Training Your Children In Home Economics {Review}

Kids. Chores. Allowances. Home Economics. They all go together, right? Seems to me that training your children in Home Economics is the logical solution to teaching them how to pitch in and work around the house. What I like about taking this approach is that it’s about more than just getting the work done, it’s about instilling these skills and abilities in our kids so they can run their own homes one day.

Confession…

I have to confess that training my children to be successful adults is not always first and foremost on my mind. This is probably the biggest impression that I got from reading “Training Your Children in Home Economics” by Angie Kauffman. I realized that what goes on in our house every day has a more lasting value than just whether or not the floor gets vacuumed. Kids, as we know, are always learning. If I’m not training them how to be good stewards of the home… then I’m training them *not* to be.

It’s about perspective…

In her book, Angie shares how she had to learn a lot about Home Economics after she got married because she didn’t learn these things while she was growing up. Her experiences and her point of view have led her to a place now where she sees things like cleaning, cooking and sewing as opportunities to educate and train her children one on one, spending time and growing with them. Her book is full of suggestions on how to do just that while raising successful and independent children.

A new outlook…

As I was reading through “Training Your Children in Home Economics” I was doing a lot of head bobbing, nodding in complete agreement. I’ve always been stressed by having the kids in the kitchen or trying to bake with them. It’s too much! Angie suggests training them one on one. (Duh.) Brilliant! She suggests giving an older child the task of budgeting and purchasing for a party or menu planning and grocery shopping for a week. More wisdom. As I kept reading my wheels went spinning. My view begins to shifts toward teaching opportunities.

Take away lessons…

Training Your Children in Home Economics includes printable pages of skills to learn in the areas of sewing, kitchen skills and laundry skills that you can print and use as you teach each of your children. Angie also addresses money management, hospitality, manners, gardening, food safety and table manners. All of it is presented with the goal of making teachable moments and using them to raise successful kids.

More about Angie’s ebook:

“Training Your Children in Home Economics” is full of practical advice and the voice of wisdom. With printable sheets it’s also easy to quickly implement some immediate home training. Short and easy to read, it’s not overwhelming, either. If teaching your kids more about being a good steward around the house is something that’s important to you, Angie’s ebook has a lot of suggestions for where to start and how to go about doing it.

I haven’t been looking at chores as anything other than, well, CHORES. But now I’m looking forward to changing that. I do want to teach my kids how to take care of themselves and up til now I’ve just been frustrated by the difficulty involved. I’m hoping that with some of Angie’s suggestions, especially training one on one, I can teach the kids to do a variety of tasks more effectively and start us down a different path.

I’m going to be giving away a copy of “Training Your Children in Home Economics” for next week’s Mommy Time Facebook party, but until then go ahead and check out Angie’s site and ebook.

{I received a free copy of Angie’s book so that I could read and review it, but all opinions are my own.}

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