3 things your kids won’t learn in school

School teaches our kids English, maths, science and loads of other subjects, but there are some key things missing which your kids won’t learn at school. Here are our 3 top things they won’t learn from Mrs. Clancy:

1. How to manage finances
In an ideal world, finances would be incorporated into the school curriculum, either through maths from a young age, business studies in high school or on its own, but it’s not. Some teachers cover it a little and compound interest is discussed in math, but general budgeting, financial topics such as mortgages, banking, credit cards, debt and superannuation aren’t covered in depth.

How much better off would you be now if you knew who to manage your finances before you got your first job? Most of the time, we learn these things as we’re doing them and that can end in disaster. Take the time to invest in your kids by showing them how they can manage their money and save for their future.

2. There’s no 8th place ribbon in real life
These days at school, every kid gets an award so no one misses out. If they participate, they get a ribbon. Even if they fail something, as long as they participated, they get a ribbon. While it is important to help children manage failure and support them when they are feeling vulnerable, it is equally important for them to learn to overcome their failures. Once they hit the real world, their boss is not going to hand them a ‘ribbon’ like a pay rise or promotion if they lose a client or cost the company money. Failure can be bitterly tough but in the end they shape who we are and how we grow. Without them, we can’t learn so while it’s tough as a parent to see your kids deal with failure, know they’re going to be better people as a result. Some of the best stories of extremely successful people come from the failures they’ve overcome.

3. Basic life skills
While today’s students are achieving more academically than previous generations, more than 38% of students in a recent poll have never paid a bill, sewn a button or washed their own clothes! With kids aged 5 to 12, one quarter didn’t know butter comes from cows milk and many didn’t know bananas grow on trees or that potatoes didn’t come from Woolies.

Previous generations had a strong focus both within school and the home to learn basics such as cooking, sewing, bike and car maintenance, repairs and how to do things. Current generations have a stronger focus on tech resulting in many children and adults not knowing basic life skills. It’s easy to ‘Google’ something but understanding how to do certain basic life skills is crucial. It might not be a bad thing to spend some time boiling teaching your kids to boil an egg so B1 and B2 aren’t just TV characters.

We might wish our kids were taught everything in school, but it’s not possible. Help teach your kids more and give them the upper hand as adults. Discuss your family finances, how to budget and how mortgages work with them. Have family dinners and get your kids involved in cooking, making their own lunch and helping with chores around the house. Teach them how to learn and grow from failing so they are self motivated and confident. All of this can be done from home and will help both you and your kids as they grow.  Plus, you’ll probably get to kick your heals up from time to time if they know how to make the Sunday roast 🙂

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