Wanna hear something funny? Home Economics was one of my worst subjects. Sure, I’m a homemaker, but that doesn’t mean I know what I’m doing! In high school, Home Ec was right up there with P.E. in terms of stress, for me. Anything requiring interaction between my clumsy, absent-minded self and the physical world is fraught with danger. Prove a theorem? Why sure, I can do that! Use a sewing machine? Without safety goggles? Forget it!
Now that I’m older, and have had some practice, I can do most of the things required of me as manager of my (slightly dusty) home, but back when I first left my parents’ home to strike out on my own, I was overwhelmed with even the most basic tasks, like grocery shopping. I simply didn’t know how.
Nobody taught me any of that stuff. After all, anybody ought to be able to figure out how to manage the household funds for herself, right? Well, maybe in time, but it would have been nice to have some practice with it before I found myself at the bank asking “How could I be out of money? I still have checks!”
I don’t want my kids to end up like me: 32 years old, and still scared to plow up a few rows in the back yard for a family garden. Gardening, meal planning, and sewing on buttons are simple tasks, but they are learned tasks. You have to teach them to your children. The trouble with that, is that I don’t feel qualified to teach this stuff to my kids. (Can you smell the irony in that?)
Angie Kauffman has written a short, but useful ebook, Training Your Children in Home Economics, that really encouraged me to get started teaching Home Ec. to my kids. I’ve taught my 8 year old to wash dishes and clean up after himself, and we all cook together, but what about the stuff I don’t know how to do? I needed further inspiration, and Angie provided it. Now I have some idea how to teach my children to sew and garden! I just have to learn along with them!
The ebook contains useful printables and links to helpful websites, along with some beginner sewing patterns perfect for little hands. I know my list-motivated, type-A firstborn will love seeing his accomplishments checked off on the charts!
Training your children in Home Economics is $4.99, but you can snag it for 40% off if you use the code HSC40 by Saturday, July 14. You can also use that code for the very homeschooly Finding Educational Activities in the Most Unexpected Places (which I haven’t gotten yet). Click and enjoy!
Use code HSC40 for 40% off!
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Twitter: servingfromhome
July 12, 2012 at 6:26 am
Hmm, sounds intriguing! Lists and charts are my friend….what age does it gear toward?
The elementary set. I don’t think a high school kid would benefit from it, but up to 5th or 6th grade.
I’m going to be using it with a 6th grader and 7th grader next year, and neither of them is too old for it. I think a lot of it has to do with the level of experience that they’re had. Neither of them has done much cooking (at all), sewing, planning meals, anything like that. That’s why I kind of hated on the page to assign a general age range to it.
Although, it’s funny that you thought up to 5th grade-ish, because my mind was toward upper elementary and middle school. Just goes to show how much it varies based on the actual kids and their experience.
How funny! Might just be that I was thinking about my own kids the whole time and never thought about older ones.
Thanks Cindy!! Got mine. My plan is to pair my 8th grader and 10th grader with my two 1st graders and have them “teach” their siblings.
That is brilliant!
Twitter: RamandaHarvey
July 12, 2012 at 8:09 am
It’s funny–I remember our home-ec class, but the only thing I remember doing is baking a sheet of cookies and sewing that awful skirt (which I wore for years.) Sounds like a great tool.
Uh-huh. At least you could wear yours. I never even got mine sewn together. Cutting it out was too confusing. I needed to start with the little felt pillows in Angie’s book! LOL And I don’t remember cookies. I must have skipped that class.
And I never even took home ec in school!! And as an only child, our house was always clean. My mom was a teacher at my school, so we were gone all day. I vaguely remember running the dust mop on Saturdays, and dusting the furniture a few times.
I had literally never cooked a meal, never mopped a floor, never cleaned a toilet when I got married.
Well, ten kids later, I still can’t sew on a button, plant a garden, or make a digital scrapbook.
But EVERY ONE of my kids can clean a toilet, mop a floor, run laundry, and clean the kitchen. And they are not bad with their cooking either!
I wish I could sew, but then I think, When would I have the time????
I have a Pinterest category for that stuff. “Things I’d do, if only I could…” Lots of sewing stuff in there. I really don’t ever see that happening.
Would you believe I just joined Pinterest last night???
Needing house ideas for when we build, but I am totally lost over there right now.
Follow me! http://pinterest.com/gahcindy
When I was down with the morning sickness this last baby, my oldest got the crash course in homeamaking. She can know cook several meals without help. This summer, I’ve been working with the next two to break them into bathroom cleaning and other chores. Right now, their pay is cheap–gummy worm/bears.
I’m very blessed that my mom sat me down on her lap and sewed with me. That came in handy when my kid wouldn’t wear store-bought clothes. We always had a garden growing up and it was my job to dump my horse’s manure on it. I can attest to being a homemaker when I was 18, though and being a total slob because of the lack of habit. So onward I go with my summer of home econ.
My Mother and Grandmother are/were very talented seamstresses. Talented enough to earn money creating beautiful crafts and clothing. Because of that, my small town Home Ec teacher assumed I could as well. In 8th grade Home Ec I sewed my sweatshirt sleeve to the sewing machine. Really. I’ve been afraid of fabric ever since. Having girls has motivated me to learn so that I can teach them the basics. Too bad we live far away from Grandma!
We are semi-eclectic unschoolers (we do use Time4Learning and Drive Thru History), so life skills are a huge part of our unschooling. My daughter is an only child born to older parents. I want to make sure she is able to take care of herself should she ever find herself on her own at an early age. I did take homemaking in high school, but I don’t think it prepared me for real life at all! I was in college and still didn’t know how to sort laundry or really cook that well. My mother was one of those that didn’t have patience with me and found it was easier to do just do things herself rather than teach me. Because of that, I’ve tried to make sure my daughter learns what she needs to know in spite of my impatience. HA HA
Joyfully,
Jackie
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