Learning and Growing: Curriculum, Classes, and Clubs

This post/re-post is a resource list designed to aid in the education of women in homemaking and womanhood lines, particularly in keeping with the purpose of The Hope Chest. You can always find all of my resource lists in the sidebar.

I don't necessarily endorse these sites in their entirety. In fact, some of them I may not endorse at all! They are here because I believe they are useful for educational purposes.

Future Christian Homemakers  

Training Our Daughters to be Keepers at Home by Ann Ward. Seven-year curriculum for girls in book or CD format. Do a search for "training our daughters to be keepers at home" and you will find sources and reviews.

Home Economics for Home Schoolers series.

Hope Chest Society New!

The Book of Household Management by Mrs. Isabella Beeton ~ an old book available for free here.

American Woman's Home by Catherine Esther Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe  ~ an old book available for free here.

Home Economics I and Home Economics II curriculum by Christian Light Publications.

Self-Made Scholar ~ has a list of free classes and a list of self-education resources. 

Teaching Good Things ~ Equipping Families with Practical Skills for Life

New! Here's something that may help. Below are links to high school/college/university departments, programs, course catalogs, etc. that may be helpful in planning your study. They are both Christian and secular, public and private ~ just whatever I have found that might provide ideas, inspiration, and guidance, whether you are planning a homeschooling program, independent study college program, or just a personal education study program. These links do not include homeschool curriculum. Look at the courses offered, and if possible, actual course descriptions.

Oakwood College Department of Family and Consumer Sciences

Virginia Tech ~ Department of Human Development

App State ~ Family and Consumer Sciences.

Women and Homemaking

Surely, it is a pernicious and mistaken idea, that the duties which
tax a woman's mind are petty, trivial, or unworthy of the highest grade
of intellect and moral worth. Instead of allowing this feeling, every
woman should imbibe, from early youth, the impression that she is in
training for the discharge of the most important, the most difficult,
and the most sacred and interesting duties that can possibly employ
the highest intellect. She ought to feel that her station and
responsibilities in the great drama of life are second to none, either
as viewed by her Maker, or in the estimation of all minds whose judgment
is most worthy of respect.
From American Woman's Home by Catherine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe

Home Duties Not Duly Appreciated

The authors of this volume, while they sympathize with every honest
effort to relieve the disabilities and sufferings of their sex, are
confident that the chief cause of these evils is the fact that the
honor and duties of the family state are not duly appreciated, that
women are not trained for these duties as men are trained for their
trades and professions, and that, as the consequence, family labor is
poorly done, poorly paid, and regarded as menial and disgraceful.

From the Introduction to American Woman's Home by Catherine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Theme for the Week of September 2

. . . which I didn't figure out until Sept. 5. Didn't even think about it. Someday I need to post about "how to remember what it is you are supposed to be doing" but I'll have to find out first.

Anyway, this week's theme is another area of the house: "Library and Home Office." Ohhhhhh! Does this ever make me want to go buy books for my hope chest. Alas, I have no money. I do have a list of books I want though. Do you have a list of books you want to put in your hope chest? I can't remember where I put my list (imagine that!) but I do have one. I suspect I shall have a large library if I can afford it because books are so useful.

Here are some of my favorite useful books:

Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson

Prescription for Nutritional Healing by James F. Balch, M.D. And Phyllis A. Balch, C.N.C.

The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaffer

Life Management for Busy Women by Elizabeth George

This week's theme also make me "EEEK!" a little bit because I know if history repeats itself I shall have a messy office (although my desk is relatively clear ~"relatively" being a very significant word~ since I bought six stackable trays. Good storage for all of my essential stuff is crucial and it would behoove me to get that in order before my life gets even more complicated.