I found that after I became a wife and mother, there were a lot of homemaking skills I wished I had learned earlier in life. The private school I attended didn't offer Home Ec classes, so I missed out on a lot of basic stuff. My newest sponsor, Kathy from Teaching Good Things, notes that it's a wonderful thing to have an education rooted in academics, but that there needs to be a balance between academics and practical skills.
Teaching Good Things is a site dedicated to educating men and woman of all ages with skills to run a household. Whether you want to learn about canning, sewing, crochet, gardening, hospitality, home maintenance, woodworking, or even car repair, this is a go-to site for useful knowledge!
Kathy recommends exposing your children to new things, finding out what they interested in, and nurturing their abilities so that they are able to serve others. This also does wonders for self-esteem!
Teaching Good Things is easy to navigate. Pages are broken down into Skills for the Guys (fishing, how to build a fire, home maintenance, auto repair, lawn care, and much more) and Skills for the Gals (homemaking, baking, recipes, food art, crochet, etc.) To be honest, there are many things on both lists that I think would be wonderful for either sex to learn about!
The Teaching Good Things blog publishes regular series, How to Build a Family Economy, Today's Table, and Giving Generously without Breaking the Bank. They also regularly spotlight young entrepreneurs for extra encouragement. Kathy links to some great video tutorials in the skills area of the blog--definitely worth checking out!
The site offers another wonderful resource: a store stocked with instructional DVDs and eBooks to make learning easy at home. They've made holiday shopping easy for you by offering gift bags that include an instructional DVD and basic supplies for the recipient to get started. Kathy's favorite, The Basic Cake Decorating DVD, comes with icing tips, a decorator's bag, a cake spatula, coupler, and and a flower nail when ordered as a gift bag.
New DVDs for guys' skills are on their way to the shop in the next few weeks, and they will be offering free gift wrapping between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Be sure to order before December 19th!
Readers who sign up for the newsletter (top right of sidebar under "Stay Connected) can receive the FREE 7-Part Mini Course: Encouraging Hands!
A lucky Serenity Now reader will WIN his/her choice of an instructional DVD from Teaching Good Things:
Basic Cake Decorating Skills 2, Basic Crochet, or How to Make a Patchwork Quilt.
Here's How You Can Enter To Win:
1. Visit the Teaching Good Things Store and leave me a comment here with the name of the product you'd most like to try out.
-For Extra Entries-
2. Facebook this Giveaway with a link to this post.
3. Tweet the Following (copy and paste): Win an Instructional DVD (Cake Decorating, Crochet, or Quilting!) via @SerenityNowGirl #Giveaway http://bit.ly/umiF6E
4. Link up a post to this weekend's Weekend Bloggy Reading party here and include a link back to me within your post(s) for an extra, automatic entry.
*Giveaway open to US Residents only. Giveaway open until 10 pm ET on Sunday, November 6th, 2011.
I hope you'll come back tomorrow to link up YOUR best post of the week to Weekend Bloggy Reading. Recipes, crafts, home decor, book reviews, funny stories, you name it. Come prepared to showcase your blog and find some great weekend reads.
Not that I have time to learn, but I would love the Make a Patchwork Quilt dvd:)
ReplyDeleteI tweeted!
ReplyDeleteI would love the how to crochet DVD!!
ReplyDeleteI posted on Facebook. Hope I won!
ReplyDeleteI would love to have either the "How to Crochet" or "Cake Decorating" DVD. I have a 14 year old daughter and I would love to pass either of these skills along to her. When I was in High School 35 years ago, they did have Home Ec. classes. I think now they might call them life skills classes. Home economics is one of those out-of-style words!!
ReplyDeleteI would love the Make a Patchwork Quilt DVD! I have always wanted to learn.
ReplyDeleteEstella
rohme@trinity-health.org
This is tough! I would love the Basic Crochet video but the Basic Cake Decorating dvd is calling my name, too! They are both skills that I've always wanted to have but never took the time to learn.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely the Basic Cake Decorating DVD!!! I see there's also a book available on the site... I'll take one of those too! ;)
ReplyDeleteI shared on the Truly Lovely Facebook page!
ReplyDeleteLearn How to Crochet Gift Bag
ReplyDeleteFor me....
nickie
ngmoseley@yahoo.com
I would love to learn to decorate a cake!
ReplyDeleteThe crocheting DVD would be awesome to have!
ReplyDeleteI've always wanted to learn to crochet. This DVR would be a great way to learn at my own pace.
ReplyDelete