8 Real-Life Challenges

Real-life challenges are where the pedal hits the metal for critical thinking. It doesn't matter how good you are at chess if you get scammed when you go to buy a used car. Your analytical skills alone won't convince your boss of your great idea if you can't communicate persuasively.

Tackling real-life challenges requires multiple CogSkills at once, so our children need to practice using skills in tandem. In this section we're going to look at eight real-life challenges that are important for both children and adults:

Real-Life Challenge #1:    Building a knowledge base

Real-Life Challenge #2:    Finding and evaluating evidence

Real-Life Challenge #3:    Communicating persuasively

Real-Life Challenge #4:    Recognizing magic tricks, mind tricks, and dirty tricks

Real-Life Challenge #5:    Solving problems

Real-Life Challenge #6:    Deciding with confidence

Real-Life Challenge #7:    Managing a project and yourself

Real-Life Challenge #8:    Challenging your own ideas

We will discuss what each of these challenges look like and what CogSkills are necessary for success. Each Real-Life Challenge has at least one Challenge Cheatsheet to help tackle it, and three or more Try It! activities to practice the skills needed.

Like any other skill, the ability to handle Real-Life Challenges benefits from familiarity, practice, and confidence. By looking carefully at each challenge, we will see that each one uses a different combination of CogSkills. To raise children who can tackle any challenge with aplomb, we need to provide them ownership, opportunity to practice, and support for all seven CogSkills, plus practice using them together in different ways.

Don't worry! This isn't as tricky as it sounds, and it's actually lots of fun. By practicing Real-Life Challenges, our kids will be prepared for the future.