Marlaine Cover is on a mission to form a network of professionals who can provide expert advice to parents on how to teach children important non-academic life skills. On this week’s show, she and I talk about these essential life skills and how we can impart these skills to our children. In schools, children learn academics from trained teachers with a standardized curriculum. But when it comes to learning how to take care of themselves, how to communicate with others, how to budget and handle money, how to get along with peers and family members, and other important life skills., children and their parents are left to muddle through on their own. Yet, learning how best to apply these skills is equally, if not more, critical to a child’s future success as learning science and spelling. That’s why Marlaine created the Life Skills Report Card and launched Parenting 2.0, Linkedin’s top rated Parenting Group. We talk about the report card and concrete areas to focus on with your children during this important show. You can also download the report card, see a growing list of expert resources, and learn about Marlaine’s new book, Kissing The Mirror: Raising Humanity in the Twenty-First Century on the Parenting 2.0 website. Join me at the Parenting with Playdate Planet Blog to talk more about teaching children life skills.