Parenting Network

Summer Skills Ideas for Kids

In addition to summer school, camp, jobs and sports activities, summer is a great time to help kids brush up on skills they may not have enough time for during the school year.

Meal preparation and basic cooking skills are a couple of areas many parents let fall by the wayside during the winter months of homework, sports and extracurriculars. As three meals a day for the rest of our children’s lives is a given, however, we would be well-advised to spend some time on these eminently practical life skills. To successfully involve our kids in meal planning, shopping, cooking and cleanup, parents can never start early enough. (If we wait for our 16 year old to show an interest, chances are we have missed the boat and have to start from scratch.)

Cooking is one area where the dreaded social media can actually come in handy. Getting recipes online, posting photos of culinary successes and failures and sharing tips are constructive uses of the internet. Some books and sites tout recipes with 5 ingredients, (not including S & P & EEVO), which are ideal for kids in today’s fast-paced world.

Negotiate some kind of deal where, in exchange for so many meals properly planned and cooked, take out or pizza is the weekend celebration. Weekly food budget considerations should also come into the discussion. 

This leads us to another life skill to work on in the summer months – finance. Many kids graduate without knowing anything about their credit rating or how to build it, the power of compound interest or how much of their eventual paycheck their cell phone bill will actually take.   

Get kids a bank account and consider giving them an allowance. Whatever it is, start small. You can always give more later. 

We don’t recommend tying allowance to chores - kids contribute to the family and share in the resources. Getting them to do their jobs involves a discussion, a timetable and a commitment. One exception could be to pay your kids to do jobs they don’t usually do during the school year, whether it is cleaning, yard work or other housekeeping chores.

If there is something they really want to buy, show them the value of saving, the joy of delayed gratification and working hard for something they really want. Giftingsense.com can help kids learn about making good buying decisions.

Many financial experts recommend dividing kids’ money into categories such as: charitable, educational, clothing, savings, discretionary, etc. Most banks have helpful apps to get your family started.  

For older kids, consider giving them virtual money to invest and introduce them to the stock market. Get them involved in planning the family vacation and getting the best deals for your

trip. To motivate them, let them spend say, 50% of what they save on an activity you otherwise would have nixed.

Of all the things we do for our kids and make sure they learn, managing food and money seem so obvious that we often assume our kids just know – taking the time to ensure that they do is a great investment in their future.