My 13-year-old daughter was looking for an elective this year. I’m slack and haven’t finished the cooking curriculum quite yet, and this summer I’m going to work on a fashion merchandising curriculum; so she needed one that she could go ahead and do now. Well, I searched and searched and we decided that she could do home economics. That should be easy, right?
Not really. Most of what I find for homeschoolers are meant for younger kids (really young), or just isn’t really substantial and it’s cutesy stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I love cutesy! Just not for an 8th grader who wants high school level and more than how to bake a cookie stuff. Not meaning to insult other curriculum one bit. I like what they have; it’s just not for us.
So, I began to look for the old Future Homemakers of America online. It was in middle schools and high schools, so I should be able to find it and use it, right? I can do Future Farmers of America curriculum at home, so this should be just as easy! Wrong! It doesn’t exist anymore! At least not in its former state. It’s now all about leadership, working outside the home and a little bit of home. Sign of the times, I suppose.
Anyway, I’m going to blog about what we’re doing and hopefully that will help you if you’re looking for a home economics curriculum. For now, we’re starting off kinda slowly, but that’s ok. I also look for things to count, really count!
For starters, since it’s the holidays, we started off with some simple embroidery on flour sacks. I went to Hobby Lobby and printed off a simple design from the internet and traced it to the fabric. Then showed her one simple stitch (chain stitch) and sent her on her way. She takes it everywhere! I’ll post more about the actual lesson later.
She has helped me plan two birthday parties from start to finish. That includes catering, design and shopping, setup and more.
Yesterday, she took over the couponing. As you know, I loathe couponing. Not using the coupons, just the process of cutting, sorting, etc. So this is wonderful,, because it fits with her OCD and organizing mind (she’s not really ocd, it’s a family joke about our perfectionism) and I don’t have to do it anymore!
I can’t wait to get started on this new curriculum! I hope you follow along and let your friends know. I’ll post later today what we used and how we did it for the first sewing lesson. Happy Home Economics!
I’m looking forward to seeing all that you come up with for home ec. I love the embroidery lesson!
I’m so glad that you like it! We’ve been having fun with it so far. I’ll keep posting the lessons 🙂
I am excited about looking at your site. My daughter needs an elective and Home Ec is it! She is going to be in 12th grade and it’s really hard to find simple yet effective things online. Thanks for this blog!
Hi Robin! Sorry it’s taken me so long to get back to you. We were at East Coast National Homeschool Basketball Championships and the internet was terrible. But we had fun! Then my daughter and I came home sick, but after today, she should be on the mend. I hope to be putting more home ec. things on the site soon. I know how hard it is to find it for high school girls. Keep checking back and have a wonderful day 🙂 Tera