Home Ec. at Home

I have two boys ages 9 and 14. I know some homeschooling parents out there have five or six kids but for me it's just these two. We have a special day out of the week that is set aside for "Home Economics".

On "Home Ec." days they get to choose one subject that they can omit for that day.(One of the major reasons why I think Home Ec. day is so popular at our house!)

They choose a recipe that we are going to fix and print it out or copy it from one of our recipe books. They check the pantry for ingredients, prepare a list for the grocery store and hopefully find coupons for some of the items needed.

Home Ec. day is also a day when we have to do all of our chores. Laundry is sorted, things are generaly organized and picked up and we learn something new about household management (ie. how to run the washer, dryer, dishwasher, vacuum....)

After all of our chores (household management class) are finished we set out on the grocery trip.(throw some math in here by searching for the best price)

When all is said and done we have great memories of cooking together and my boys have learned fractions, measurements, following directions and all kinds of useful information.

By the way, they both make GREAT pies!

When Feeling Stressed

I admit it, I get stressed about homeschooling. I worry if my kids are learning enough. Am I covering enough material. Are they at a level on par with other kids their age? Are they falling behind?

And actually sometimes I just get plain tired of coming up with interesting learning ideas. Maybe that's not something we homeschoolers admit very often, but it happens to me.

When I start feeling overwhelmed, stressed and just plain tired, I turn to our local library. Granted, we use our library for a lot of our curriculum anyway. But, when I start to get cranky and frustrated I just check out some textbooks and give myself a break. The kids work out of the textbooks for a week or so and I take a break from performing the homeschool supplement shuffle.

I really don't think they are losing anything and sometimes it gives us an idea of other areas we need to concentrate on.

So, when you're feeling flustered just pick up a couple of textbooks and take a break. The kids are still learning and you can take some time to recharge.