Our Homemaking Days

Let me take you back in time to when my oldest daughter, Katie Beth was 12 and her younger sister Julianna was 9. Jimmy was a newborn baby, Shine was almost 2 and Jenny Rose was 6.

​With four daughters to prepare for motherhood and homemaking, I had set aside Thursdays to teach my daughter homemaking skills such as sewing, cooking, baking, hospitality, needlework, laundry, interior decorating, and card-making.
 
Our homemaking days were precious days. This, of course, was before the hustle-bustle of high school.
         
For several years I enjoyed my homemaking days alone with the girls. But other years, other homeschooling moms joined me and we have co-oped. What fun and fellowship for the girls as they learned skills that I don't have such as knitting and cake decorating. 

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Using 4-H Project Books

We have used 4-H project books to teach so of these homemaking skills because all the girls participating in Homemaking Day were also part of a 4-H club.

​If there was no project book, we used a Do Your Own Thing Project Book. Because the girls were part of a 4-H Club, they were able to earn credit for all they learned, as well as ribbons. We took many baking and sewing projects to the state fair. 

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A Typical Homemaking Day

​We opened the day with devotions related to godly womanhood. This was followed by discussing the Bible passage. We related each passage to life today, as well as in the future when they were all grown up and managing their own homes. We also prayed together.
         
Most of the time, the girls wore pretty dresses for homemaking day, setting a more feminine and fancy mood for the day. The exception to this was gardening days where we dressed in jeans or shorts. 
 
During our nice lunch, we practiced proper table manners and polite conversation.
         
In the morning, we worked on a subject such as Interior Decorating. When we studied interior decorating, we read books and articles about decorating and discussed the articles together. We loved looking a fabric samples or photographs of different styles of decorating. This reading and discuss time was followed by a project. One day our project was creating a table top display. I cleared off a table top in the living room and let each girl roam through my home searching for objects to make a tabletop display. Each girl took turns arranging her display and telling the rest of us why she chose each item and why she arranged it the way she did. The girls had to have as their reasoning, principles of balance, color, texture, proportion and style. They enjoyed that assignment a lot!
         
After lunch, we worked on a craft project such as embossing, card making, or cake decorating. Friendships were built as the girls shared ideas, help and encouragement with one another.
         
On sewing days, we set up several sewing machines and sergers. We all enjoyed chatting as we stitched. Maybe that would be the 90's version of a quilting bee. We started out simply with pillows, pillowcases, and simple skirts to build the girls' confidence in their sewing abilities.

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The Heritage of Homemaking Days

​During those days, we began to fill the girls’ hope chest with handmade Christmas pillowcases, napkins, and placemats for their future home. Homemaking Day set aside the time we needed to make these treasures. More than that, it drew us all closer together and instilled a love in my daughters for the sweet skills needed to create a home for their future families. It was time well spent.
 
If you would like to teach your pre-teens and teens about homemaking, I have a resource for you: God’s Girls 105: Homemaking, a one-credit high school life skills course. This course covers all kinds of homemaking skills like baking, cooking, laundry, interior decorating, cake decorating, candy-making, cleaning, and gift wrapping. It also covers the heart behind the skills: being filled with the Presence of Jesus so you can bring His Presence into your home. We use Jesus, Fill My Heart and Home Bible Study along with God’s Girls 105: Homemaking.
 
You can purchase God’s Girls 105: Homemaking at Amazon. The E-book is available at PayHip and Currclick.  
 
You can purchase Jesus, Fill My Heart and Home Bible Study at Amazon. The E-book is available at PayHip and Currclick.  
 
God bless you with sweet memories as you invest in your daughters to teach them the delightful skills of homemaking. Let me know how you teach your daughters these skills—I’d love to know!
 
Be blessed!
Meredith Curtis

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