The next installment in our series of the 1977 Personal Progress areas of focus is Homemaking Arts. The scripture for it is Proverbs 24:3-4 "Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established: And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches."
"An ideal Latter-day Saint young woman makes any home a better place because she is there. As a loving sister and daughter, she does all that she can to make her home beautiful and to fill it with harmony and love. She is thoughtful and courteous to those who live and visit in the home. She learns to use the homemaking arts to make life more pleasant for those with whom she lives and to prepare for the time when she will create her own home."[Jeans here: I notice it's carefully worded, it doesn't say these skills prepare her to become a wife and mother, or that domesticity is a divine role. Interesting.]
Categories of possible goals:
Improving Relationships with your Family: creating a spiritual atmosphere, volunteering more at home, being pleasant, singling out family members for special consideration.
Caring for Children: make a babysitting kit [I did this one!], learn child first aid, plan a children's storytelling time, teach a skill to a younger sibling or another child.
Developing Home Management Skills: start a clipping file on child care, home maintenance, clothing selection & care, interior decoration, nutrition, food preparation, time & money management, learn basic home repairs (eg faucet, fuse, electrical plug, clogged sink, hang a picture), volunteer to do the family mending, laundry or ironing for a month, develop a personal budget.
Learning How to Sew, Select and Care for Clothing: learn to knit, embroider, sew, crochet, or applique; remodel an old dress or coat to make it wearable again, make a quilt or other patchwork item from "fabric remnants," learn clothing repair techniques, participate with your class in learning "the use of color, style and fabric in clothing and use this information in planning a wardrobe" [Color Me Beautiful, anyone? --I'm an autumn], have a class evening of modeling clothing each girl has made, learning how to read & understand clothing labels when you shop.
Increasing Home Decorating Skills: learn about home decorating, reupholster or refinish a piece of furniture, cover storage boxes with contact paper, make a room more attractive, visit restored homes to learn about past styles.
Developing Good Eating Habits and Proper Diet: use the Word of Wisdom as a food planning guide, plan a family meal once a week, develop a personal well balanced diet and follow it, start a recipe file, learn to make bread and take some to a neighbor, can or preserve foods "under the direction of your mother or a specialist," get involved in your family's food storage program, have a food-related event like a cake decorating party, an international food fair, a breakfast party or heritage cooking night. Have a "creative cookery night" by preparing food from ingredients placed in a box or sack.
Just this morning I ran across a Church News article from January 1932 saying that the Relief Society had just established a new department called "Household Arts" and had called an "expert instructor" in those arts to hold classes in downtown Salt Lake (the church was so much smaller then!) for any sister who wanted to take them. They even planned two of the sessions to take place during the noon hour so that working girls on lunch breaks could attend. And of course the Mormon Handicraft shop became a big thing right about the same time.
ReplyDeleteI like the activities of your 1977 program, both for defining homemaking arts as broader than needlework, but also for including needlework that can't be mastered in a single session. I think where we went wrong and all our arts descended to kitschy crafts was when we decided everything had to be learned, produced, and finished within a 90-minute meeting, which leaves no room for real art or skill or anything but the dorkiest crafts.
Here Here, Ardis!
ReplyDeleteI've often thought that as well, Ardis--if we're really going to learn homemaking (or other) skills, we need a lot more than a single 90-minute meeting to do so. I'd love a weekly or monthly cooking or canning or sewing class in which I could get the time and hands-on experience to really learn something.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I'd have to start it myself, and there's no way I'm up for that at this point in my life. Maybe in a few years.
--ZD Eve
I like the wording here, too. There's something very genuine about it.
ReplyDelete@ jeans: I'm a "summer". I still use that information almost daily.
I refinished a piece of furniture: my dad's old desk. It was a huge job and I distinctly remember all the planning and physical effort that went into it. One of my favorite YW projects ever. I also use that skill (and others that stemmed from it) rather frequently.
Here! Here! Here, Ardis!
ReplyDeleteMaybe the trend of quick and easy is changing. At least in my ward-- we have some great Relief Society groups that are teaching real skills. We have a piano group that meets weekly, a canning group every month, and we used to have a sewing group. I learned how to read a pattern at the sewing group. You know, I really miss that class.
And the wording from 1977 is very interesting.
I'm loving this flashback series. I've been wanting to show these to my teen daughters.
ReplyDeleteThe 1977 wording seems better than my impression of the current manual.