Home Ec Ideas

Actually, I doubt that anyone calls it Home Ec anymore. But I'm pretty old and I still do. :)

I've been thinking about what I'd like to do for the girls' home ec next year and thought I'd throw out some ideas for you to think about, too, if you're interested.

First and foremost at our house is cooking because we love to cook and eat! I start the little girls out on baking with a simple mix, like Jiffy Mix. Then we move to baking bigger things like cakes with a mix and quick bread and cookies from scratch together. After that, the kids (boys, too, as I have time, but the poor boys don't get nearly as much kitchen time around here as the girls, just because of sheer numbers! lol) move to helping with breakfast and then become in charge of a day or two of breakfast every week. Every day the kids make the main breakfast food from scratch, such as muffins or biscuits or pancakes or several other things and I do bacon and eggs. They usually stay on breakfast for several years, but work on other things at the same time, too.

All along we're working on our baking skills and around 7th grade, we delve into cake decorating by planning and baking a birthday cake for everyone. We've made the spectrum from simple cupcakes with sprinkles to a pool cake that took 3 days to make and used Chicklets for the pool tiles, Jello for the pool water, Fruit Stripe gum for floats and bear cookies with swimsuits on around the pool. We've made a tiered anniversary cake and a small wedding cake. And Rachel even had a cake business for a couple of years.

After perfecting breakfast, the girls move to cooking lunch, which is our main meal, and making bread. My goal is that by the time they finish high school, they should be able to cook for a family and run a kitchen with no problem.

Since we are all short in stature, clothes always need to be hemmed. I like for the girls and boys to learn to sew on a button and hem, if needed. All the girls have learned at least a little sewing, starting with some sort of teach-yourself-to-sew book. Katie and Carrie actually enjoy it and have gone on to make several garments beyond ones we've made for school. We make pajamas, summer shorts, and skirts usually, as well as craft items, curtains, and table runners. We aren't terribly skilled, but I want the girls to have enough elementary knowledge to be able to go to a high level later if they need to for economy's sake after they are married and have children.

Managing a home, learning to manage money, and managing time are all important skills and the girls are required to read some books about those subjects during high school. Since my books are all old and probably out of print, I won't list any, but there are lots of good books available that cover those areas. We make a grocery store price book as a project sometime during high school, too, and the girls help me plan meals, make grocery lists, find bargains, and shop. The girls help me extensively around the house and learn many home management skills this way. And when they are 16, they must begin buying their own clothes, pay for 1/2 their braces and work toward paying their own car insurance, so they have to figure out ways to make money, hopefully by having their own business. My goal is for each girl to have some sort of skill they could use to supplement their husband's income while staying home with their children.

Hospitality is not a suggestion, but a commandment from God for leaders in the church. We read books about hospitality and ettiquette as part of home ec. Then we practice by having company.

We try to keep a clean house and as a part of that the girls read Speed Cleaning. The kids progress up through cleaning jobs so that by the time they finish high school they can clean anything, do laundry, and iron.

All these skills have paid off, both for the kids at home and my adult sons who are now able to help their wives by doing laundry, ironing their own clothes, cleaning house, and cooking meals. When I was expecting Thomas and Abby, Katie and Joshua had to buy groceries a few times to without my help and they basically ran the house for awhile. I know that my daughters-in-love appreciate what their husbands have learned and I have confidence that when the girls and Thomas get married, they will know some basic things about keeping house.