Home Economics- Our Made Up Curriculum

Leah from As We Walk Along the Road had asked what we use for Home Ec last Friday, and if it was a curriculum.

No. Well, not exactly. I We made it up.

I was given a lot of guidance, however, from fellow homeschoolers on the Schoolhouse Review Crew, and Lizzie from A Dusty Frame really gave me a bunch of ideas.

So without further ado, here is our list for Home Economics this year:

Home Ec:

1. Budgeting (money, food, errands, time management)
2. Cooking (nutrition and gardening)
3. Presentation (hospitality and entertainment; food, house)
4. Cleaning (all aspects- inside and out)
5. Sewing (basic)
6. Home repairs (in and out)
7. Auto care and repairs
8. Basic child care

We began our course with “What is Home Economics?” We broke down the two words and came up with the very simplified definition: Home economics is all aspects regarding the care, upkeep and ‘making’ of a home; includes the people who live in the home.

Some of the aspects of home economics can be expanded on, such as Personal Finance, so our list might only touch on the basics of what we feel is important to our family and the future homes and families of Lee and Fox. Those subjects that can (and need to be) expanded will be a different ‘course’ at a time that is appropriate.

We are on week #4 in our year and so far have covered budgeting money and making use of savings accounts (and how to use a register to balance account). This week we moved onto time management. Next week we will continue with that and include errands in our discussion. The last for budgeting will be ‘food’ because it will move into ‘cooking’.

For each area that we want to cover, first we look at all the resources we have on hand and how we can apply them. We are also using the library a lot for this particular course. I didn’t want to purchase a curriculum because really Home Economics is taking place whether or not I schedule it. This way, though, it will cover things (such as basic sewing and child care) that we wouldn’t otherwise do. Something that isn’t included and I may put in, is service for others, whether in the home, neighbors, church family, etc.

The course, if I were to write it up, might only be a 1/2 credit. I plan to spend two weeks on each subtopic but am willing to spend as much time as needed for each.

Here is what was given to me for ideas that I used as a spring board (it might seem scattered; it’s a copy/paste job from my notes *wink*):

Cleaning -different areas of the house; laundry and dishes fall into this category
Shopping -grocery and otherwise
Presentation -decorating, organization, etc.
Money matters -budgets, savings/checking account balancing
Auto care--change oil, tire, etc
  repairs and outdoor maintenance
  outdoor chores
hospitality,
serving others,
handyman skills
errand running (grocery shopping, picking up dry cleaning, etc.)
Sewing--reading patterns, learning to measure, use the machines, choosing fabric, fitting, finishing
Nutrition Foods lab--learning about proper cooking methods, food safety, recipes
Meal Planning Entertaining--planning, presentation, etiquette, table setting (also flowers, napkin folding, ect).
Finances--budgeting, money saving, record keeping
Home design--field trips to different styles of homes, learned elements of architecture, then laid out or own floor plan on graph paper
Child Care and Development

Do you use a formal (aka: purchased or prepared) curriculum for your Home Economics?