I have discovered as a wife that the home economics course I took in middle school did not equip me for managing a house or for being a housewife with four children. In fact, the main thing I remember from the course I took was learning how to make no-bake cookies. It has taken me many years to learn what I have needed to learn to manage our house, and I am embarrassed to say that I still don’t do a great job of it. I do not want our daughters to be hampered by the same inabilities that I had. So, when I had the opportunity to review the thirty-six-week curriculum, Home Economics Household Skills: Becoming a Daughter with Purpose, I realized that this was a perfect opportunity for me to go through a home economics course with my older daughter and for both of us to learn. 

Becoming a Daughter of Purpose is a large, thick 408-page curriculum. The author, Amy Maryon, sells an e-book version on her website for $20 or in paperback through Amazon for $29.99. The book is meant to be a 36-week curriculum for a high school aged student, but middle school students and adults would benefit from this book.

Each week includes a devotional. These devotionals are usually on a character quality, such as devotion, gladness or strength. Then, there is a main section of text and tasks for the week. Sometimes there is only one main section of learning. Other weeks, there are several main branches of learning. For example, in week one, she teaches your teen how to clean and declutter her room, how to vacuum and how (and who) to send letters and notes of encouragement to. Most sections are written with the expectation that you daughter will follow the instructions to complete the work as a hands-on assignment. At the end of the week, there is a form and guidelines for teacher evaluation of work.

This is really a comprehensive course for the young lady in your house. It covers all major cleaning skills, all major cooking skills, and many life skills. Budgeting, job interviews, personal hygiene, unspoken language, babysitting, table manners, hospitality and mending clothing are all included skills.  This is a perfect course for both my daughters to spend a year with as they enter the eighth/ninth grade age range to begin preparing for life after homeschooling, and I look forward to sharing it with both of them.  I have sat down and read out of it for advice in cooking and cleaning several times when I’ve needed it.  My only regret is that she doesn’t have a volume of home economics and practical skills for boys for me to share with my sons.  I would be the first in line to buy a course like that for the boys too.

-Product review by Rebecca Ray, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, September, 2016