What should 10 year olds be able to do

Many children this age have become competent students, and can participate in the routines and expectations of school life. They can comfortably apply a number of thinking and reasoning strategies to 3-digit numbers and are starting to apply beginning algebraic problem solving. In addition, their attention span has increased to between minutes. Children this age are beginning to apply thinking to learning in new ways.

For instance, they are fairly good at the use of inductive logic, where they can get from a specific experience to a general principle e. However, they still struggle with deductive logic, where they must use a general principle to apply to a specific event Mammals feed their babies milk. Dolphins are mammals; therefore they feed their babies milk.

Try out your deductive reasoning skills with your child. Almost all year olds can read, but some find it easy and pleasurable, while others do not. When Torres became a mom, she wanted to share the same experience with her two daughters, 10 and But between homework and after-school activities, it often fell off her to-do list.

Until the pandemic hit. Stuck in their Charlotte, North Carolina, home last spring, Torres taught her girls how to hand-sew cloth face masks. And with the younger one, she made a sock monkey—a fun way to practice sewing buttons. There's so much for our children to learn in today's high-tech world that it can become all too easy for them to miss out on practical life skills. In fact, a study by the security company AVG Technologies found that while 58 percent of 3- to 5-year-olds in the United States can navigate a smartphone, fewer than one out of six 15 percent could make their own breakfast.

By focusing on life skills early on, you can do just that. And with so many kids at home these days, there's no time like the present to get started. Invite your child to help make meals, assign them jobs to do, and stay calm when the flour spills and the eggshells fly. She let her, at age 4 or 5, practice cutting bananas with a plastic knife and sealing empanada edges with a fork.

Here's what else you can work on in the kitchen at each stage:. Kids are spending more time on screens than ever, so it's important to reinforce a few rules to help them safely navigate the digital world, says Internet safety and special-needs advocate Joscelyn Ramos Campbell, a mom of four in Clermont, Florida, who blogs at MamiOfMultiples.

As soon as your child is able to use technology unsupervised, go over these best practices:. Too many teens head to college with no clue how to clean their clothes. Don't let your child become one of them. You can begin laundry lessons when kids are around 6. If you have a top-loading washer, keep a step stool nearby. Walk them through the process—how to measure and add the detergent, choose the settings, and start the machine.

Amy Mascott, who blogs at TeachMama. Mascott says there have been glitches, like the time a whole load was folded and put away damp. I'm aiming for them to get the job done," she says. Lots of preschoolers learn to plant seeds in class but not how to transfer sprouts into a garden. Toddlers can dictate a note to a family member or an amigo enhanced with drawings, of course , attach the stamp, and drop it into a mailbox.

Model for an older child addressing an envelope, and go over the five parts of a letter: date, greeting, body, closing, and signature.

You can also have them:. Programs such as Heimlich Heroes offer abdominal-thrust training resources for kids in the first grade and up. In , those lessons paid off in a big way when her daughter Kiara Fernandez, now 14, saved her younger sister Jadah, 12, from choking in a restaurant when Saroza wasn't present. To teach the Heimlich maneuver, tell your kids that if someone can't breathe, cough, or speak, they should first ask, "Are you choking? To ensure your child doesn't freak out when they see blood, avoid overreacting yourself.

Giving them a game plan, like the following, will also help distract them from the pain and will come in handy when you're not around to kiss their boo-boos. If you've ever gotten lost following your GPS's turn-by-turn voice directions, you know why being able to read a map is essential even if it's one on your phone. It helps to post a list of emergency contacts on the fridge and to periodically remind your child of the steps he or she should take if someone is in danger.

Basic traffic signs and signals should be understood and followed — with the exception, of course, of signs with crazy squiggly lines that no adult even comprehends. Gets ready for bed without you begging them to do so — No one is suggesting your child will want to go to bed instead of watching TV all night, but by 10, kids are able to put on their own pajamas and go through the motions of their bedtime routine without you prompting them to do so every step of the way.

Let them apply toothpaste to their brushes, dig out the floss from the cabinet and take care of their own sparkly whites. View All. Tags children. Leave a Comment Comments are closed. Given the stratification of work and family, this is bound to happen. They can swim. They can care for another living thing.

Caring for a pet — and keeping it alive — helps kids learn to be empathetic, one of the most important skills they can develop. They can sort through online news.

They also need to learn how to be sensible web consumers and creators, especially given the troubling rise of fake news. One recent study found that less than half of kids ages 10 to 18 say they can tell fake news stories from the real deal, which is likely why only one in four of them have a lot of trust in news organizations. To help your kids navigate the confusion, focus on reading comprehension and critical thinking skills. They can make change. Run some practice transactions by them, with an added incentive: Every time they give you the correct coins back, they get to put the change in their piggy bank.

They know how to save. At first, allow them to spend half on anything they want, then put the rest into a piggy bank. Be sure to log into the account online, show them how to manage their money via browser, and help them build out a long-term savings plan.

They can chill out. Studies have shown that mindfulness practices can help kids become more attentive, respectful, and focused, while reducing stress and hyperactive behaviors. To get your kid into meditation, start easy: Ask them to sit still, relax, and focus on the process of breathing.

They can clean their room. Cleaning teaches kids how to value their possessions and organize their space. Let them experiment with sweeping, mopping, and dusting, but more importantly, make sure they understand how to organize their room on their own — and then to declutter.

They know how to write a letter or email.