I don't know if its already been said, but in home economics we learned how to budget and keep a checkbook, including balancing. Today, a lesson on credit cards wouldn't hurt.

Oops, I also remember learning about cleaning/cleaning produces (what not to mix) and also during cooking, about salmonella

How to sew on a button.......main thing....

My sister , the genius that she is can design a building, crawl around in an attic space or the crawl space of a building to see the structure of it. She is an Architectural / Engineer and is putting herself through med school part time and she can't sew a button on to save her life.

sewing on a button, hemming...

Enjoy this project. I think you are on the right track with making an apron first. Seems to me that's what we made as our first sewing project. Everyone has left a wealth of suggestions, I'm sure you will do just fine.

Enjoy this project. I think you are on the right track with making an apron first. Seems to me that's what we made as our first sewing project. Everyone has left a wealth of suggestions, I'm sure you will do just fine.

I enjoyed the reference to Watkins, Jewel Tea, etc. Watkins is located in Winona, MN and still sells several products.
My paternal grandfather and his brother-in-law sold Watkins in the late teens of the last century. Yes, they used two horses and a wagon!!

Hopefully, this young woman will have the opportunity to have some of these stories written down, along with photos of the storytellers.

Our world has changed so much in the last forty plus years since I got my home economics degree. Home economists in the late 1920's to mid 1940's used to go door to door with lamps and light bulbs, show women how to use a range, and had the duty to try to build up the use of electricity. When the changes in consumption came to a head in the early 1970's, our jobs were to speak about energy conservation.

By all means, please work in safety as a priority. There are several good suggestions on this thread. Have fun:-)

Boo, An apron used to be the first year sewing project for 4-H. ( Logo is the 4 leaf clover) Maybe check out a local 4-H club at your county extension office or internet for instruction book she can keep. The pattern teaches all the basics, safety, buying material, cutting, sewing seams, hemming and has a top casing for a drawstring waist/ties. Can even overcast the raw edges. Good for you for encouraging another generation in sewing :)

I remember we sewed straght and curved lines on paper with no thread in the machine. We made a potholder and apron to use when we learned to cook. Then we went to a skirt and finally a blouse. Placemats are fun and practical. She could learn straight sewing but still use some of the fancy stitches teens seem to love to do. I would not start with mending lol. I would want her to do some fun(still practical) things first to get her *hooked*...just a thought :)

Everyone has given such wonderful ideas to teach your Neice. It has been 40 years since I had home ec. I had all the basics and enjoyed them all. One thing that we had that I found very useful. How to set a formal table..to fold napkins,,and table ettiquet. Have a wonderful time with your neice.
Peace and blessings,

If the girl is home schooled and her mother is out - sourcing, it could be a good idea to hire a chef or free - lance home economics/dietary advisor or send her to school.

Make it fun...Depending on her age, make a tote bag, apron, pajama pants, even a hand puppet. The first thing I learned was to sew straight lines on "cup towels" for the kitchen. You won't be able to teach her a lifetime of sewing smarts in a short time, but if you make it and keep it fun, she'll come back for more! There are some great ideas in this post, but try to make the things you teach her good, applicable life skills. Cooking good, nutritious food frugally is more important in our world than knowing how to set a lovely table and pour tea perfectly.(IMHO!)

How about getting some 4H cooking and sewing books to use as a guide? They've done all the figuring for you and teach things in a logical order for new sewers and cooks.

Oh I like minnesewta's suggestion.

Teach her basic embroidery stitching as designs on the aprons.

ooooooooh. And canning, too!

i agree with all the suggestion Home Ec class is where i learned everything about sewing (except what i learned about quilting on here) we had to make an a line dress with a zipper and a applique on it for our test at the end of the semester

What a good Aunt :)

They call it Home & Careers now. They make pillows, pajama pants, &puppets for Ronald MacDonald House.They learn to read a package and understand the ingredients. They make cookbooks with ethnic food. They make chocolate and dog biscuits to sell. It is co-ed and they love it! (I was the Art teacher!)

They call it Home & Careers now. They make pillows, pajama pants, &puppets for Ronald MacDonald House.They learn to read a package and understand the ingredients. They make cookbooks with ethnic food. They make chocolate and dog biscuits to sell. It is co-ed and they love it! (I was the Art teacher!)

I want to thank all of ur for your suggestions and encouragement on this. I have been writing it all down making my "lesson plans". I am really looking forward to doing all of this. I will take pics and post them.

When I took Home Ec back in the 70's, we made a sleeveless pullover blouse with darts and hook/eye closure, an a-line skirt with a waist band, button, and zipper, and a jumper dress with a long zipper up the front. We had to hem the garments by hand.

Basic mending: repair a hem, replace a button, shorten a garment.
Basic tools and how to use them: scissors, needles, pins, measuring tape, thimble.
Sew curtains, pillows, aprons, or other home decor. I don't think I would tackle clothing unless she showed some interest in it; nowadays store-bought clothing is usually cheaper than homemade.
The cookies project sounds like a winner! Maybe also some basic easy meals: spaghetti, tacos, baked chicken, etc. Of course salad, baked potatoes. Some grocery shopping lessons!

The public schools have the students doing small pillows, drawstring bags, stuffed toys out of felt first then fabric and pillow cases.

My Home EC class taught us Sewing-learning how to sew on buttons, make button holes, doing a hem stitch, and a few other basics before making an apron and a simple shift/jumper dress. (I showed my grand daughters that jumper just a few weeks ago. They couldn't believe I was that small at that age.) Then there was cooking and the third session was learning how to knit. We knitted house slippers.

In my Home-Ec class, we also had to do meal planning. It had to be balanced, and healthy. Also, we had to design something,ie. a dress, a quilt, hot pads..... I designed and made a heart quilt, all made from 1" squares and 1/2 squares, it turned out really nice, I gave it to my best friend for her birthday. The school had certain criteria we had to fulfill to qualify as an acredited class.

Is the Home Ec curriculum available online?

I noticed you mentioned cooking. Nutrition is an important subject to know about. You didn't mention her age so it is hard to recommend what to start her with. I would not start with cookies, which are nutritionally very poor and very high in sugar. Maybe her GGM has a recipe for a family dish she wants to pass on?

When I did Home Ec we did first aid as well.

Budgeting is another important area (putting the Ec back into Home Ec)- you could work some budgeting into the sewing lesson very easily.

Good luck with it. It is a big responsibility to take on.

SO SO SOOOOOOOOOOOO TRUE. The WHYS are so very important and the knowledge stays with you and can teach her how to tackle other problems.

My gosh, this takes me back to my school days. It was called Domestic Science at our school. The first thing we sewed was a basic bibbed apron. This involved drawing a pattern on a sheet of brown paper - Grade 5 girls are all different sizes and heights so there was no "one size fits all" pattern. Then we cut the pattern and sewed/hemmed the apron and attached the neck strap and waist ties. Once we had our aprons finished, then we learned to bake the basics - tea buns, cheese pinwheels, pancakes, mac and cheese, etc.. We made vats of orange marmelade for our annual school sale. We also did "fancy work" - made and embroidered cloths for roll baskets, tray cloths, etc.. We learned how to cross-stitch as well.

My Domestic Science teacher passed away a few weeks ago at the age of 94 - she was well loved by her former students if attendance at the visitation and funeral was any indication.

I would suggest she go buy a pattern for pajama pants, or something easy, so she gets some good practice reading a pattern, learning the markings, etc..

Having a student pick out what they would like to make may have them finish the project and enjoy learning. Anyone else have their first item made in Home Ec stuck in the bottom of a closet or (eek) garbage can? My apron stayed in the closet for years. When I "found" it again, I added lace, trims, etc to it and used it. But that was after I was hooked on sewing.

i remember, in one of my first home ec classes, the teacher gave us all a sheet of graph paper and had us practice sewing a straight line. without sewing our fingers... and we started off with an easy pattern, alphabet letter pillows. :)

I have not read through all the replies yet, but diffently tell her the difference between sewing scissors and craft scissors. They are not interchangeable.
To wet her feet, have her make a basic square pincushion, practicing sewing forward and backward so she is not intiminated with a larger project at first.

Classes in public schools each have an approved "official" set of objectives that are mandatory guidelines for what is taught. Google to find a set of objectives for her age and grade level, and follow that. This will direct you to start "at the beginning" and work up to more difficult tasks in an organized way. Objectives help the teacher and the student, both. A person/student who hasn't first learned the parts of a sewing machine, how to operate the machine, and the skill of sewing on lines (so she can sew straight seams) will not be capable of making garments of any kind.

Sets of objectives are written by people who are skilled in teaching and have knowledge about what students in each age group and grade level have the ability and background to learn. Your teaching will be more effective and your student's success will be more easily accomplished if you follow these written guidelines.

I taught a quilting class for kids this summer and we taught
How to make a pillow case
and a sampler reading pillow cover. The cover had 4 different squares.
They loved it.
I also think teaching how to hem clothes and sewing on a button by hand would be great.
I love your idea for the cooking class. That is something all will remember. Make sure you take lots of pictures.

This thread has made me curious...how many members took home ec and were you a good home ec student? I had 7th and 8th grade, and 3 years in high school, but I was never a very good student in that class. But now I'm very good at sewing and cooking (thanks to grandma and mom).

My school was an all-girls school and everyone took Domestic Science from Grade 5 to 9. We learned to knit in Grade 3 - the first thing I ever knit was a dish cloth knit out of cotton twine and I still have it. In Grade 4 we knit socks for the "poor Indian children of Northwest River" ( I know it is not politically correct but we are talking 52 years ago!) . They gave me, the messiest child in the class, pale yellow wool and Mom had to wash the socks I knit several times before she deemed them clean enough to send. They also got knit several times before the two sock were the same length! LOL!!

I didn't take Home Ec. in high school - it wasn't offered for my program.

Teach her how to make a string top 2 piece bag,pillow case, pot holder,Christmas stocking, simple things get her used to the machine. Then ask her if she has anything she would like to make. Make sure she picks out the fabric. Even if it is a hard project at that point she will not realize it for years to come.

I started with Home Ec class in Junior High and continued thru high school. I remember making an apron for our first project.. my fabric had baby disney character on it. I also remember making a denim seat for a fishing stool that we made in shop class, we made teddy bears and shirts and I also remember making a skirt and I had my mom pick up fabric for me when she was in town. She ran into my great aunt when getting it and she had her help her pick it out. It was white Polyester...OMG!! I was horrified.. I mean come on Polyester on a high school chick!!!! Not to flattering!

Our schools around here call it Family and Consumer Science now.

She can learn gathering as part of the apron. Also hemming, and adding a pocket.
Add in a quilt square pillow, and she should be good. LOL.