The increasing need to get kids to pass a standardized test and to focus on a college degree has most schools sending generations into the real world that lack fundamental life skills acquired in a home economics (home Ec) class.
The greater ignorance of basic kitchen knowledge, financial sense and interpersonal living skills is setting up kids for failure in the adult world. Home Ec encompasses cooking, child development, education & community awareness, home management, sewing & textiles, budgeting and economics.
Here are a few basics skills we can utilize over this break to educate our children so they have a more successful foot out the door into adulthood.
Toddlers
- Fold washcloths, pair socks
- Throw away trash
- Put toys away
Elementary
- Help bake cookies (measurements, mixing, forming)
- Help cook dinner
- How to use a butter knife and sharp knife
- Set the table, clear the table
- Sew a button
- Plant Herb garden
- Fold and put away laundry
- Make a grocery list
- Wipe down table/counter correctly
- Use a toaster and microwave
- Vacuum
- Learn to read and write in cursive
Middle/High school
- Sew a button, Sew a hem, use a sewing machine
- Cook two simple meals (pasta, tacos), Fry and boil an egg
- Use a toaster, microwave, stove top, and oven (while someone is home)
- Bake brownies, learn measuring cups and spoons
- Do laundry including iron
- Balance a check book (even with online banking)
- Make a grocery list with a set budget
- Use a hammer
- Plant a veggie or herb and maintain the plant
- Babysit sibling
- Wipe down table/counter correctly
- Clean a bathroom, mop a floor
These are all basic things your high school child should master before living on their own. You will do them a favor and they are doing you a favor by helping around the house.
Comment below what your child does at home and be sure to include their age.
