The real question is when should you teach them?
Here are age-by-age guidelines for skills kids should learn before they move out on their own.
Youll probably also have to keep nagging them whentheyre teens and they turn into night owls.
Preschoolers can measure ingredients, stir batter, and help assemble pizzas.
(Kid-friendly kitchen tools like those fromCurious Chefalso help.)
Check out the graphic at the link below for more suggestions.
HealthyChildren.orgsays that most children are physically able to handle riding a tricycle at around age 3.
REI reveals how toteach your child to ride a bike in one afternoon.
After the age of 6, your child can brush his own teeth.
Its a matter of motor skills and coordination, not to mention motivation to do a thorough job.
You coulduse plaque disclosing tablets to motivate your kids to brush better.
Kids will be able to better target spots where plaque could be hiding.
Its one of those skills you mightve completely forgotten about if you havent thought about laces in forever.
Tryusing a jump ropeto teach your kid how to tie shoelaces.
Tweens should learn aboutcompound interestandhow a credit card works.
And teens canstart investingina Roth IRAif they make money from summer jobs.Check out more guidelines for each age group.
But, barringlocal laws against it, this one is up to you.
How independent is your child and how aware is he or she of basic safety rules?
You could also plan subway or car trip routes together on a map.
And then there are siblings and babysitting other kids.
Like all of the other skills above, this will depend on your kids maturity.
If theyre not, they obviously shouldnt be babysitting anyone else.
That aside, many people start babysitting when theyre teens or tweens.
Illustration by Nick Criscuolo.
