Toddlers · 2 years
First independence
- Drinking from an open cup
- Using a spoon with reasonable success
- Putting toys into a box when asked
- Washing hands with help
- Naming a feeling — happy, sad, cross
- Home
- Curriculum
- Life skills
Essential life skills
Pouring their own drink. Zipping their own bag. Saying what they need without crying first. These are teachable, and preschool is exactly when to teach them.
What counts as a life skill
Anything a child will eventually need to do without an adult standing over them. That covers more ground than most parents expect: dressing and toileting, yes, but also asking for help, waiting, tidying up, resolving a disagreement, recognising when they are tired or hungry, and coping when the answer is no.
Why they belong in the curriculum
Because they don’t reliably develop on their own, and because they are quietly load-bearing. A child who can manage their own bag and lunchbox starts primary school with attention to spare for the actual lessons. A child who can articulate a problem gets help faster.
There is also a confidence effect that’s hard to overstate. Competence is what independence is built on — children who can do things for themselves behave like people who can do things.
The trap of doing it for them
It is almost always faster to zip the jacket yourself. The cost is that the child doesn’t learn to zip a jacket, and quietly learns something else: that this is a thing adults do. The fix is unglamorous — build in more time, and tolerate the mess of a job done badly for a few weeks.
Age by age
What to expect, and what to work on
Every child arrives at these at their own pace. Use it as a direction of travel, not a checklist.
Nursery 1 · 3 years
Doing it themselves
- Dressing with minimal help — shoes on the right feet, eventually
- Managing toilet routines independently
- Tidying their own space after an activity
- Asking an adult for help using words
- Taking turns, with reminders
Nursery 2 · 4 years
Responsibility appears
- Packing and carrying their own bag
- Pouring drinks and serving themselves at the table
- Following a two- or three-step instruction
- Settling a small disagreement without an adult
- Looking after a class job or a plant
Kindergarten 1 · 5 years
Planning ahead
- Getting themselves ready with a checklist
- Simple food preparation — spreading, pouring, chopping soft food
- Recognising and naming more complex feelings
- Basic safety: road sense, who to approach if lost
- Finishing a task they’d rather abandon
Kindergarten 2 · 6 years
Ready for primary school
- Managing belongings across a whole school day
- Speaking up to a teacher when something is wrong
- Working in a group towards a shared result
- Handling a change of plan without distress
- Reflecting on what went well and what didn’t
How we teach them
Woven in, not bolted on
Life skills at Shaws don’t occupy a slot on the timetable. They are built into the routines that already exist, which is the only way they stick.
- Children serve their own food and clear their own plates
- Every activity ends with the children tidying it away
- Little Chefs sessions put real cooking skills in their hands
- Class jobs rotate, so everyone takes a turn at being responsible
- Teachers wait before helping — the pause is deliberate
See it in practice
Watch a room of four-year-olds serve their own lunch
It is slower than you’d do it, messier than you’d like, and entirely the point.