The Homeschool Resource

• Home economics classes instill skill sets that prepare students for life on their own after high school.

• They cover a variety of subjects that help teach children and teens how to take care of themselves and their home.

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Home economics classes were developed to prepare students for life on their own after high school. When I was in school, which honestly doesn’t feel that long ago, Home Economics class was a mandatory middle school course. This course then led into several optional specialized high school elective classes. Unfortunately, due to budget constraints, many schools have had to cut these types of classes. However, I feel these courses are still important for teaching our children basic ‘adult’ skills. And homeschooling provides a natural and easy way to give your children hands-on experiences with these skills.

What Does a Home Economics Course Cover?

Home economics classes were designed to help teach children and teens how to take care of themselves and their home. They cover a variety of subjects, some of which have recently been broken off into separate classes such as financial literacy. These classes focus on hands-on learning, basic skills, and real-world applications. Some of the topics covered include:

• Nutrition and Food Preparation
• Housing/Interior Design
• Finances
• Textiles
• Child Care Tasks
• Event Planning
• Gardening Basics
• Habits and Hobbies

Nutrition and Food Preparation

When teaching your child about nutrition and food preparation, it is important that you not only talk about these subjects but also provide hands-on opportunities. This unit generally covers topics such as food safety, food preparation, cooking, baking, and healthy eating. I realize that some of these subjects are covered in health classes. However, with a home economics course, you want to provide a more hands-on approach. Have your child help or even take charge of meal planning once, or even once a week. This includes everything from making a grocery list, to prepping ingredients, to making the actual meal. Make sure that you walk them through any meat preparation and discuss safety when it comes to handling raw meat as well as raw fruits and vegetables. Talk over with them the components of the meal and how they fit into a healthy lifestyle. Ideas such as the food pyramid or the My plate concepts have already been covered, so the physical participation aspect is what makes this class special.

Reading labels and learning nutritional facts about food is also a notable topic to cover. Let your child know that labels such as ‘all natural’ or “multigrain” can be misleading and that they should always read the label and ingredient list. If you would like to, instruct them on the USDA dietary guidelines so that they have a better understanding of the food labels percentages.

Housing and Interior Design

This one is a little broader in terms of how you would like to teach it. It delves into subjects like room design but does not go into details such as color theory or optimal furniture arrangement. The main things to go over with your child are home maintenance and cleaning. 

Home maintenance includes important safety measures such as how often and how to change the batteries in fire alarms, how to change a light bulb, and how to turn off the power from the breaker box. It can also include how to properly use simple tools like screw drivers and hammers, how to find studs in the walls to hang pictures, and how to replace simple household fixtures such as doorknobs. With this unit you should also consider talking about regular maintenance that needs to be taken care of outside of the home like lawn work and pressure washing as well as maintenance work done by outside sources like roof inspections and heating and air checks. Go over any subjects that you think would benefit your child to learn about or obscure ideas that are a part of home maintenance but may not be regularly thought about.

For cleaning, it is easier if you go room to room with cleaning tips. For example, in the kitchen talk about how often to clean out the fridge, how to organize cabinets and pantries, how often to check expiration dates on rarely used items like spices and condiments, and how to clean the dishwasher/sink/garbage disposal. Obvious cleaning chores like washing dishes, wiping off counters, sweeping, dusting, and mopping are generally already known at this point. Go over things that are not as often talked about like cleaning out the dryer’s lint catcher and how often to wash bedding. These are concepts that will be useful for your child once they move out on their own that they may not have thought about before.

Finances

While most of this subject is covered in financial literacy and economics classes, it is a good idea to go over how to manage home finances specifically. This would include how to set up checking and savings accounts, how to budget and coupon/look for sales, how to pay taxes, and how to pay monthly bills. To prepare your child for these things, you can include them in your own finances like sharing your budgets, letting them sit in with you while you file your taxes, and showing them how you pay your bills. However, if you would rather not share your own finances with them but would rather use an outside resource, you can use budget projects such as this Financial Literacy: My Budget Project for Elementary (Gr 3-6) or my own Real-World Monthly Budget Project | Budgeting for Kids.

Textiles

           Textiles cover fabrics, clothing selections, and sewing techniques. While you may not want to go into detail about the many different types of clothing materials, it is important to teach your child that different materials must be washed and taken care of in different ways. Some clothing fabrics can be washed and dried in machines, some can be washed in a machine but have to line dry, some must be hand washed and line dried, and others can only be dry cleaned. Show your child clothing tags in their own clothing items and go over what each of the symbols mean. For reference on what each symbol means, check out this page. If your teen is not interested in having to have clothes dry cleaned or hand washed, teach them the specific symbols to look for to make sure that the clothing that they purchase can be machine washed and dried.

As far as sewing goes, teach your child at least the basics. Go over the tools and materials that they would need such as needles, thread, scissors, and a measuring tape. Provide them with opportunities to learn basic sewing practices like how to sew a button on or how to simply stitch a hole in a piece of clothing. If available, you can teach them basic sewing machine skills. If you would like to give them the opportunity to design their own simple projects, let them create their own small tote out of a shirt, a pillowcase, or a fabric pouch. For more advanced learners or those interested in taking this further, let them make a simple shirt or baby dress. They can use their own design or purchase a sewing pattern.

Child Care Tasks

           While this may sound more like a subject offered in the 1950’s, it is actually a good idea to at least talk to your child about the basic responsibilities involved in taking care of a child. This may include going over how often newborns and babies need to eat and how to care for them, safety measures for toddlers, and the basic needed supplies for childcare.

When I was in my high school economics class, I was given a ‘baby’ to take care of for a weekend. This baby, essentially a doll, would cry to be fed, changed, and given attention. How well the baby was taken care of was monitored by a pack inside of the baby. Now, while a homeschooling family will most likely not have access to a baby project such as this one, that does not mean that one can not be made up. Students can use an egg as the baby, meaning that it will have to be taken care of gently, or may use an actual baby doll. Alarms can be set for feeding times, diaper changes, bath time, and time for attention and naps. In any case, the idea is for your student to get an idea of the responsibilities needed to care for a small child.

Event Planning

         Now, I realize that event planning may sound like something taught in cotillion, but it is a good idea to at least talk about it with your child. Everyone plans events during their lifetime. Events such as inviting family or friends over for dinner, planning a birthday party, or reserving a place for an anniversary or wedding party are all things that need to be properly planned.

Letting your child plan any event, like their own birthday party or a dinner for family, teaches your child responsibility, hospitality, and time management skills. They will need to use a little creativity, or idea engines such as Pinterest, to come up with themes, decorations, menu ideas, and the event’s entertainment. If you are interested in using a school project idea instead of having them plan an actual event, you can check out my Plan a Party birthday party simulation project.

Gardening Basics

         Learning the basics of gardening is a useful skill for everyone. Most households have at least one plant that they tend to whether that be a decorative landscape piece or a useful edible one. This subject can overlap with soil units in science and agricultural lessons for high schoolers. Here you can go over which soils are best for different plants, how to plant seeds and transfer plants, when to plant, and how to tend to plants. Keep in mind that while all plants need the same thing in terms of sunlight, water, and nutrients, different types of plants will need different amounts of these things. It is also a good idea to go over concepts such as the differences between annual and perennial plants and which type of plants do well in your local area and environment. If you are looking for some articles to help you teach about gardening, check out this Good Housekeeping post.

Habits and Hobbies

         The habits and hobbies lessons cover a wide range of topics, some of which are also covered in health courses. This unit talks about building healthy habits; for example, exercising daily, eating healthily, and maintaining good hygiene. The concept is to not only talk about healthy habits, but to have your student (or your family as a whole) start actively engaging in these daily activities so as to build a strong foundation for your children to continue into adulthood.

Helping your child find enjoyable hobbies is also part of this lesson. These hobbies could be anything that brings them joy and/or relaxation. Do be aware, however, that some children will want to participate in multiple hobbies and eventually become overwhelmed. I personally have experience with one of my children wanting to give 100% to all of their hobbies and extracurriculars as well as studies and homelife and it became quite overwhelming. I then had to explain that while having activities such as sports and art that they love to do is wonderful, that a person can only be spread so thin. No one can give 100% to 100 different activities. There just isn’t enough time in the day. So, make sure that while you introduce a wide range of hobbies from sports and the arts to reading and extracurricular clubs, that you let them know that they cannot participate and give 100% to everything. Hobbies should be activities that excite them or allow them to relax but that should not become a burden.

Home economics is a set of skills which can easily be overlooked when homeschooling. However, they are important to teach as your child will use these skills throughout their life. If you want more in-depth information about these topics or would like your child to take an online home economics course, check out Discovery K12’s 36 week Home Economics course.

Have you taught your children home economics basics? If so, please share some ideas and tips with the community in the comments below.