Life skills · For parents and kids
Being an Adult 101
The things a good parent teaches before a kid leaves home: fixing what breaks around the house, looking after a car, handling money and taxes, cooking safely, and the first grown-up steps like renting a place and registering to vote.
Plenty of adults can tell you that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell but have never changed a tire or filed a tax return. Both kinds of knowledge matter, and they connect: a tripped breaker is a lesson in watts and amps, a car jack is a lever, and a credit card balance is compound interest working against you.
Each of these 34 guides gives the tools, the steps, the common mistakes, when to call a pro, and the science or math behind it, with a suggestion of when a child can watch, help, and do it alone. Many have a small calculator, and every one prints as a one-page checklist. The steps come from U.S. government, university extension and other reliable sources, listed on every page.
🏠 Around the house
These guides cover the small jobs and safety checks that keep a home running: resetting power, shutting off water, fixing a running toilet, clearing clogs, changing the furnace filter, testing alarms, and simple wall repairs. Each one also explains the science or math behind the job, from watts and amps to water pressure and buoyancy. The electrical guides stick to what homeowners commonly do safely, like resetting and testing; anything involving wiring belongs to a licensed electrician.
🚗 Car basics
These guides cover the checks and small fixes that keep a car safe and running: oil, tires, fluids, wipers, warning lights, a flat tire, and a dead battery. Each one also explains the science under the hood, from gas laws to levers to the chemistry of antifreeze. For anything specific to your car, your owner's manual is always the final word.
💵 Money and taxes
Money skills are life skills, and most of them come down to a little math and a few good habits. These guides cover reading a paycheck, budgeting, banking, interest, credit, filing taxes, spotting scams, and insurance. They follow U.S. rules and official sources like the IRS, CFPB, FTC, and FDIC. They teach how money works and are not personal financial advice.
🍳 Kitchen and everyday life
These guides cover skills you'll use almost every day once you live on your own. The kitchen guides follow U.S. food safety advice from USDA, FDA and CDC. The later guides cover renting, applying for a job and registering to vote, using U.S. rules that often differ from state to state.
✅ Skills checklist
A list of every skill here, to tick off as each child learns it. Print one per child and keep it on the fridge. Ticks you make on screen stay on this device only.
Being an Adult 101: skills checklist
Name ____________________
🏠 Around the house
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
🚗 Car basics
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
💵 Money and taxes
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
🍳 Kitchen and everyday life
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
- learned ________
Free how-to guides for families, with nothing to earn, pass or send in. They follow U.S. rules and sources; your owner's manual, product labels and state and local rules come first. The money guides explain how things work and aren't personal financial, tax or legal advice.