Comments on: How to homeschool home ec

By: lisa

lisa

The public school system changed in the 70’s and this ideal was taught in the middle school by geographic location as “etiquette” and usually was “trade school teaching.” Learn a trade, become employable. Census. Then, this also became prison reform for individuals to learn a trade. To teach and excel at something magnificently! Unfortunately, the division of families from war, divorce, death, et cetera has given resurgence of such ideals as “life skills.”

By: Melanie

Melanie

In reply to momofsix. Thanks for the list of what Home EC is comprised of. I wasn't thinking of a couple of those topics and definitely like the idea of adding them. You write well, and it's enjoyable to read. I laughed through your first two paragraphs and had to read them to my husband too.

By: CJ

I was just wondering what happened to all of these life skills classes. Our classes weren’t segregated by gender, so I learned auto mechanics, wood working, and welding in 8th grade, as well as the cooking class, and sewing. I still have the trivet I welded in 8th grade many years ago. I’ve decided since public education has removed these esssential classes, I’m going to start them with my reluctant 14 yr old son. HIs older brother went to Camp Grandpa for the summers to learn basic repair classes and cooking with me. My eldest are amazing at life skills while my youngest is great on the Xbox. Sad and bad parenting on my part. I’m up for this challenge if you have a set curriculum to help follow to make it more legit for him. 🙂 Thank you!

By: momofsix

momofsix

My boys, 15 and 18, got a crash course in cooking, laundry, and housekeeping earlier this year when I broke my ankle. It was pretty much figure it out, or you don’t eat, or have clean clothes for the first couple of weeks. We probably still need a little more work on the housekeeping end. 😉

By: Janet

Janet

You make some great points for expanding home ec to life skills. I also appreciate the approach of giving credit for mastery. When evaluating the chores, I want to see the high schoolers take initiative, especially with the cleanup. If I have to remind and nag, they aren’t really mastering it yet. My older students joined a robotics club where they can plan and design a robot, and build it using a variety of materials and tools, and help write the engineering notebook and market their business idea. Can look at http://www.bestinc.org to see if BEST has a hub and homeschooling robotics team in your area.

By: Shawna

Shawna

I love this post! And I like your tip about giving credit when your child has mastery. I always stress about things being ‘official’, but you are so right. Why add a class or book when you’ve already mastered the material? Good advice!

By: Jen

Jen

Kris,
I am about to join you in the age thing. 😉 Middle school wasn’t around either for me and I still struggle with exactly what grades they cover. I agree we need to make sure we teach our kids life skills. It takes time and effort but it is so worth it. <3 Now Biscuits I can make, but squares, hahaha nope! Trade?

By: Natalie

Natalie

Kris,
Thanks for this helpful post. I especially appreciated the comment about giving credit for mastery on a high school transcript. That was an encouraging thought. I have 3 and my oldest is 11 so we aren’t there yet, but I see it coming around the corner and am trying to start learning what I will need to do to prepare my kids (and myself) for all that transcript. stuff. So this was really a “breath of fresh air” kind of thought for me to learn that I can give credit for a class even though they are learning life skills little by little over their childhood “lifetime” and not in one semester. But if they’they’ve mastered the content, they KNOW it & can be given credit for it. That is SO encouraging! Thank you!