The basics @ your library

Last week, I had a healthy snack program for our teens. I had ingredients to make healthy, cheap, and easy snacks, but all of the peanut butter and apples were set aside for smoothie making. While the teens were lined up waiting to create their own drinks, I came across one teen who was ready to make his smoothie and when I said to him, "Just measure out the liquid ingredients," he replied with, "Oh, I don't know how to measure stuff."

What?! Really?!

Maybe I'm assuming too much. Maybe I haven't realized until now how lucky I was to have parents who were able to be home with me. Maybe I'm forgetting how much money is being cut from school budgets. Maybe it's all of these; but I was completely surprised to see a 15 year old boy not know how to measure 1/4 cup of yogurt, milk, and OJ.

In a world where you buy a laptop in January, only to find out by March it's way out of date, we can never forget there are a lot of basic skills (tech related and non-tech) that are slipping through the cracks of our youth. And remember that not everything has to be attached to a computer or cell phone. Now for some Basics @ Your Library program ideas:

• Cooking skills - don't have to involve any heat... make smoothies and have your teens cut the fruits/veggies, use measuring spoons/cups, reading recipes, etc.
• Sewing stuff - have a reconstruct your t-shirt day: bring a bunch of old shirts (or have the teens bring their old shirts), a sewing machine, needles, scissors, pins, buttons, etc. and just let them go and get creative on old clothing!
• Board game day - put away that Wii and 360 and bust out the good old board games. Connect Four sounds like a silly kids game, but it actually gets the teens thinking about strategy and thinking on their toes. It also is less likely to break down.

I'm sure you can come up with your own ideas. These are the ones I have at midnight on a weeknight.