Homemaking Isn’t Rocket Science

This is going to be purely my opinion.  I hope I don’t step on any toes, but the idea of girls spending a tremendous amount of time learning “homemaking skills” has confused me for a long time.

Homemaking isn’t rocket science.  But it’s okay for your daughters to learn rocket science. In fact, as a homeschool mom, I feel it is easy for our daughters to learn both homemaking skills and rigorous academics by the time they graduate from high school.

Let me explain why.  As a classroom teacher, we wasted lots of time in transitions and dealing with behaviors.  The days were long, but the actual amount of instructional time we had was short.  You classroom teachers know what I am talking about.

At home, things are more flexible. My kids knew they had to get the work done that I planned for them, and they also knew that they were in control of how much free time they had.  Also, we all had chores we shared since we lived in the same house, so housework (dishes, laundry, basic cleaning, ironing) was done around schoolwork tasks. When my girls got a little older, they took turns cooking dinner.  Once they could read and follow a recipe, I let them plan their meals and all that was required was to let me know if there was a special ingredient for a new recipe they wanted to try so I could get the ingredient on my regular shopping trip.

In our spare time, I taught the girls handy skills that I guess are considered “advanced homemaking skills,” like sewing, embroidering, knitting and crocheting.  They had different skill levels, but all learned the basics of these artsy things. They also learned pottery, drawing, and musical instruments (piano, violin and cello). I didn’t do this out of any sense that they needed to learn “advanced homemaking skills." I didn’t even encounter that term until my girls were mostly grown.  I simply enjoy crafty things.  My mom taught me to embroider. My grandma taught me to crochet.  I always wanted to learn to knit, so when a sweet friend from our homeschool group offered to teach the moms and their daughters to knit, we signed up.  One daughter sculpts and does cross stitch to relax. Another can make professional level garments, a skill she learned by trial and error (with some pattern reading guidance from me and my amazing grandma) starting with her first dress at age 13. Another makes adorable crocheted hats. But those things are just side interests for all of us, things to keep our hands busy while we watch shows or just for the joy of creating things. 

They read books in high school that several encountered again in college.  They learned chemistry, biology, physics, algebra, a bit of trigonometry, 5 paragraph essay writing, philosophy, logic, and anything else academic that seemed to be a college prep program.  They read classical literature, studied economics and learned about political science. After all, who am I to leave them without the tools for any path God may have had for them? Also, my philosophy was that even if they skipped college to get married and have children, they needed to be well equipped to educate their own children.

We are DIY oriented, so my girls also learned useful things like framing, hanging drywall and installing a tile backsplash.  We built a basement out together over a summer, and my girls even learned to hang doors (they don’t like it, however, it’s not a fun job.)  My science girl always helped with my poor excuse for a garden, because it’s hard to grow things in rocky clay when surrounded by trees. Many times I would see her go outside with a paintbrush to hand pollinate our cucumbers.  Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. She has quite a collection of houseplants and is much better at keeping them alive than I am.

We are nothing special.  We are just an ordinary middle class homeschool family that believes it is important to prepare our children to go on to higher education and be able to take care of themselves in basic ways.  I don’t find homemaking to be something that takes forever to learn, especially when your children are home with you and help around the house.  Even if your children go to school, it is possible to teach them these basic things.  I had to learn to do laundry, mop the floors, and cook basic foods as a teenager in public school. And when I went away to college, I already knew how to take care of myself in basic ways.  How much more prepared can our homeschooled daughters be when they work alongside us from birth to age 18?

This isn’t rocket science.  It’s something all children, male or female, homeschooled or traditionally schooled, need to learn. But it’s totally okay for our daughters to also learn rocket science, in particular if that is what they are called to do.