4-H Home Ec School

Miss Abigail and I just returned from three wonderful days of Home Ec School. Our state 4-H office hosts this program every year during Spring Break and they do a fabulous job of it. We travel and sleep on the floor of a high school gym (boys sleep in a different part of the building!) The kids attend activity tracks based on the home economics projects in our state 4-H curriculum. This year Abigail was enrolled in the food track and she loved it. She learned more about food preservation and canning and also enjoyed a section on gifts from the kitchen. Abigail also loves to have friends around her, so she had lots of fun participating in the games and activities on both evenings. One favorite evening activity was yoga instruction in the dim lights with glow sticks!

And then we came home to house guests! My oldest son and his wife came to visit and brought this sweet, sweet grandson. Our second son and his wife traveled up to visit as well. What a blessing children are!

I went along as a chaperon for our county kids and was able to crochet for much of the weekend, so I now have a new granny square and a couple of new "granny round" crochet dishcloth patterns that I will share soon. I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to take advantage of a wonderful program such as Home Ec School. I know some of you are also involved in 4-H. Are these kinds of programs are available in other places? What do you all do with 4-H?

Crocheted Jar Ribbons

One of the projects we completed as part of the pantry unit for Home Ec was crocheted jar ribbons. Because Miss Abigail doesn’t much like the tedium of crochet, I try to keep crochet projects simple and quickly finished. I want Abigail to keep up the hand skill, and remember the stitches, but I don’t want her to dread or hate this craft. I’m still hoping that she will come to enjoy it at some point. So we made simple chain ribbons to tie around some of the jars in our cupboards. You could also use purchased ribbons, or simply rip up some lengths of fabric to tie around the jars. The idea is just to pretty up the pantry just a bit. If you want to use the jar with the ribbon, just move it to a different jar. I’ve also seen pantry ribbons or tags suggested as a way to identify food items that you might be saving for a special dish. This helps to keep the item out of the family "food chain."

These crocheted ribbons are just a length of chain stitch. I made a tutorial for crocheted book marks and gift ribbon some time ago. The method is the same for this project. The longest ribbon (for quart jars) is about 27 inches long.

 Abigail left a short length of yarn on the ends of her ribbons, but I added small metal heart charms to the one I made. I threaded the charm on to the end length of thread, then wove the end back into the chain.

Home Ec- Menu Planning

Throughout January, in our home ec lessons, I have been teaching Miss Abigail about making menus. I think menus are an important part of cooking and I'm pleased that Abigail now has a pretty good understanding of this process. My mother is a faithful menu-maker and I learned from her. It isn't hard, but it does take some thought and then a commitment to carry through with the actual cooking. Making menus and cooking from them can save much time, much stress and even more money.

As I worked with Abigail, I created a menu planner that has a box with letters representing daily servings that she could cross off. In this way, Abigail can see if she's covered the nutrition she needs to provide during the day. This just seemed to make the nutrition aspect of healthy eating more obvious, and there is room to write ingredients in a grocery list at the side. Each letter in the box represents a serving in the basic groups on the FDA food pyramid. Beside the basic principles of nutrition and daily servings, we covered what makes a good menu and an attractive meal, using the pantry, using the food ads, creativity and variety, how to create a shopping list, and marketing strategies. Now that we've done the brain work, I have planned a couple of related pantry projects like crocheted jar ribbons, a fat pantry mouse, and ruffled jar covers.

Home Ec Lesson - Natural Cleaners

One of our recent Home Ec lessons was the safe use of household cleaners. We also discussed the traditional uses of natural cleaners and then Miss Abigail made an all-purpose spray cleaner and a soft scrub cleanser to put in her fancy cleaning tote.

Here is the recipe for both of these.  First, the All-Purpose Cleaner:

Put 1 teaspoon borax into a spray bottle.

Add 1/4 teaspoon vegetable-oil-based liquid soap.

Add 2 tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice.

Add 2 cups very hot tap water. Gently shake to combine all the ingredients. The minerals should be dissolved completely. Spray onto the surface needing to be cleaned. Scrub and wipe off with a soft rag.

Plain baking soda has long been used as a gentle scouring scrub.  Just for fun, we mixed up a Disinfectant Soft Scrub:

Measure 1 cup baking soda with enough vegetable-oil-based liquid soap to make a soft paste. Add 1/4 teaspoon Australian Tea Tree Oil (this adds the disinfecting quality) and 1 teaspoon glycerin (this keeps the mixture soft.) Blend everything well.

Place this mixture into a small squeeze-able bottle. We used an old dish soap container, but a mustard bottle would also be about the right size. Wet the surface to be cleaned and squeeze the product onto the surface. Scrub with a cloth or sponge, then rinse well. Because of the liquid soap, you may need to rinse and rinse! ;o)

Abigail filled a small glass jar with a half and half mixture of baking soda and borax to use as a dry cleanser. She also filled a spray bottle with vinegar, which boosts the cleaning action of the soda on hard water soap scum. Then she made pretty labels for everything.


Shared on Raising Homemakers Wednesday link-up.

Cleaning Tote

Last week mom taught me a Home Ec lesson about using cleaning tools and cleaners. The project for this lesson was to make a cleaning tote that I could put all of my cleaning supplies in. In this post I’m going to show you how to make a cleaning tote for yourself.

You will need a plastic tote with a handle and some Sharpie brand permanent markers.

First, take a pencil and trace a border design all around the tote. You can either use a wavy plastic template, like I did, or just free-hand it.

Trace over the penciled line with a permanent marker. I used Bic brand permanent markers, but I had one Sharpie marker and the color of this marker was much brighter.

Use other colors to draw freehand designs all along the border. I drew three different kinds of flowers with a butterfly here and there. You can practice on a separate paper until you have the designs the way you want them.

Cleaning totes are useful because they save time and steps when you are cleaning house. You don’t need to run around the house to get something you need. Everything is handy when you need it.

Respectfully submitted by Miss Abigail.

Homemaking File Box

My mom and I are doing a Home Ec class this year. We’ve had several lessons and Mom has lots of fun projects planned to go with the lessons. One project was to make a homemaking file box. I can use this box to gather information about homemaking. As I grow up, I’ll learn about things that a homemaker does. With this box I’ll have a place to collect information about those things.

Like any other file, mom and I brainstormed subjects that might be included as general folders. The subjects describe things I’ll need to do when I have a family and a home. I wrote these subjects on the tabs for the folders. This is the list of subjects we came up with: food, cleaning, decorating, crafts, handwork, sewing, financial, family, children, hospitality, encouragement and health. I also have extra folders.

I had fun designing decorations for the folders. My mom taught me to make a design skeleton. This is a sketched plan for how you want a design to look. I decided I would make four basic designs.

I used scrapbooking supplies like stickers, borders, and punch-out elements to create the folders. You can find these supplies in all kinds of places like scrapbooking stores, hobby stores, even the dollar store. 

One design was a border across the top with something like a butterfly or a flower on it. I made four of these with different colors and details.

A second design was a group of elements in the middle of the folder. I also made a group of folders with three elements across the top. The fourth was like the first, except that it had a vertical border crossing the horizontal one, with an element in the corner where the two borders met.

I had fun doing the project and I’m glad that I have a pretty place to keep useful information. At one of my youth meetings I got a handout about food storage. It sat on the kitchen counter because I didn’t know what to do with it. Once I made the file box, I was able to file this handout in the food folder. So the file box is working already.

Respectfully submitted by Miss Abigail.

Shared on Raising Homemakers Wednesday link-up.

Miscellaneous Home Ec Resources

 Leisure Arts has published an excellent set of three leaflet books on knitting, crocheting and quilting. The lessons are written directly to girls ages 8 or 9 to about 14. The material is presented well and there are lots of pictures to illustrate the techniques. Each lesson builds on the previous lesson, so the skills are learned in progression. I’m including these lessons in our course outline, without any adjustment. You can find these books here on Amazon.com.

I also have a number (my husband would say this is an understatement) of miscellaneous books on other homemaking subjects that I want to include. We will probably run out of time because my outline is organized by lessons and subjects. It is hard to predict how much time Abigail will need to complete the projects, so we’ll just play it by ear. We can continue the lessons next year. These kinds of books are written for adults, so I will have to adapt the information and write lesson plans for these subjects. How much time I have to do this kind of organizing may end up limiting these extra topics anyway.

So, I have a plan. We’ve already started this year with some general devotional lessons on homemaking and a training lesson on organizing Home Ec materials and other information into a homemaking file. But I’ll let Miss Abigail tell you about that. She had a great time embellishing file folders and putting the file box together. Upcoming lessons are about using cleaning tools and making a tote, green cleaning and making recipes for natural cleaning products, and embellishing a cleaning apron. I certainly need to clean house soon, so these lessons should be particularly timely!

Home Ec Resources - "Future Christian Homemakers" Curriculum

Another core element in our Home Ec course is a cooking curriculum published by Future Christian Homemakers. This manual is really a great resource. The lessons are clearly outlined and easily followed. They are designed to be used with a number of girls in a homemaking group or club and I surely wish I had such a group for Miss Abigail! But, her friends are scattered and busy, busy with all sorts of other things. So we will just follow the lessons on our own. There is information about cleaning the house and recommendations for sewing resources, but the cooking lessons are the outstanding focus of this curriculum.

There are twelve cooking lessons beginning with eggs. Instruction in the egg lesson includes how to crack an egg, how to beat eggs, and how to measure liquids. There are recipes for two basic egg dishes and information on how to write a breakfast menu and working safely in the kitchen. Of course, Miss Abigail already knows some of this, but I like how the lessons are presented and just accept that some of it will be review. Additional topics are: introduction to baking with muffins, quick breads, yeast breads, cakes & decorating, ground beef meals, chicken meals, microwave meals, casseroles, fruit, vegetables, and cookies. Each lesson includes specific skills like measuring, using tools,  nutrition, handling the food and food safety. There are also suggestions and recipes for extending each lesson. I like the list of ingredients and supplies for each lesson, even down to whatever might be needed to serve the food after cooking it.

I’ve put these cooking lessons into my outline without adjusting them at all. You can find information and a sample lesson here. This guide is going to make cooking with Miss Abigail so much fun.

Home Ec Resources - "A Girls Guide to Home Skills" Curriculum

 

The Homemaker’s Mentor has published a marvelous curriculum called “A Girls Guide to Home Skills.” The instruction is organized around the various rooms in the house. The guide isn’t comprehensive, but has just the right amount of information to begin with. I think it is very useful for ages 8 or 9 through about 14 or 15. The author writes as if talking directly to a young girl and the whole thing has a kind of old-fashioned style.

 

Each section has a check list of skills to accomplish for that room.

 Each section has a list of daily, weekly, and monthly cleaning tasks to learn, along with helpful instruction for learning to do each job on the list.

 There is information and instruction for other skills, in addition to cleaning, in each section and at least one project to decorate or enhance that room.

There are eight sections in this Girl’s Guide. The last two are still in production. When these sections are completed, I would predict that they will be combined into a book. For now, each section is sold individually. The sections come punched for a binder.

I’ve been really pleased with how easy this guide is to follow. I simply read the information with Abigail and do any necessary demonstrating. Then, she can practice the skill or make the project and we can check it off the list.

Except for cooking lessons, this guide could stand alone, but it would be completed in a fairly short time. It could work really well for a lesson scheduled once a week or so. I’m including quite a few additional lessons and projects, but “The Girls Guide to Home Skills” provides a nice sort of structure for our Home Ec course this year. You can find more information and a sample here.

Home Ec

 Most of what I’ve tried to do with Miss Abigail, by way of teaching homemaking skills, has been accomplished by using different 4-H projects. These projects have generally been a good guide for us and Abigail is now quite competent at a number of things. I love 4-H and wholeheartedly recommend participation. (Ahh, there is that small reservation about competition and perfectionism, but I won’t go into that again.) 4-H has really been a fabulous resource for our family.

Abigail is beginning the seventh grade this year, I’ve been wanting to do a formal “home ec” type course with her during her school time. I loved Home Ec when I was in Junior High, and I think this is the perfect age to focus on these skills. I have good memories of learning to sew. An early yearbook shows a picture of me wearing a blouse I sewed. I was 14 years old. The knit fabric had a buttoned placket closure - not easy! Surely my mom must have helped me turn that placket. Even now I avoid patterns with a placket feature. I also remember being taught how to time the cooking of a meal - getting all the different dishes on the table at the same time. I often wish I had kept the recipe we used for Hungarian Goulash. I was in the eighth grade and remember it being so delicious. None of the recipes I’ve tried since match that memory.

So, I’ve been working hard lately at writing a Home Ec curriculum for Abigail. I have a good outline and have written several lessons to keep ahead of her. I have also found a few really good resources for our course. I’ll share these with you in the next couple of posts.

Do you have memories of Home Ec classes? Which skills have been the most useful to you? Please share! I would love to hear about what you learned.