What was it like when you first left home?

If you were like me, you suddenly realised that there were a lot of things that you hadn’t learnt enough about. Things like:

o earning money and paying taxes

o renting somewhere to live

o budgeting my money

o paying household bills

o how politics worked

o how to make a difference in the world

o buying and cooking all my own food

o travelling across the country

o personal time-management

o how to look good, when I didn’t have much money for clothes

o how to monitor my own health and wellbeing

o how to decorate the places I lived in, with the least possible outlay, and

o how to save money.

When I worked with young people in the care system, and in schools, I discovered that they tended to have the same sorts of gaps in their education. In fact, it seems many, if not most, young people do.

This is partly because schools tend to focus on academic subjects rather than practical life-skills. And it’s often difficult for parents to talk about these subjects because they aren’t the kind of thing that people tend to have long conversations about – they are just too mundane.

So, when you get your electricity bill, sitting down and discussing it with your 15-year old probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind! Even if you decide to switch energy providers, you’re unlikely to talk over the reasons for your choices with your kids. There’s no context for it.

This pack could help.

It contains 10 challenges, suitable for young people aged 11- 16, to help them develop some of the necessary life - skills they’ll need as they get older. How you use this is up to you and your child.

Some kids may only need to focus on one or two challenges to round off their education. Others may need all of them but spread over a long period of time. Their may be some your child is really interested in and others he or she really doesn’t want to think about, right now. On the other hand, working through the whole pack could be a substantial study-strand for a term or so.

So use this as and when it seems appropriate.

The aim has very much been to get kids thinking about and finding out about things for themselves. The pack asks lots of questions and presents a lot of choices. It’s designed to give them a sense of empowerment and achievement.

These are the areas that are covered:

o The Budget Challenge: Work out how much money you’d need, as an adult, to live the kind of life you’d like to live.

o The Cool Threads Challenge: Make yourself something to wear.

o The One World Challenge: Organise a fund-raising event for a charity.

o The Democracy Challenge: Find out how you can participate in your community to work towards more of the world you’d like to see, and do something towards that.

o The Energy Challenge: Work out how your family could save money on your energy bills.

o The Feed the Family Challenge: Prepare a meal for your family, from scratch, using fresh ingredients. This includes tidying up afterwards.

o The Savings Challenge: Set yourself a savings challenge and then work out a way to get there.

o The Makeover Challenge: Plan a room makeover for your bedroom. Produce an accurately costed plan that comes in within budget.

o The Travel Challenge: Plan a journey using public transport.

o The Wellbeing Challenge: Design and run a 30-day programme to increase your own wellbeing.

Parenting teenagers can be daunting at times. This pack could give parents a way in to having some of the kinds of conversations and discussions with your kid(s) that build confidence and independence for adult life.