Need to catch up on your work? Past posts in the Family Work series:
Principles and Vision
If Mama Ain’t Happy
Are My Kids Allergic to Work? {link up}
Chore Charts and Other Motivators {link up}
Family Work: Allowance – To Pay or Not To Pay (5 Reasons You May Want to Reconsider Paying Children to do Chores) {link up}
And though not specifically about work, you won’t want to miss Nicholeen Peck’s guest post on Teaching Self Government.
If you haven’t already, please take some time to go visit (and comment on) the posts of those who have linked up. And remember, next Friday’s Family Work post is a work-party! I’ve lined up some fun prizes to give away. Anyone who links up will automatically be entered to win.
Teaching Children Adult Skills
Earlier this week, I was reading an article about some new books on emergency home food storage. I thought that some of the ideas presented were good, but one thing bothered me. There was a heavy reliance on prepacked, processed foods – not just for convenience or ease of storage, but because:
[My] mom’s generation cooked a lot from scratch, but younger generations don’t. “If you ask a 20-something to buy wheat, rice and beans and then make something to eat with it, they don’t know what to do,” [the author] said. “This way, they can take things they’re comfortable with. If you like Hamburger Helper, plan that as one of your meals.”
I’m not going to get into a discussion about processed foods today. (If you are a regular reader, you already know my stand on that.) But I do want to address the almost hopeless feeling contained in that quote. It’s like saying, “Young people today can’t learn how to cook (or sew, or take care of the home, etc.). It’s too hard. They are too busy.”
I respectfully disagree. Any one of us, young or old, is capable of doing great things. We just need to learn how.
One day, in the not too distant future, my daughter will grow up and leave home. When that day comes, I want her to take with her the tools and skills that will make her transition to adulthood easier. I have spent quite a bit of time thinking about what those things might be. Certainly, knowing some basic (and perhaps some not so basic) cooking skills, sewing and mending and housekeeping. Additionally, I feel it is important for her to know how to care for a yard and garden, basic home and car repair, personal finance and, since she wants to work with animals, pet care.
I was inspired by Diann Jeppson’s Adult Skills classes in A Thomas Jefferson Education Home Companion
We keep lists of skills to learn in a three ring binder. When Newt learns to do the listed item without help, I initial and date it. As skills are passed off, Newt qualifies for awards. There is no set class-time. Instead, we occasionally pull the binder out and use it to set goals.
I wanted the course notebook to be fun and playful so I designed a cover using Anne Taintor images I found via google. I hope it’s okay to share here…
(Click image for full screen. Hit escape to return.)
Here is our course outline for cooking:
Edited to add: The items in the “your choice” section are items that Newt has chosen herself. If it is blank, she hadn’t made up her mind at printing and the menu items will be written in later.
As my daughter passes off sections, she earns rewards. For example, once she has learned to make all of the breakfast items by herself, she will have a Graduation Party: one or two friends may spend the night and she will cook everyone breakfast.
To make sure that I am teaching techniques as well as recipes, I printed a copy of this cooking skills checklist and we mark things off as they are learned. In addition, I have found Usborne – Starting Cooking
Behind the course list, the binder has a section for recipes.
The next section in our binder is for sewing. I found this great Sewing Skills Checklist online. I printed two copies – one for me. There are certainly some things I could learn in this area.
Behind it, I created some pages for my daughter to showcase her projects:
I found another simple project book that can fit in our binder, Simply Sewing (Kids Can Do It).
The last section in our binder is about pet-care.
I have plans to add sections on home, yard and car care as the need arises.
My daughter really enjoys learning these skills, and I enjoy the nights when she cooks dinner for the family, without help. She is learning that nothing is outside her capacity, as long as she is willing to work for it.
And that is perhaps the best adult skill of all.
If you would like to download our course, click on the PDF links below.
Or if you would like an editable version (word), let me know in the comments and I’ll email one to you.
Update: Sorry, I will no longer be able to send the original file. It was lost when my laptop burned out.
Notebook Cover (blank name field)
Food Skills Class
Sewing Project Notes
Pet Care Checklist
Homework: Spend some time thinking about what adult skills you feel are essential. Are you teaching them to your children? If not, can you begin to work them into your plan?
Your Turn: How do you teach adult skills to your kids? Or how did your mom (or dad) teach you? Share in the comments, on facebook or in a blog post (old or new) and throw a link up in the comments.
Amazon Affiliate links are being used. I get a teeny-tiny commission if you order anything from amazon using my links. Thanks!
I love these ideas and I am printing some of it out for my family. Thank you for all the hard work that went into these files!
How did my mom teach me? I remember baking since I was little but cooking is one thing I don’t remember doing with mom too much. I think baking was shared because that is something done around celebrations or done when a mom has some “leisure” time. Whereas cooking is often done in a rush on a daily basis.
It’s weird, my mom owned a fabric/quilting store yet I don’t know as much about sewing as I should. I can hem on a machine and I can hand quilt, but I don’t know anything about button holes or zippers, for example.
Pet care is interesting because we only had cats and a dog in my family and I choose to only have cats (I am not a dog person!). BUT, we are 2 days away from being a guinea pig family and I am freaking out! I know nothing about caged animals. We have read a ton and done all our shopping but I am so nervous! I am hoping the two little cuties we are getting will win me over and calm my worries.
Heidi, how are you using the Your Choice sections in the cooking lessons? I’m not understanding what that section is all about and how it differs from the planned lessons.
Thanks for asking. I updated to the post to address this question. Here is the answer: The items in the “your choice” section are items that Newt has chosen herself. If it is blank, she hadn’t made up her mind at printing and the menu items will be written in later.
Ahhhh, my little Rachael Ray! 🙂
I love this approach! I’m a big believer in giving kids both cooking skills and a love for cooking. I take a somewhat less ‘organized’ approach, but I definitely think kids can – and should – learn these skills. It’ll help them in real life and what’s more, it’s fun!
Thanks Rivki! You should see how happy if makes my girl to flip pancakes or give her dog medicine (though not at the same time – ew). Learning to do real things is so empowering!
Sounds like Newt could enter some great stuff in 4-H! Have you ever considered getting her in to that? 🙂
Christina – I have thought about it, but it’s on the back burner. There are only so many hours in the day. 🙂
I appreciate your bringing this post to my attention! What great notebooking pages you are sharing here. Thanks! I will feature this post in the September Round up at The Notebooking Fairy.
Thanks so much, Heidi, for sharing not only the work you’ve put into this plan, but your outlook and foresight!
Sadly, as a mother I’m realizing that my mother taught me very little in the way of life skills. Maybe she left that up to ‘school’ to teach? I was the youngest of many and perhaps she had no energy left for me.
I took a cooking class and taught myself to cook at age 30! I took a sewing class in middle school, another in my 30’s. Now my 7 yr old is eager to learn all these things, and we are learning together, slowly.
Your skills sheets will indeed help ME.
Jacqueline – I’ve seen people get rid of clothes because a button fell off. Having just a few simple skills saves a lot of money!
Jackie – Thank you! I owe a lot to Diann Jeppson (Thomas Jefferson Home Companion) for the inspiration. I feel this is a great way to develop my skills alongside my daughter – since I didn’t learn many of these things growing up myself. I love that we are able to use this as a long term plan. We just work on a little at a time. She’s ten now, but the time she leaves home, she should have quite a few skills under her belt (and I’ll be a lot more skilled myself. :))
Thank you both for commenting!
This is great. I was appalled when a friend of mine, about a month before graduating college asked me to sew a button back on his shorts. I’ve learned how to sew garments because I wanted to, and I don’t think everyone should, but I couldn’t believe that he didn’t know how to sew on his own button.
Great post! I learned to bake a few things with my mom, and cook a few things with my dad, but most of what I do today I’ve taught myself. The title of your post reminded me of something a friend told me about raising children. We aren’t raising children, we’re raising successful adults. So our goal is to train them to be succesful in life by allowing them to practice (and fail) now while there’s still time to learn the right way. My son is just 5, but he already helps in the kitchen and a bit around the house. One day as we were sitting down to dinner he asked if he could see my recipes. It seemed an odd request be he told me he liked all my food and wanted to be able to make these things when he grows up. Perfect!
We use Keepers at Home, from the Keepers of the Faith company. It contains all of these sorts of skills (and other unrelated skill areas), and offers pins for each one. You can use it within just your family, or start a group, and each one is 100% autonomous.
Rachel, That sounds cool. I’ll have to google it. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for these – I have been trying to come up with a plan for this and these are exactly what I needed. Much appreciated.
Wow! I love this ~ thanks for sharing 🙂
I love this post! (And the title of your blog) I also appreciate the recommendations for the cooking and sewing books for the binder-just in time for Christmas! Would you please send me the word version of the cooking course so I can edit the meals our family commonly makes. Thank you. I will be sharing this post with others. I look forward to exploring your blog to see what other great ideas are posted.
Thanks for doing the leg work Heidi!! Now if you only had a too cute front for a boy binder! 😉 Thanks!!
PS! Could you email me the cooking skills word doc? Thanks!
Oh shoot! It was on my laptop that burned up. Let me check and see if it was one if the few things that got backed up…
(And thank you !)
😉
Thanks!!
Will you please email me your adult skills classes, I like them but want to change it a little.
Thanks Jill
Jill, I’m glad you commented. I lost the original file when my old laptop burned out. I’m sorry. Updating post now.