Parent Action Plan

• Give your child projects to do at home in which these skills can be practiced, and then discuss with your child the skills that were used.

You may ask your child to do a sample budget for the household. Skills like allocating money, negotiating with family members for where money should be spent, acquiring and evaluating information for expenditures, applying technology (if a computer is used), writing, math, communication skills, making decisions, and solving problems are used to do this task.

• Focus on teaching your child the personal qualities of responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management, and integrity/honesty.

Give your children specific household tasks that they will be responsible for accomplishing each week. Make sure there are real consequences if tasks are not accomplished.

• Encourage your children to become involved in community service activities or church youth groups and to work on community or church projects that will help other people.

Raising money for United Way or the March of Dimes will help your child understand that there are many less fortunate people in his own community and also understand the diversity of his community.

• Talk with your children about inter-relationships within a community and how we all are inter-connected.

Working on community projects will also help her see and understand firsthand the various groups involved in community development.

• Help your child develop important academic skills, thinking skills, and personal qualities.

Make sure your child’s day includes time for doing homework and spending quality time with the family. Time to talk about the day and any concerns he may be experiencing is critical to your child’s home life. He needs to know that home is a secure place where he is loved and free to express himself.

• Incorporate learning activities during summer vacations with your children. Instead of spending all day on the beach, spend a half-day visiting a local museum or other local attraction. Most places we visit on vacation have lots of history and interesting local color to learn about, and entrance to many of these types of museums is free.

Or, you may consider sending your child to a learning camp for a few days, such as Space Camp which is a five-day program with activities including simulated Space Shuttle missions, training simulators, and lectures on the past, present, and future of space exploration. Visit the Space Camp website at www.spacecamp.com

The Peterson’s Summer Opportunities for Kids and Teenagers (Peterson’s Guides, Inc., Princeton, New Jersey) is an excellent guide for planning a learning vacation or for finding out about learning camps available for children.

Other Related Links

www.kidsmoney.org
Fifteen articles by various authors on when, why, and how to give children allowances

 

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Hallmarks of Success
The SCANS Skills
Skills That Work
Parent action plan