Allison McDaniel, contributing editor

Learning to share begins with taking small steps as you work together in order to achieve a common goal. For parents who have more than one child in the household, teaching them how to share is a great opportunity to instill valuable life skills. As a young adult, I have come to realize that a lot of the lessons of sharing I learned as a child are the main ingredients I use today as a young professional.

As I prepared to write this article I took the time to think about what some of those important life skills are and ways you use these lessons to teach them to the special kids in your life. Keep in mind too that this is all a process which means the adoption of these life skills will happen over time. Remember too that it is important not to focus too much on the mechanics of doing tasks but rather on spending fruitful time together.

Here are just a few.

  1. Have your children work to plan their own healthy menu together.
  2. Provide them with a list of their favorite vegetables, meats, fruit and breads.
  3. Create a shopping list together and assign items for each child to identify items in the store and pull from the shelves or the produce section (with your assistance of course).
  4. Assign each child a task (helping you to sautee, chopping, stirring, etc).
  5. Emphasize the importance of teamwork and how each step can’t be done without the other.
  6. Make sure each child share equal responsibility for preparing the meal so they all feel involved.

Now, here is the assignment. Make a list of what you think the skills are and expand the list to include some of you own.

Until next time...