In brief
Yes. Teaching your child age-appropriate practical skills can give them abilities they will use for years, while building confidence and independence.
Think about skills with a clear outcome: maintaining a bicycle, repairing a puncture, painting a wall, using tools safely, mowing a lawn, growing something or making something from wood.
They can also create brilliant opportunities to spend time together. If you know how to do something, bring your child alongside you and pass that knowledge on. The job might take longer, but your child gets something far more valuable from it.
A closer look
What Do We Mean by Practical Skills?
There is a difference between giving your child a chore and teaching them a practical skill. Making their bed can teach responsibility. Learning how to maintain or repair something gives them a new capability.
Take their first bicycle. Start by showing them how to clean it, check the tyres, lubricate the chain and put the chain back on. As their age, maturity and confidence develop, they might progress to repairing a puncture or changing a tyre.
They've gone from simply owning a bicycle to knowing how to look after it themselves. That's a skill they can be proud of.
What Practical Skills Can I Teach My Child?
Look for opportunities in everyday life. If you're decorating, show your child how to prepare an area and use a roller. As their control develops, they might progress to using a brush and eventually cutting in.
If you're doing some joinery, teach them to measure and mark accurately before introducing suitable tools. If they're ready to mow the lawn, teach them about appropriate footwear, checking for hazards and using the mower safely before doing it alongside them.
Cooking works in the same way. Start with a particular skill, then gradually build towards preparing and cooking a complete meal.
The important thing is that there's an outcome: your child can do something today that they couldn't do before.
How Should I Teach a Practical Skill?
A simple progression works well. Let your child watch first while you explain what you're doing. Teach them the safety fundamentals, then do it together. As their confidence develops, let them take over while you remain there to guide them.
Eventually, they can do it independently.
Safety is part of the skill itself. Children should understand how to use equipment properly, recognise potential hazards and know when something is beyond what they should attempt. What is appropriate will depend on your child's age, maturity and experience.
Pass On What You Know
Think about the skills you already have. Perhaps you're mechanical and comfortable working on cars. Maybe you're good at joinery, decorating, gardening, sewing, cooking, electronics or DIY.
Something that feels ordinary to you could be fascinating to your child.
Whenever you're working on a project, ask yourself, “Is there a part of this I could teach my child?”
You could probably complete the job faster yourself. But sometimes allowing it to take longer creates a much better outcome. Your child gets to learn something from you while spending time alongside you.
What If I'm Not Very Practical Myself?
Learn something together. Choose a manageable project, find out how to do it safely and have a go.
You can also involve grandparents, relatives or family friends. Someone in your family might have years of knowledge about cars, woodworking, sewing, gardening or another practical skill. Giving them the opportunity to pass that knowledge on can be valuable for everyone involved.
How Do Practical Skills Build Confidence?
Every new skill gives your child evidence that they are becoming more capable. They can repair a puncture, paint a wall, use a particular tool or cook a meal.
More importantly, they're learning how to approach something they haven't done before. Instead of thinking, “I can't do that,” previous experiences can give them the confidence to think, “I've never done that before. Show me how.”
Eventually, that can become, “I think I can do this myself.”
Will Practical Skills Become More Important in the Future?
The world of work is changing quickly. AI is increasingly capable of handling some information-based and task-based work, while practical work often involves physical ability, judgement, problem-solving and responding to real situations.
Technology will transform practical work too. Engineers, mechanics, builders and other skilled people will increasingly combine practical expertise with sophisticated technology.
A child who can understand technology, communicate, solve problems and confidently make, maintain or repair things will have a broad set of capabilities to take into adulthood.
Can Practical Skills Help My Child Discover What They're Good At?
Absolutely. Some abilities only become visible when children have the opportunity to use them.
Your child might discover excellent spatial awareness while building something, great precision while working with tools or a natural understanding of mechanical problems. They might simply discover that they love making and fixing things.
Children need a broad range of experiences if they're going to discover the full range of their abilities.
How We Think About Practical Skills at The Mount
At The Mount, we want children to discover what they're capable of, including abilities they might never encounter through academic subjects alone. That's why we're introducing practical skills classes led by our owner, Chris Sellers.
Chris is a qualified teacher who has previously owned businesses within the building industry and is qualified across a number of trades. Our children will have the opportunity to learn practical skills from somebody who has used them professionally and understands how to teach them safely.
For us, the value goes beyond completing a particular task. A child might discover a talent they didn't know they had, develop confidence working with tools and materials, or experience the satisfaction of being able to say, “I can do that.”
Giving children opportunities to make those discoveries is another part of creating an extraordinary childhood.
Key takeaway
When an appropriate opportunity arises, bring your child alongside you. Teach them how to maintain their bike, paint, make, repair, cook or safely use a tool. Share the skills you already have and learn something together when you don't know.
The job might take a little longer, but your child finishes with a new skill, greater confidence and time spent learning alongside you.
That's worth the extra time.
