10 "Old Fashioned" Skills to Teach Your Kids

We used to learn things from our parents or grandparents, they would pass down skills that they knew to their children or grandchildren. Somewhere along the way though we stopped passing down a lot of these skills. Pretty soon if we aren’t careful, some of them may be things only a select few people can do.

We started creating a list of things we wanted to make sure our kids to know and skills they can use, here are just 10 of them!

How to Garden

One of the most important skills I want to teach our kids is how to grow things. How to plant a seed, care for it, harvest the crop and the seeds for next time. Teaching our kids where their food comes from and to be a little more self sufficient.

How to Dance

I mean really dance, like guy meets girl and asks her to dance type dancing.

Basic Mending + Sewing

Being able to patch a hole in a shirt, a rip in a pair of pants, or reattach a button is a skill that many people don't have. This one will come in handy a lot!

How to Read a Map

Before we had maps on our phones that told us each step to take, there were paper maps you would have to buy. I want my kids to be able to find a map and know where to go no matter what.

How to Start a Fire

Similarly to the last one, if there is ever an emergency situation where our kids need to know how to start a fire, they will be glad to know this. Or when they are camping and want to make s'mores. Whichever comes first.

How to do Laundry

The amount of people who can't seem to do a load of laundry from start to finish is growing and shocking. From a young age we are teaching our kids how to do a load of laundry.

How to Cook from Scratch

This might be my personal favorite because it is so fun to teach them this. Baking bread, cooking from scratch, and preparing meals for our family is one of my favorite things. In a world that praises convenience, let's take back the magic of the dinner table and the blessing that is found in sitting down around a home cooked meal.

How to Introduce Yourself + Carry a Conversation

Another skill that seems to be lost on so many. Teaching our kids how to politely introduce themselves and carry a respectful conversation is on the top of our list.

Financial Stewardship

Not only is this something we want as parents, it's also biblical that our kids learn to be wise with what God has given them.

Love for Reading

We are teaching our kids to reach for a book before the remote. Reading aloud together and reading books alone are both wonderful and we want to instill a love for reading in our kids.

Not going to lie, some of these I am learning alongside my kiddos! (Hello I can't dance😂) How many of these things do you know how to do? Can you think of other good old fashioned skills that would be helpful to know?