Skills for Life

As I was eating breakfast this morning, I noticed the new issue of Popular Mechanics laying on the table. The cover boasted of 42 Things You Should Know How to Do at Any Age. I’m “any age”, so it intrigued me.

Skills for Life ~ Dawn Marie Perkins

What skills do I not have yet that I should have? And what should I be teaching my kids?

Skills For Life ~ Dawn Marie Perkins
The article spans many pages and has many good, solid life skills for–quite literally– every age. Beginning with learning to ride a bike and tie their shoes.

How to load a dishwasher, explained by text as well as diagram, was quite helpful as I read it aloud to my family. One son and I load like the image on the left, the other son and my husband load similar (or worse than) the image on the right. I might be just a tad picky about the way the dishwasher gets loaded. I may even be guilty of rearranging dishes after certain people have loaded. Ahem. *Gulp* The conflicting explanations of the methods is pretty funny though. Peter is going to make his soon to be bride a happy lady. 🙂

 Skills For Life ~ Dawn Marie Perkins

Some were rather innocuous, like butchering a pig. I try to buy my pork pre-slaughtered, and butchered. I can’t think of when I might need to know how to butcher a pig, but I figure that if it came down to it, my husband’s deer butchering skills would probably carry over fairly well.

And then there was this, a skill aimed at the 18-22 year olds. Erm.

Skills For Life ~ Dawn Marie Perkins
Something tells me that’s not her arm bent backward at that extremely awkward angle.

This very informative article was followed by a full page on the virtues of teaching kids to fish. The writer, C.J. Chivers states, “This is why, in our house, fishing lies near the center of what my wife and I consider our children’s living classroom.”

He goes into all of the various aspects of fishing, and how the simple function of bringing in fish teaches a multitude of other skills. I grew up fishing, and while I can’t cite it as a hobby I enjoy now, I do see what he means. One thing I do appreciate about fishing is that once you buy the license, it means free meat. Not a bad trade.

Skills For Life ~ Dawn Marie Perkins
Daughters aren’t to be left out, as he explained, “Teach your daughter to fish and she may become a biologist, a mechanic, a deckhand, a carpenter, and an artist, all on her spare time.”

Skills for life.

Did you know that you can subscribe to Popular Mechanics online, with an all-access pass? I never realized how interesting it was until I became an adult!

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