Halfway-Point of the 30 Day Life Skills Challenge

May 1, 2024

30 Day Life Skills Challenge – Halfway Point Update

Each week, my son and I touched base about what skills he had worked on and talked through a plan for working on some additional skills over the course of the next week. Here are the skills we have tackled over the last 16 days and a brief description of what we did! One major takeaway was that the majority of these skills arose naturally over the course of the last 2 weeks, and I just had to remember to pull him in so that I could provide any instruction, model how to do the skills, and then allow him to practice on his own! He has also been motivated to do this, not only for the reward, but also because he chose the items we are working on and is truly interested in learning most of them!

Put together a list of rules when babysitting siblings – While he has started watching his younger siblings for 2-3 hours every few weeks and we have gone over the rules and guidelines, we sat down and wrote everything down together so that he can easily refer to it if needed.
Know which vaccinations he will be getting over the next 8 years – He was pretty motivated to learn about this so he knows what shots he (or his siblings) may be getting when we go to a check-up. I found a chart that detailed all of the shots from birth to 18 years and a brief description of the vaccinations. He read through them and then I answered some of his questions.
Host a friend for a sleepover – While he did not have a sleepover, he had a friend over for a get-together and we discussed topics such as cleaning his room up, offering his friend snacks and drinks, following the household rules, and letting his guest choose the activities. We debriefed after the play date and I gave him some positive feedback about how he handled being a good host!
Fix Wi-Fi connection – Last week, our internet stopped working and I demonstrated the magical trick of unplugging the wi-fi router and then plugging it back in.
Identify sources to keep up with current events and weather – We talked through how he can get information about the weather on his smartspeaker and by looking it up on our home computer. He is not reading much about news yet, but I also showed him how he could look this up at a reputable source on the home computer.
Pick up a prescription and get a refill – He gave all of the necessary information needed to pick up his prescription and I also demonstrated how to pay for it with my credit card. We discussed the process of contacting his pediatrician each month to get a refill, which still needs to be done by a parent.
Write, endorse, and observe how to cash a check – I demonstrated how to write a check for a field trip he was going on at school and talked through how this money will come out of our checking account.
Find his clothing sizes for different items (e.g., pants, shirt, socks) – While shopping for summer clothing (e.g., shorts, t-shirts), we discussed what his size was and also talked about his preferences for clothing. While he was not happy about trying some of the clothing items on, he did realize that some items that he thought would fit him perfectly actually did not and he needed a different size.
Make a list of items needed at the grocery store – He was getting a little tired of the same school lunches, so he made a list of items he wanted to include in his lunchbox.
Find items in the grocery store using a list – Using his grocery list, he navigated the grocery store on his own and found most of the items. There were 2-3 items he could not find and we talked through how he could locate them (e.g., think about the category of the items, look at the signs above the aisles).
Check out and pay for items at a grocery store – He checked out his items using self-checkout and used my credit card to pay for the items.
Learn a new skill by watching YouTube – We have been doing a lot of yard work on the weekend, which included installing a new system for planting on a steep hillside. We watched the installation video together and then worked together to install the planters (see above picture of him helping me with the set-up!).
Use the chimenea to safely burn sticks – He has experience building campfires, so we read the instruction booklet together on how to safely use the chimenea. Since then, he has started 2-3 fires and has safely put them out over the last two weeks.
Plant perennials in the yard – He helped with planting perennials on our hillside after watching me and planting next to me.
Do a load of laundry from start to finish – He knows how to do some steps of the laundry process, but has never done it on his own from beginning to end. He is playing baseball and needs to have his uniform washed pretty regularly, so this was a great opportunity to teach him how to do this and build some responsibility. After walking through the steps and answering his questions, he had no difficulties using the washing machine and dryer and was receptive to feedback (e.g., adding in other clothes to make a full load).
Clean the shower – He is in charge of cleaning the toilet and sink that he regularly uses, so it did not take long to provide instruction and then have him demonstrate how he would clean the shower. We set up a reminder so that he remembers to clean it thoroughly every 2 weeks.
Pull weeds (how to identify a weed vs plant, how to identify poison ivy) – We worked together in the yard on this and I demonstrated the common weeds in our yard and where the poison ivy was. He was then able to do this on his own!
Water the flowers (without wasting water) – He observed me do this and was then able to successfully do it the next day on his own (and only got his little brother purposely wet on one occasion!)

Halfway-Point of the 30 Day Life Skills Challenge

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30 Day Life Skills Challenge – COMPLETED!