children to achieve their potential, in a fun, supportive and stimulating environment. We do this through:
- Predictable routines and quiet areas, so children can make sense of their environment and find space to focus
- Open-ended play: letting children explore the world however they like, with a wide variety of play opportunities
- Social interaction: children play together, make friends and learn how to communicate and cooperate
- Support and encouragement: we know they can do it! We encourage all the children in our care to take on new challenges with confidence.
How to incorporate life skills into daily life at home
There are lots of simple ways that you can help your child to develop life skills at home. You may be doing many of these things already! Here are some tips to incorporate life skills into your daily life:
- Read stories together and talk about how the different characters are feeling, to help them develop a deeper understanding of other people’s perspectives
- Visit the playground and show your child you have faith that they can climb higher, run faster or jump further
- If they fall over or get something wrong, show them they can bounce back and try again
- Develop a routine that includes some downtime so your child can focus on quiet activities
- Encourage free play, letting your child make the decisions without direction
- Get out and about, spending lots of time with other people!
Contact us
At our nursery, we support every child to develop the skills they will use throughout their lives. To make an enquiry or arrange a visit, contact us today.