Best Outdoor Skills To Teach Children

In this episode I will share some essential skills we should be teaching our future generation.

Transcript

Season 2 Episode 8 PP

Best Outdoor Skills To Teach Children

Have you noticed it seems like todays generation of kids just don’t know how to do the basic skills that we as seasoned adults have learned? I don’t mean things like keeping a checking account or saving money.

Instead I mean the skills that help with living a healthy life and surviving the hard times. Parents are just not teaching these skills anymore. So in this episode, I will be sharing some great skills we can start teaching today’s children so that they can have a stronger future in our crazy world.

Hi, I’m Annie. Welcome back to the Prepping Positively Podcast. Today we are talking about skills that our children should be learning.

Now this topic came up while my grandchildren were visiting me a few weeks ago. I noticed that they had full focus when it came to video games and YouTube videos. But when it came to things they may need when they grow up, they didn’t seem to know a whole lot.

Whether kids live in the city, an apartment, or the countryside, there are skills you can teach them. Let’s start talking about those skills right now.

The first skill is gardening. I don’t care if it is simply planting a tomato seed in a small cup of dirt and placing it on a windowsill to grow, or it is as advanced as helping you start an entire garden plot. Kids need to learn gardening skills.

Let them water with you and explain why your watering and what those plants need. Let them put some seeds in, let them help you lay some mulch. But explain to them why and what you are doing.

Gardening may one day be their only means of eating, so why not start now teaching them the most important skill of growing their own food.

How about care of animals? From as small as a goldfish to as large as a horse, teach them to care for an animal. Teach them about what foods the animal eats and why. Talk about exercise and health. Teach them the types of housing for different animals.

Even if you do not have animals on your property or in your home, you can always turn to books or the internet to show them what they need to know.

Do you go to the park or take walks? Why to teach them some foraging skills. Show them how to eat a dandelion in the spring. Point out mullein that is growing along the road and explain what it is and how it can be used.

Teach them the difference between poisonous and healthy mushrooms in the woods.

Do you go fishing? Take those kids with you. Teach them to bait a hook. Teach them how to make a simple stick, hook, and fishing line pole. Show them how to skin a fish. Teach them what sizes are ok to keep and which ones we throw back.

The same goes for hunting and trapping. Teach them these skills when you do them.

Speaking of being in the wild...teach them to survive if they get lost. Things like a simple shelter to build, starting a fire safely. Simple first aid.

Teach them mapping skills, how to use a compass and how to tell the time by the position of the sun or moon.

Another great skill is purifying water, and what water is safe and not safe in the wild. (Yes there are places where you can drink the natural water believe it or not!)

You can share your skills when it comes to shooting a bow and arrow. How about a gun safety course for the older kids. Maybe show them how to use a sling shot.

One skill that I am terrible at but kids should learn is how to tie a knot. There are a good number of books and internet resources that teach this skill.

Do you cook outside? Teach them how to use a grill. Better yet, teach them how to use and clean and season cast iron pots and how to cook with them over an open fire.

Do you have a pool, or a nearby swimming hole of some sort? Teach them how to swim. So many adults I know won’t go to the beach or the lake because they never learned how to swim.

When you wash clothes, teach your children how to sort laundry, make their own laundry soap, and teach them how to hang clothes on a clothesline.

Teach them basic first aid. Sign them up for a CPR class. This is a skill everyone should learn. You never know when you will need it!

Finally, teach them home skills. Cooking, sewing, menu prepping, grocery shopping, budgeting, keeping a checkbook and saving money.

Our children are our future and the world isn’t getting better for them. Arm them with the skills they will need if and when the necessities aren’t available. Teach them to be survivors.

Those video games, YouTube, and the internet are great and they can learn a lot from them, but when the power goes out, or they are not available, knowing how to do things already is better than not being able to turn to the electronics to find an answer or direction.

I hope this gave you the inspiration to turn off the tv and the video games, and get those kids learning something that will make their future better.

Happy learning and I’ll see ya next week!