Book Review: Home Economics for Home Schoolers

These words are on the home page of www.pearables.com, a home school book company that specializes in character building curriculum for home schoolers. When I began homeschooling twenty years ago, character building was my main goal, and I soon found the Pearable books and loved them. We have bought quite a few over the years.

One of the books we have at our house is the "Home Economics for Home Schoolers", level one. This book is for little girls ages 6 and up.

My daughter really enjoyed this book many years ago, and we recently dug it out again, because I have another little daughter now who is just the age to begin using it.

This book has a strong Christian emphasis throughout, which is really nice.

It begins with an instruction page for parents, reminding them among other things that teaching the child to clean up when they finish their projects is just as important as the project itself.

It then goes on to teach thirty projects, simple, but necessary things for little girls to learn as they grow up.

Lesson one introduces the child to the different food groups: bread, dairy, proteins, fruits, vegetables and junk food, and the task for the week is for her to choose one meal each day and write down which foods belong to each group. This lesson teaches the child what a healthy, balanced meal is.

From there, the lessons begin to teach things like learning to peel a fruit or vegetable, how to cook eggs, how to use the stove, and how to cook their first hot meal. There are sixteen lessons on preparing meals.

Then it moves on to cleaning, with five lessons: how to use a vacuum, how to dust, sweep, wash dishes and make a bed.

Lessons 22 to 25 teach the beginnings of sewing: how to stitch, how to sew forwards and backwards, how to cut a pattern and how to sew on an appliqué. These lessons are very simple and within a young child's ability.

There are then three lessons on organization, followed by a lesson on hospitality, then a review.

The book instructs the parent to evaluate what your little girl has learned. If the child needs more training, simply start the book over. If she has conquered these skills, it's time to move on to level two.

My own daughter really enjoyed this Home Economics book. It gave us mother/daughter time together, and was fun to do. As a homeschooling mommy of twenty years, I highly recommend this book.

www.pearables.com