Stephanie Landis (00:06):

Hello and welcome to Unbabbled, a podcast that navigates the world of special education, communication, delays and learning differences. We are your host, Stephanie Landis and Meredith Krummel, and we’re certified speech language pathologist who spend our days at the parish school in Houston helping children find their voices and connect with the world around them. In this episode, we chat with Beth from Days With Grey about helping children learn a variety of life skills to navigate their daily lives now and in the future by gamifying learning and breaking skills down with simplified instructions and easy to follow steps. Beth is an educator certified in K through 12 with a master’s degree in reading. After teaching for 13 years, she started Days with Gray in 2016 to share the educational activities she was doing at home with her boys. Beth shares her breakfast invitations and activity cards with families from all over the world through her blog and Instagram. Throughout the episode, Beth shares why she developed her life skills for big kids cards, how her own boys have responded to learning new skills and tips for families, teaching new skills at home from simple tasks like using a peeler or tying a shoe to bigger ones like ordering food or speaking up at the doctor. These skills build a sense of independence and confidence. Her goal is to go beyond teaching chores or tasks to develop bite-sized wins that help your child become independent and thrive.

(01:32):

Welcome to another episode of UnBabbled. We are here today with talking to Beth Rosenblith from Days With Grey, and actually this is her second time on the podcast, so welcome back and thank you for speaking with us again.

Beth Rosenbleeth (01:44):

Yay. Thanks for having me.

Stephanie Landis (01:46):

Yes. So last time you were here we were talking about helping out children that we’re a little bit younger and parents on activities to do with them at home to help build play in the morning, and it was so fantastic and great and now it’s been a few years and your kids and my kids and many of the kids that are still listening now, parents that are listening now, their children have grown up and it has been so great to watch you and how you’ve been teaching your kids some of those skills. So I’m so excited to learn from you today.

Beth Rosenbleeth (02:18):

Oh, that’s so great. I love that we can all grow together too, that a lot of us started together in the early years and now we are looking for just guidance and understanding that we’re all on the same page as our children grow into the tweens.

Stephanie Landis (02:32):

So one of the things, many of the families that we work with and the children at our school, they have some executive functioning difficulties and when we’re talking to parents, they’re always working on ways to help their kids become more independent and get some independent skills, but we also realize that it is just hard. What have you found that has been the most helpful to you in instilling and building these independent skills?

Beth Rosenbleeth (03:00):

What I have found is I have three boys, and first, just to back up with the early years, I do feel like in the early years kids are so eager to help the toddler age, the preschool age, they do want to help, they want to be seen. And then we get into these adolescent years, these tween years, that it’s more like pulling teeth just to get them to brush their teeth speaking of teeth. And that’s kind of funny because it’s like the simplest tasks become the hardest.

(03:30):

And so what I noticed with my boys is that I was, took some skills that I thought that they could use and I thought, you know what? I need to speak their language and gamify it. And that has really helped a lot. And then finding simple things that they may not have tried before, such as a can opener has been, and the vegetable peeler. So these are two, looking around the house and thinking about simple tools you already have that maybe you haven’t introduced your child to for no other reason than you forgot it was in the kitchen drawer. And in the early years, one of the biggest things that you notice as a parent is you buy something from Amazon and your child wants to play with the box. It’s kind of the same thing. You have all of these skills, these life skills in your kitchen drawer that you might not have even thought about yet. And so it actually started with a vegetable peeler and it was a conversation of like, Hey, here’s a vegetable peeler, do you know how to use it? And then I think they peeled everything they could find to peel apples, carrots, potatoes. I mean it was an entire marathon of peeling.

Stephanie Landis (04:41):

Yeah, I could see that. My son is at a Montessori school and I could tell the day he got introduced to a peeler because for the next week he wanted to peel every single thing in our house the same way that it was the most amazing thing. But it is really great skills and it builds the planning, it builds the fine motor skills and it really gets them involved in wanting to cook. I know for years I’ve been like, Hey, one way to build executive functioning and language skills is to have your kids cook with you, and that may work for other people’s kids. My kids, it was again with the teeth, it was pulling teeth. It was so hard to get them to want to cook with me. And then they were so messy and then I just get frustrated and nobody was having fun. But just building that one step of, all right, you chop or you peel, that seems like an easy gateway in

Beth Rosenbleeth (05:30):

Exactly. It’s funny, I was reflecting before I came in, and that’s exactly what all of these skills that I put together are. They’re a gateway to the larger picture. So you’re introducing a vegetable peeler, they’re like, oh, I kind of like this. I wonder if we can use it in a recipe or for my kids, they all of a sudden were making salads from the peels. Now they’re not doing that three years later, but that day they realized they can do something and then eat off of it. Or if you are showing your child how to make a frozen pizza, well now they’re probably going to make the frozen pizza. The bigger picture is they’re able to, they’re like, oh, I can make a frozen pizza. Well, can I do chicken tenders too? So exactly. I think of these life skills as gateway into a much bigger picture building staircase, the confidence

Stephanie Landis (06:17):

When you were introducing those skills, you gamified it to speak their language. What did you do to turn it into a fun game?

Beth Rosenbleeth (06:24):

That’s right. So I started thinking about different skills around the house and I created these activity cards and I grouped them into three different groups. I grouped them into beginner skills. And a lot of children in the tweens, they understand something called XP points. And XP points are a lot of times on not just video games, but let’s just use that for an example. You could gain XP points to give your character a different shirt color kind of thing. So what I included on all of the life skill task cards were points for that XP points. And so there’s beginner skills such as peeling a vegetable or using a melon scooper, but then you could do an intermediate task like shopping for five items and maybe you would get 10 XP points and then maybe you can do something more experienced and you would get 15 if they go and check out library books on their own.

(07:24):

And what the bigger part of all of the XP points and gamifying it was that there’s a chart with a hundred boxes. And the idea is that you’re also teaching children to prolong gratification too. So it’s like, okay, well what is your goal? My goal is to color in a hundred boxes. My goal is color in 50 boxes, especially a child who maybe if you need to make it even more narrowed down, maybe the first goal is just 15 boxes and you come up with, okay, well after you reach your goal, what is something that you want to get with these XP points? So my middle wanted to go out to dinner in our favorite restaurant. My youngest wanted $20, he’s the third child. I feel like that’s very on brand. So not only are you learning these little life skills, but you’re also setting a goal and then you’re working towards it and knowing how much longer you have to go or how much more you have to do to achieve the goal. So it’s kind of like life skills within life skills.

Stephanie Landis (08:29):

I really like that. And as you said, they already are understanding if they’ve been exposed to any sort of gaming of what XP points are, and so then they’re leveling themselves up. I love that language

Beth Rosenbleeth (08:41):

And yes, exactly. And I think that right now there’s also this black or white pressure for parents. So it’s like you hear your child can do more or your child needs to, I’m using this as a very broad example, but they have to ride their bike to the grocery store and come back with milk because that’s what we did as a kid. And then there’s a conversation of, but life’s not the same as when we were a kid. So what I really wanted to do with these activity cards too, is on the back I wanted to break it down. So for example, if the card says Shop for five items, I wanted to make sure there’s parents understood you could introduce the skill and here’s how you would introduce it. You could try it together and here’s how you would try it together. Or when you’re ready, you can do independent practice and here’s how you can do it. You can offer it independently. And then I offered conversation starters so that parents can understand how to navigate this skill, but not in such a all or nothing kind of way.

Stephanie Landis (09:47):

Yeah, I really appreciate that heart of it too because coming from a therapeutic and an education background, it’s very natural to be like the I do. We do. You do. But from a parent, nobody ever really taught me how to then do, watch me, let’s do it together. And then you do it. And sometimes I think we just skip some of that and you’re like, well, you’ve seen me do this a hundred times, now you go do it. Instead of the doing it together and having that set, here’s how you can teach your child how to do things, I think is extremely helpful for parents, especially since there is so much going on and it might feel overwhelming to be like, now I have to figure out how to teach my kids all these life skills on their own.

Beth Rosenbleeth (10:29):

Yeah, exactly. And it gives a step. So if you jump right into independent practice and it doesn’t necessarily work out, it’s like, oh, okay, well let me just scale it back. Well, who’s telling me how to scale it back? Okay, I see on the card. And then they’re very simple. It’s very, very clear how to go back almost in a way where you can take the lead on how you do that, but it gives you a little bit of a direction so you don’t feel so lost.

Stephanie Landis (10:57):

And that can be incredibly helpful for children with fine motor or executive functioning or other differences too that it gives them really clear cut directions and it helps the parents figure out how to scaffold in that layer of support.

Beth Rosenbleeth (11:11):

And for children, every child has a different plan of how to help them feel successful. So one, this is my activity cards are in a ring, and what you could do as a parent to help break it down is you could take off all of that. So all the beginner skills are in orange. You could take away the immediate and the advanced cards. We’re not going to overwhelm children who already feel overwhelmed with 50 new things to try. So maybe the deck starts with just the orange cards and then when they master all the orange cards, you can celebrate that and then you can add a few independent. The deck is all on a ring so you can make the deck work for your child. And even if you needed to talk with somebody who also is part of the plan, who has the plan in place and say, Hey, I have these life skill cards, or maybe you don’t have my cards. I have these life skill goals for my child. Do you think we should, what order should we do them in? How should we break them down? I think would be a really important conversation to have.

Stephanie Landis (12:23):

Have your kids tried to make their own cards or Hey, I learned this new skill, will that count towards it?

Beth Rosenbleeth (12:29):

That’s so funny. They haven’t made their own cards, but absolutely they’ll be like, oh, it’s a life skill. Gosh, I forget what we were doing today. I’ll have to think about it. And I said, yeah, go for it. It’s a life skill. And they were like, it’s a life skill. Is it on the cards? And I was like, no, it’s not. But I’ve always thought about a second set or I just think the idea of how them reacting, that just kind of proves the idea of I don’t believe in everything has to be a deal or a trade off or a reward. But I do think about me as an adult where if I have goals for work, of course I’m like, okay, well I want these new sneakers. Well, if I achieve this goal, maybe then I get the sneakers or whatever. But you constantly do have to keep your brain entertained. You can’t always just feel like everything is just so flatlined. So there is something to gamifying trying new things and working towards a goal

Meredith Krimmel (13:30):

As an adult, I don’t work for free and I get paid for my job just like kids should get paid or some sort of reward for their jobs. It makes sense. It’s really that itself is a life skill.

Beth Rosenbleeth (13:43):

And I’ve read books too talking about how adults, we sometimes forget to celebrate our wins. We’re just, especially those of us who are entrepreneurs or high achievers, we’re just like, you achieve it and then you’re like, wait, okay, what’s the next thing? And so even as a parent, it kind of helps you remember to wait, scale it back for a second. You just did a thing, celebrate it.

Stephanie Landis (14:10):

And for some of our kids, just learning new things is hard enough. They’re being pushed all the time at school to learn new things that are really hard. And so to celebrate those mini wins when you’re getting pushed to learn new hard things at home too is motivating. Everybody wants some motivation.

Beth Rosenbleeth (14:27):

Yeah, I’ll compare it. Two chores. It is funny. So we did the life skills over the summer and they were a huge success. And then I now have a middle schooler and occasionally the middle school for friends will go to get a drink somewhere. And so they wanted to earn money and we haven’t done that yet, chores for money. And so we came up with a similar thing. We’re like, okay, well if do these five chores every day, you’ll get a dollar a day. It did not work. We are probably four weeks in. They’ve all realized that they don’t just nobody’s invested. And it’s funny how the life skill cards are kind of the same thing, but because it’s a different approach, it was way more successful. And I didn’t even pay them $5 a week. It’s wild. They weren’t even getting any money out of it. They were just getting the reward of feeling like they were achieving these small tasks.

Meredith Krimmel (15:28):

All different kinds of rewards are important I guess depending on what you’re doing and what you’re working for and what is motivating you when we’re all that way. That makes sense.

Stephanie Landis (15:37):

Have you found that your kids feel more confident?

Beth Rosenbleeth (15:43):

Yeah, for sure. Especially in the ones that we’ve practiced maybe since for a long time, even before the cards were introduced. One of the cards is an advanced skill, but you call and order your own takeout. That’s something that they feel really confident in. They’ll just be, oh, mama, hand me the phone if I’m driving. And then they call and order burgers and one of us has a food allergy, one of my children. So they know the drill, right? They know how to call what to say from listening. So there are different skills that they do feel more confident and less confident just depending on the experience.

(16:25):

And then there’s a whole nother chapter to all of this when they get overconfident. And then we had a situation at the beach this summer where they would ride their bikes and they would meet us where we’re all headed. And well, they took it a little too far once they reached that spot. And so there’s that conversation too. Okay, well what did your gut tell you? What did your body feel when you decided to do that? And I think that that’s equally as important as feeling confident, but also kind of listening to your body and what you think you should do and not necessarily do in different situations. So all in all life skills have just been wildly successful for the good and the bad.

Stephanie Landis (17:16):

No. Your limits?

Beth Rosenbleeth (17:17):

No.

Stephanie Landis (17:18):

So relatable. My kids this summer we were staying with my dad up in Ohio and in their neighborhood is windy and twisty and so they wanted to go biking independently, frequently. And then sometimes they would get lost and they’d figure it out or they’d call from my daughter’s watch and be like, come get us

(17:40):

The corner of this corner and this corner, which was another life skill that I had to teach them to go find a corner and tell me the streets. They couldn’t just be like, I don’t know where I am, come find me. But after they started feeling comfortable one day the ice cream truck was going and they’re like, we want to take the money by ourselves and go to the ice cream truck. And I was like, okay. But they made it there and they made it back and they felt incredibly proud. They were really big kids and it was definitely memorable for me, maybe for them since we don’t have ice cream trucks go around our neighborhood much down here in Houston. But yeah, it was a learning experience to let them have even those little bits of independence, which again, I mean my daughter’s now 11, I’m thinking when I was in middle school, we were definitely biking to the pool down the street. And now I’m sure that they would never allow a child that’s 12 to be there by themselves without an adult, but we just went and went swimming and then would bike across the street and go to the restaurant or get lunch from the pool place and come back. So there is that finding balance of understandably they’re wanting to be more independent and things are different. And so sometimes I’m like, Ooh, am I holding them back from these experiences? But it’s hard to find that that balance.

Beth Rosenbleeth (19:03):

It is hard. It sounds like you did the exact scaffolding though that you need to, I mean they started and then you talked about how to find you. And then we do have the crutch of the watch and stuff. We do have different things that are, I remember our neighbors, they were super relaxed and they would just ring a cow bell for dinner and you just had to listen for the cowbell and come home. And that’s again, I think that’s what I was really focusing on too with the cards is that’s the extreme. The extreme is like you’re riding your bike to the pool, you’re riding your bike to the ice cream truck. It makes sense for a parent or a family in 2025 to be like, it’s different than what our families felt. Right? But at the same time, there are these little ways to kind of incorporate opportunities even though it feels different than when we were growing up.

Stephanie Landis (19:56):

It does, but I also think that we’re finding from talking to people who have kids in college or even colleagues that are working in colleges and they’re like, the kids are getting here and they don’t know how to do their laundry, they can’t make a meal, they don’t know their social security number. They cannot call and make themselves a doctor’s appointment. And I’m like, Ooh, am I in trying to keep them safe, setting them up for where they’re not going to be able to? Am I not setting them up to be strong, confident, resilient adults?

Beth Rosenbleeth (20:34):

Well, so that makes me think of two things. One, there was this viral Instagram reel, I dunno if you saw it, but the boy who was calling about his doctor appointment, and it was so funny, I think I forget what question she asked. She asked something. He was like, my Instagram, what’s your social? Yeah, yeah, exactly. That was so funny. But one of the activity cards that I have on the life skill cards is to make your own doctor’s appointment. And I think that one’s worth, I don’t know, it might be worth 20 points, but that’s a skill that

Meredith Krimmel (21:02):

Many adults still struggle with. I know I’m laughing that your kids are confident with a takeout order because I know so many adults who don’t want to have to be the person who calls the doctor or the restaurant or whatever. We need life skills for grownups too. I

Beth Rosenbleeth (21:18):

Know we do. Well, it’s kind of like the toddler or ambitious and then we kind of get less ambitious as we get older. I mean, I feel like it’s all just kind of ages and stages.

Meredith Krimmel (21:26):

But

Beth Rosenbleeth (21:27):

The doctor one, how that one works out so well is if you’re leaving your well visit, you are not necessarily calling and asking to make your appointment, but when your child walks out of that well visit, you can go around to the desk and you can say, I like to make my appointment. Where I think it kind of gets tricky is there’s some adults that get it and talk to the child, and then there’s some adults that will just talk right over the child and ask you. And that’s what we ran into a little bit with the receptionist. And I think it’s being patient with that also kind of showing the adult, instead of responding back to the adult, you can respond to your child and be like, well, remember we talked about we have Thursday of next year available. And then them even though she can hear you just also reminding the adult that, no, actually we’re doing this for a reason.

Meredith Krimmel (22:16):

Yeah. I also think the only reason I knew my social security number was because when I went to school, that’s how they posted your grades.

Beth Rosenbleeth (22:24):

Oh my gosh.

Meredith Krimmel (22:25):

I

Beth Rosenbleeth (22:25):

Know. Do y’all believe that? It’s crazy. Isn’t that wild?

Meredith Krimmel (22:28):

It’s insane.

Stephanie Landis (22:30):

And with doctor’s offices, I’ve started, even when my kids were younger, to try and encourage them that if the doctor was asking me a question that was about them to have them answer. So once they were like, I don’t know, maybe even four or five, and now that my daughter’s 11, I’m like, I am not going to answer any of these questions unless you absolutely do not know the answer. But if she’s asking you if you eat fruits and vegetables, you can answer, you eat fruit and vegetables. If she’s asking you something about school, how am I supposed to know you are going to have this conversation with the doctor? And same thing with restaurants. We are like, as soon as they could start talking, we’re like, you’ll order your meal. You know what you want, you can do it. You have to order. And so just building in those little skills there has been I think helpful in building their confidence and being able to talk to people in those situations.

Beth Rosenbleeth (23:24):

Yeah, I love that. And then it’s funny too because we’re having this conversation. It’s like, wow, her kids do so much. If you think about the things that I’ve shared that my kids can do, there’s still plenty of things that they’re not doing. And I think that that’s important to recognize for parents too, is that it’s not making these robot children or these perfect children that all of a sudden know how to do everything for themselves. I will forever bring my oldest back and be like, your salsa plate is still on the table. And especially if there are children with extra needs or special needs or just all of us, we all require just a little bit of grace in our life skills. Like you said too, you don’t like to phone the doctor, so that might have your card or maybe you practice it, but you practice it in a different way instead of calling, you’re going. And I think that it’s equally as important to give children the guidance and the opportunities, but also a little bit of the grace knowing who they are as a kid.

Stephanie Landis (24:22):

Yeah, I totally will call my husband and be like, you need to call and make this appointment for this time and day. And he’s like, for what reason again? And I’m like, for this reason and call him back. And he is like, and why aren’t you doing this? I don’t know what I’m asking. Really

Beth Rosenbleeth (24:33):

Busy. It’s really funny because as long as it took you to tell him to call, I called. But I mean, it’s really not what you like to

Meredith Krimmel (24:42):

Do. That is how I feel about getting gas in every strategy I can think of to get somebody else to get me gas, I’m going to use,

Beth Rosenbleeth (24:51):

Yeah, we just need to move to Jersey.

Stephanie Landis (24:53):

Yes, indeed. And I love that you said that because there I think that you can sit down and whether you’re starting with your cards that it’s great because there’s already ideas there. Or if a parent just wants to come up with their own ideas that maybe they can start with things that either will translate into the classroom and at home or just something that’s important to them. I hate packing. I hate packing for trips, love traveling, hate packing for trips. So I decided a long time ago, again, it would be important for me for the kids to pack for themselves mainly because I don’t like to do it. And so teaching the kids how to pack is something that’s important to me. But there are other areas where I know that people are probably like, oh, your kid’s not doing that yet? And I’m like, no, it’s not important to me. Or I’ve tried a million times to get my son to remember to bring socks down every morning and it’s not happening. So yes, I still bring his socks down

Beth Rosenbleeth (25:50):

Before we go. Exactly. And then it’s funny too, there might be something like the ownership of the activity cards or a list or whatever also kind of comes into play because giving the child the opportunity to pick is a lot different than also us saying, so there might be this hidden skill that we think that they would never do that they actually would be on board with because they came up with the idea. And it’s funny getting those XP points, it is so motivating. My one, I had to kind of quiet down my youngest because he was like, okay, now what can I do? I want another, I want to go. And then he’d be doing like, okay, well now can I do? It’s like he was just trying to rack in as many points as he possibly can. We have

Stephanie Landis (26:33):

Five weeks. You don’t

Beth Rosenbleeth (26:34):

Have to do it. Exactly, exactly.

Stephanie Landis (26:38):

That’s fantastic. You’ve talked a little about how your youngest really into it with them being different ages. Did they respond differently then?

Beth Rosenbleeth (26:48):

Yeah, so they’re all different personalities as well. And my youngest just loves life and wants to try everything and takes on everything. So he was super motivated. My middle was equally as motivated, but in a different way. He’s more of the middle child, but wanted to try new things. My oldest is very literal, might be the right way or kind of stuck in his ways. And so he knew exactly the cards he would do to earn. He wasn’t necessarily going to try the whole new deck. He was going to stick to things he knows he already tried. And when we were doing the XP points, you couldn’t get XP points for something you did in the past. It started when it started. So yeah, maybe you’ve gone and got your own library books, but now you have to do it again to earn the point.

(27:42):

So yeah, all three, they do all take it in different ways. And again, I think when we spoke in the early years, we talked about the activities and a lot of it was exposure. You’re just kind of exposing these concepts. I think that the life skills, regardless of how your child takes to it, is the same way. You’re kind of just tapping into something that maybe one year and kids change so much. So one year they might be all in the next year they might not so much one year they might not be the next. There are so much. And a child who’s a little bit more reluctant, I think it’s really important to let them take the lead. A lot of times those are children who are just tired of hearing instructions, especially during the school year. You’re told what to do all the time.

(28:28):

And so the first thing I would do is I would sit with them or hand them deck of card and I would say, all right, we’ll just read through this. Which ones seem interesting? Or like you said, if you create your own list, which one do you want to do first? Which one do you want to try? And then saying, well, what if we set a goal for a hundred, a hundred for a child who you feel ready, if you need to modify for sure. What if we set a goal for 20 points? Do you think you could reach that? I don’t know. I wonder if I could reach that. And you kind of just have a normal casual conversation, then that might be it. And then the next day you talk on it again. Kids, they’re like, you have to kind wait for that moment. And then you could just print the XP point sheet and I have them on a ring. So you just kind of hang the ring on a little hook, those little hooks that you just peel off the backing and stick to the wall and you just set your goal and get started. So do you think the more reluctant kids need a little bit more leadership in the process?

Meredith Krimmel (29:34):

I like how earlier you said it’s not like they’re little robots because it is important to remember that we’re all human. And I know a lot of adult people who struggle with certain life skills or don’t enjoy, like I said, I don’t enjoy getting gas. So it’s got to be the same for your children. You can’t really force every skill on every kid at the same age because everybody’s different. Everybody develops differently

Beth Rosenbleeth (29:56):

And it’s super cool to watch them just so the idea is to try new things for sure. But it’s really fun to also see the child that takes the one thing and then now turns it into so much more. And so your child best, but they also can surprise you. And especially with life skill cards. And when you were talking about the biking, it was making me think about how one of the cards is learn to fix something. And so my middle knows how to fix his bike chain, and that is something that happens to them all the time on bike rides. And he feels so cool that he knows how to fix his bike chain. So just like anything, you’re just dabbling in and you’re introducing and it will all unfold how it needs to unfold over the years. But you have the tools to remember, oh wait, they can make their own pizza.

(30:51):

And talking about the pizza and my oldest’s personality, he was like, I’m not touching it. It’s so hot I can’t do it. And it really took so much of me being, first of all, just keep your calm. Second of all, just saying things like I’m like, I know you can do it. I have confidence that you were able to use the oven mitts and you were capable of getting the pizza out and now he makes his own pizza. But it was a little bit more of a hurdle to get over for him to realize that he is capable and he completely can cook his own pizza and take it out of the oven and cut it on the cutting board. And so there may be some, and this was before the XP points in the cards actually.

Stephanie Landis (31:42):

Yeah. And in thinking about kids responding differently, you said something about like, oh, I wonder if I could get 20 points. My oldest, and I don’t know where she got the perfectionism, couldn’t be history, but if she is not good at something the first time it’s gone. Speaking of viral Instagram reels, there’s one that’s like, if it doesn’t work the first time, I can try again. If it doesn’t work the first time, it’s trash. I’m trash now we’re doing that again. And I was like, oh my gosh. So my daughter

(32:16):

Possibly me sometimes. So I love, as you were talking, the idea popped into my head of like, oh, maybe I could then set myself those many goals and sit down and be honest and be like, I hate calling the doctor’s office. I’ll put this on mine. I am going to learn how to call the doctor’s office instead of using the handy dandy little app so I don’t have to talk to any people. And just modeling the learning something new. Because again, I work with so many kids who have that bit of fear of failing and that the feeling of failure and rejection and other things, they just feel it so strongly and so much stronger that they’re like, no, I’m not even going to try. Because if I try and it doesn’t work out, it feels so big. And I talk with parents a lot about modeling, making mistakes, and so this is a great time as you’re teaching your kids life skills. So being like, yeah, sometimes while I’m doing these other skills too, I don’t like it. Or yes, there are, Asir said some things that I don’t like doing, pumping my own gas. I’m going to learn, I’m going to arm me some XP points. I’m going to go pump my gas instead of making dad go do it. I love that idea of learning along with your child might help them as well.

Beth Rosenbleeth (33:32):

Yeah, and like we talked about earlier, I mean the whole deck could be a lot for some kids. So starting with the orange ones where it’s literally peel a vegetable, use a can opener, a melon scooper, change a light bulb, change the toilet paper. Those are things boost someone up is five points. Just acknowledging something that you enjoy about somebody. So even if they’re a group that’s afraid of failure, it’s really important to say, wait, okay, well let’s just modify it. Let me give you five things that I know you could feel successful and have been living in our house for years. And I just forgot to show you how to use it. My youngest, just the other week, he was, and he’s pretty animated, so he does help tremendously with some Instagram content of how excited he is. But he was like, this is so cool. It’s a can opener. This is so cool.

Stephanie Landis (34:30):

I don’t think that my kids have used a can opener, I think because could probably add that to my list of teaching them things to do.

Beth Rosenbleeth (34:37):

I just saw an Instagram reel too, how I was using, I used the can opener wrong, but then when I was trying to show him how to use it, I was like, oh, I don’t remember what she said. I hold it to the side and twist it, but I think you’re supposed to hold it on top, but I couldn’t. Yeah, what do you do? I did it on the side. On the side too. So I think if you hold it on the top, you are less likely to get cut or something. But it was funny as I was showing him, I was like, oh, I should probably show him the other way, but I could not for the life of me. Well, now you’re in the wrong way too. The other way already. How we open camp in our house. Yeah, exactly. Well, yeah, that’s so funny. We were trying to say kombucha better, and my youngest is keeps saying, he’s like, we just call it what our family does. I was like, well, I’m going to try to say it correctly. And he’s like, I’m going to call it what our family does.

Stephanie Landis (35:37):

So love that. Just embracing it at this point. That’s fantastic. What age do you suggest starting building these skills? Can you start even with preschoolers or is your aim more for the older kids?

Beth Rosenbleeth (35:53):

So I do have a preschool and toddler free list, which I can pass on to you guys as well. So you have that because I do think they’re a little bit different in. So yes, you could introduce the can opener. I also think that the younger age is so willing, I don’t necessarily think that we need a sticker chart or XP points to me. So I designed these for ages, like seven to 12. To me, again, they’re less eager in the adolescent years for whatever reason, probably for brain development reasons, but so I don’t necessarily think that it needs to be gamified in the early years. I think in the early years it’s just more just introducing,

Meredith Krimmel (36:42):

Hey, do you want to try this cool thing?

Beth Rosenbleeth (36:44):

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And they might do it for two seconds and then go away. And that’s why in the early years breakfast invitation were so successful because I remember even just one of the breakfast invitations you had to, it was all different kitchen utensils and they had to find the match of the outline. So it’s kind of like you exposed in the early years and then you reintroduce it in the older years. So I would do them a little bit differently. And the earlier skills are a little bit more like how to open your own snack. How to twist a bottle cap. Again, things that kids find fascinating that we probably as parents do for them because it’s faster and it’s easier and we’re pulled in too many directions that it’s just easier to do it. And I also think there is a time and a place to do it for your child.

(37:30):

I don’t think you are never going to ever help your child. And I don’t think all or nothing is ever true. And sometimes we as parents put ourselves in these positions where it’s like my child needs to know every letter of the alphabet or they don’t know any, or my child knows how to read chapter books or they don’t know how to read anything. And it’s funny, I don’t know why. When they’re babies, we understand that they have to scoot and then crawl and then walk. I don’t know why that goes away so fast. Even for us as adults, I don’t know why we always think it has to be all or nothing. It’s very hard to see the bigger picture. So I think that that’s something important to recognize is we’re doing different life skills with our kids too.

Stephanie Landis (38:19):

Hopefully they will be kids who learn how to use a can opener before they go off to college. I’ve heard

Beth Rosenbleeth (38:24):

That’ve heard a lot, actually. I played tennis the other day and she was a high school teacher and she was like, kids, they do not know how to staple in the top hand corner. And I was laughing. I was like, well, I can help with that. We can add staple to the life skill cards, but exactly that kind of stuff. I just think there’s skills we forgot.

Stephanie Landis (38:49):

Well, I appreciate this so much. It has been so fun chatting with you about this, and I think that it’ll help a lot of parents feel confident in introducing some of these skills to their kids at home.

Beth Rosenbleeth (39:00):

I love that. Thank you for having me.

Stephanie Landis (39:02):

Thanks for coming.

Meredith Krimmel (39:06):

Thank you for listening to the UN Babbled podcast. For more information on today’s episode, please see our episode description. For more information on the parish school, visit parish school.org. If you’re not already, don’t forget to subscribe the Un Babbled Podcast on your app of choice. And if you like what you’re hearing, be sure to leave a rating and review. A special thank you to Joanna Rissmiller and Mackey Torres for all their hard work behind the scenes. Thanks again for listening.