What are life skills?
Life skills is a term used to describe a set of basic skills acquired through learning and or direct-life experience that enable children to effectively handle issues and problems commonly encountered in daily life. Creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, the ability to communicate and collaborate, housekeeping, budgeting, saving, goal-setting, settling an argument, shopping- are all examples of life skills.
Why do we need to teach life skills?
There are many reasons why life skills are important lessons to include in our curriculum. Firstly, in general, equipping young people with life skills will allow them to lead good, happy and meaningful lives. Secondly, nowadays private high schools, colleges and employers are all prioritizing applicants that demonstrate capability in life skills instead of purely academic achievement. They recognize that holes in academic information are easily filled, while missing life skills are much harder to teach. Thirdly, on a personal level, as children transition into adulthood, life skills help them to be active and informed adults who are able to take responsibility for themselves and contribute to the welfare of their families and communities in the future. We want our children to be:
- Able to cook, clean, budget, pay bills on time etc
- Responsible in how they act as someone’s wife/husband; mother/daughter
- Able to articulate their opinions and arguments
- Active in their communities
- Informed about social and political processes
How do we teach life-skills?
Those skills don’t develop unaided, they have to be learned. While certain life skills may be acquired through our everyday experience at home, for others we have to create opportunities and possibilities so our children can learn those skills.
Skills to be learned at home:
- Decision making skills
- Goal-setting skills
- Budgeting and saving skills
- Housekeeping skills
- Cooking skills
Skills to be learned at RYS:
- Communication skills
- Cooking and Baking
- Leadership and public speaking
- Reasoning and critical-thinking
- Arts and crafts
Our life skills courses are here to develop independent, responsible and creative learners inshaAllah.
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