My granddaughter chose sewing and cooking for extra curricular classes this year in 6th grade and is loving it!!! We are impressed with how well rounded the students are in their area. Music - reading - math - science, etc etc

I took HomEc back in the late 40s. My mom sewed like a professional, canned almost everything we ate, milked a cow, churned our butter, made my clothes, but after the divorce we moved to a big city and she worked outside the home. I made a skirt and vest in class - made an A. Took it home & mother made me take the skirt band off and re-sew it. I learned to crochet from my sister-in-law when I was 18, learned cross stitch from a book, and started quilting on my own. The only really useful thing I learned in class was how to read a pattern and set a proper table. Mother taught me to cook early at least by 8. Seems I've always known how to cook.

I'm not surprised that very few of our children are not exposed to such skills as sewing and cooking. When my oldest son was about three and I was sewing on the machine, I gave him a piece of fabric and a large threaded needle. He sat on the floor beside me and and took stitches until the fabric was "gathered" into a mass. I would just cut the thread and straighten it out and he began again. When he left for college, I included a small sewing kit and he earned a few quarters by sewing on buttons....

What a nice project for you to do with your preschoolers and I bet the pillows were appreciated.

It reaslly is sad, isn't it? I taught my son and daughter to sew and then my two granddaughters. My grandson made a quilt on my FW when he was 6. He loved the process as much as the girls. So many young people today make it a point of pride to say "I can't cook" or I can't run the vacuum cleaner or I can't (you fill in the blanks). They'll be sorry one day!

i worked in the welfare dept for nearly 28 years. you would be surprised how many young adults(20-30 yrs) were being treated for depresion issues. Most of them had no life skills to be able to find and keep a job to support themselves. Many of them didnt even have a high school education. Maybe if they had a hobby like quilting they wouldnt need to be depressed unless if ws over the fact that they needed more money to support their hobby. At least changing from drugs to quilting as a habit would be more encouraging.
I am glad my dd has decided to try making some quilt blocks to see if quilting could become a hobby. She loves picking out patterns and fabrics so its a step in the right direction.

I learned to sew when I was in 4-H; took Home Ec. but I learned more from my 4-H
leader and my grandmother when it came to sewing. I taught 4-H sewing when my
DD was in 4-H and I have taught both of my GD's how to sew, they haven't finished
their 1st baby quilt, yet....but I have hope that someday they will find the time to do
it. They found boys and then forgot about sewing. When I did ISS (in school suspension)
I could work on anything I wanted while they had to do homework. I was hand piecing an
apple core quilt, so I sometimes was hand piecing or cutting out the apple cores with
a rotary cutter. Those boys were so interested in what I was doing....I even let one of
them cut out a few apple cores...although I made sure they did it slow and easy. Another
time I was writing out my Christmas cards and they wanted to know if they would get a card too,
so I gave each of them their own Christmas card. I never had trouble with any of the kids
while they were in ISS except one time and I asked the Principal if I had to listen to the
bad language....boy did he let them know they couldn't use that language in ISS or around
any of the substitute teachers. They don't teach sewing right now in our school, due to lack
of funding or the teacher doesn't want to teach it. They do learn to cook some. They need to
learn how to sew up a rip or sew a button on at some time in their life.

Different time and place, I suppose. I wanted to be taken seriously for math and science skills. Domestic skill seemed girly to me and at that time the last thing I wanted to be seen as was girly. I also learned by about age 7 to NEVER admit my mother or I had made my clothes. I lived in a small town and was teased unmercifully about wearing "home made".

I, too, learned to cook and sew without home ec classes. Part of the embarrassment was because it took so LITTLE to win that award. I wanted to be seen as far more accomplished than THAT.

Different time, different place.

My mother and my Aunt (her twin) both grew up knowing how to sew and cook. My mother never passed it on. I learned in school. She even made her own wedding dress. I never even saw it until I was about ready to get married.
She only passed on the passion for books, which I passed to my daughters and crafts.

There is hope though! I just got home (feet still hurting!) from taking 3 8th grade girls who helped me after school all winter with a Quilts of Valor project to the International Machine Quilters show in Overland Park, KS. As expected, they were jaw-dropping AWED by the quilt entries--racing around trying to figure which was their vote for viewer's choice! I could not keep up at all. Quickly became apparent that one was really into the paper pieced stuff, one had stopped at a long-arm vendors booth and she hit them all--has a real knack for free motion quilting, and the other was really into the design and colors. when we finally left I asked if any thought they'd continue with quilting--and got a resounding YES from all 3--all 3 looking into lessons this summer and getting their grandmothers to loan/get them a machine. These girls had very little experience and could not find that 1/4" seam to save them before Christmas--so putting together a snowball and 9-patch quilt was quite the challenge!

On a funny note--when my daughter was about 3yr she was the "guinea pig" for being given an Stanford Binet IQ test by a friend--it uses little objects and asks what they are to that age group. When shown an iron, she promptly said "sewing machine"--because that is the only time she ever saw me use the iron!