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Life Skills
Point Your Preteen Toward Future Success
By Silvana Clark
Ask the average preteen to download songs to his Ipod and the job is done in record time. Need to create a simple Web page? No problem for a 12-year-old. Yet when it comes to basic skills valuable throughout life, many preteens need a little help. Of course it's important to know how to present a middle school PowerPoint presentation on the export crops of Peru. More important, though, is the ability to have eye contact with adults, speak in full sentences and even use the phone book.
One mother told her son he could earn $25 over spring break. The mother assigned one experience per day. As soon as her son completed the task, Mom handed over $5.
One summer, my 12-year-old daughter complained she was too young to get a job and earn money for the designer school clothes she desperately needed. We came up with a plan that earned Trina money while also teaching her skills she still uses today, 20 years later. I gave her a list of 15 tasks to accomplish during a two-week period. It was up to her to select 10 activities and complete them by a specific deadline. If those "life skills" tasks were satisfactorily completed, she'd receive a designated clothing allowance. (We were going to buy her clothes anyway, but this way she felt as if she earned the money.) The activities gave some structure to her summer vacation and also taught her about time management and meeting deadlines.
