Life Skills for Teens: How to Cook, Clean, Manage Money, Fix Your Car, Perform First Aid, and Just About Everything in Between

I bought one at Thanksgiving to look through it. Now buying two more. I plan to give them as Christmas gifts to my 13 year old daughter and two of her 13 year old cousins. What I liked about this book is that it covers a nice range of topics at just the right level of detail. The first chapter "Food & Kitchen" provides basic info about eating balanced meals, how to read a nutrition label, how to select fruits and vegetables at the grocery store, food safety and storage guidelines, a basic overview of knives and cookware, basic guidelines for using an oven, stove, microwave, toaster, and toaster oven, and tips on washing dishes. I appreciated little tidbits like suggestions for how to keep your dishwashing sponge sterile. Kids will get a kick out of details like the page that shows illustrations and names of each type of kitchen knife. Each topic is address in about 2-3 paragraphs over a page. But this is perfect because it is just enough info to give kids a basic idea and get them interested. Any more information, and most kids would tune out and think the book is boring. Rather, I feel like kids will skim through this book, pick up some good tips, and be motivated to do online research about the topics that catch their interest and they want to learn more about. Kids are great at using the internet to help them figure things out, and this is a great way to point them in the right direction. The other chapters in the book cover:- personal hygiene and grooming, basic first aid, how to use insurance to see a doctor and what to do to prepare for your appointment, how to spot depression and tips for dealing with anxiety- saving money, budgeting, managing a bank account and using a credit card- goal setting, career planning, and learning from failure- emotional regulation, dealing with stress, anger management, and strategies for staying connected with people you love- problem solving and decision-making strategies'- assessing your own values, growing from mistakes, how to give a sincere apology, and how to ask for help- strategies for maintaining healthy friendships and family relationships,- how to do laundry, iron, tie a tie, clean different types of shoes, and sew a button back on- how to deal with common home maintenance issues like when a circuity breaker or pilot light goes out, how to turn off a water line (and tell the difference between a gate valve and a ball valve), how to fix a running toilet, how and WHEN to use a fire extinguisher, the different types of screwdrivers, how to change a lightbulb, and how to hang an object on a wall without damaging the wall- basic car maintenance and how to read a map, and tips for using public transportationAgain, the book does not provide extensive detail on each topic. It's only 134 pages of LARGE print. But I feel it goes a long way towards empowering kids to feel independent and introduces them to a wide range of topics that they then will feel motivated to go learn more about.

Bought for my nephew and another for my niece. This is a great guide for teenagers. Also, it's a quick read.

Good book for teenagers! Lots of great advice! Very easy to read and follow!

Life Skills for Teens by Karen Harris offers a broad spectrum of essential knowledge, from cooking and cleaning to managing money and performing basic car maintenance. While the book covers many topics with practical tips, it sometimes lacks depth in certain areas. Overall, it's a valuable resource that provides a solid starting point for teens learning to navigate adult responsibilities. The downside is my teens didn't engage with it. For me, the adult, I thought it was a great book, but for some reason, my son and daughter, just put the book down and moved on. Perhaps a foreword with several ideas on how best to introduce to a teen would be appreciated.

This was bought as a Christmas gift for My teen son, and I’m so glad I bought it! Has a lot of useful things in it that all teens should know like how to budget money, how to cook and read directions, and also how to cope with their emotions and feelings. Such a nice little book! I highly recommend it!

Seriously...you are onto something with this book! I STRONGLY suggest you get in touch with your State AND our Federal Dept of Education because this book should be issued to EVERY student hitting this crucial age or even be a required test to graduate high school! A basic skills test. I had to take a U.S. Constitution and a MO Constitution test to graduate (class of 2005, and I live in MO). A basic life skills test would do wonders!I work in a grocery store and I am surrounded by not only high school, but young adults who have absolutely NO sense of how to figure things out on their own, or how basic appliances work. Counting back change...forget it! We are in a society where these types of classes, where the topics in your book are taught, have either been eliminated or greatly reduced. The school districts hope that the parents are instilling this knowledge in their children, and parents EXPECT that the school is doing it. And the kids are suffering. I see it every day. I've got 20 yr old co-workers who do NOT know how to even read an analog clock or can'tread cursive writing!!! NO JOKE!! I can't tell you how many times I have come home from work, and asked my daughter a question of how to do this or that...just to make sure MY child isn't heading down the same path. There's no common sense, logical/critical thinking, or problem solving skills. It's so very sad, and this book in their hands could change that!!If this book were provided to students, and even had to be tested on it to graduate...oh, how the world (or at least the U.S) could change!I genuinely mean this...thank you so very much for taking the time to write this book! You really are onto a potential lifesaver with this and it NEEDS to be in every child's hands at the middle school or even high school levels!

Good book for young teens and older kids on the Autism Spectrum to help make sense of things.

Poor quality