Also I have another question: If I move the entire group of sims will they get to keep all of the stuff from the former house?
1. To build skills, perform actions that require that skill. In other words, plant some seeds. You can plant seeds from fruit and veggies that you buy at the market. You can also find seeds around town on the ground. Collect and plant them. Some require a higher skill level to plant. 2. No. If you move the sims out of a house, whatever you didn't put in their inventory (or family inventory) will be sold along with the house. I also found that a sim who had bought an interest in a shop lost that when I changed the active household away from hers to another sim's. She married into the family, and the ownership papers were gone from her inventory. Very annoying. EDIT: Family inventory is a newish concept - I do not know if items in Family Inventory will survive a move. The stuff in an individual sims inventory should though.
I believe you can buy books from the book shop on gardening and pretty much everything else. Then you can either put it away on the bookshelf or keep it in your inventory and click on it and read it whenever you want.
