Training my Daughters to be Keepers at Home--An Introduction

My daughters are currently just turned 14 and almost 13 years old.  Three years ago, I began a multi-year home economics type class with them as part of our homeschooling.  I am not using a purchased curriculum; rather, I simply decided what things I wanted them to learn and then spread that out over the number of years I wanted the class to cover.  In my case, I wanted the class to last 8 years.

Some parts of my curriculum will be included every year.  Others might only be present once or twice over the years.  As an example, Biblical Womanhood will be a part of every year.  But care of the elderly/sick will probably only be covered once as a part of the curriculum.


Here are the courses of our class I have currently planned:

Cleaning the Home
Cooking
Gardening
Canning
Embroidery/Hand Work
Crochet
Quilting
Knitting
Cake Decorating
Making Cards
Hospitality
Sewing
Herbal Tinctures and Teas/Medicinal Uses
Rug Making
Care of Infants/Elderly/Sick
Cutting Hair
Flower Arranging
Table Setting/Centerpieces
Scrapbooking

As the years go by, I may certainly add other mini courses.

I have not yet covered all of these with my daughters.  Some mini courses are planned for later use.  However, we generally use 9 of these in a year, spending 1 month on each.  Some course work, like quilting, generally takes more than a month.  Others, like making cards (using a different technique each year) only need one week or so each year.  We also continue to do home ec during the summer months, even when we are not generally doing other school work.

I will try to expand on this framework more on this blog later on.  I hope to give you examples of each year we have covered so far and break down each course into workable portions.