1. The teacher should endeavour to plan lessons which will be definitely related to the home lives of the pupils. What is useful for one cla.s.s may not be useful for another. The connection between the lessons and the home should be very real. It is also important to have a sequence in the lessons.
2. Great care should be exercised in criticising any of the home methods that are suggested by the pupils. A girl"s faith in her mother should not be lessened.
3. The work should be taken up in a very simple manner; scientific presentation should be left for the high school.
4. Economy should be emphasized in all home duties; time, labour, and money should be used to give the best possible returns. Wholesome subst.i.tutes for expensive foods and attractive preparation and serving of left-over foods should be encouraged.
5. Too much vigilance cannot be exercised during the first year of practical work, when habits are being formed. It is much easier to form habits than to break away from them.
6. While nothing less than the best work should be accepted from the pupils, it requires much discernment to know when fault should be found, in order to avoid saying or doing anything that would discourage them.
7. As Household Management is a manual subject, the teacher is advised, as far as possible, not to spend time in talking about the work, but to have the cla.s.s spend their time in doing the work.
SUGGESTIONS FOR SCHOOLS WITH LIMITED, OR NO EQUIPMENT
In schools where the ordinary cla.s.s-room must be used for all subjects, there are unusual difficulties in teaching Household Management. For such schools, two modified equipments are outlined.
Since such cla.s.s-rooms require special arrangement for practical lessons in this subject, it would be well to take this work in the afternoon, so that part of the noon hour may be taken for preparation. Pupils who have earned the right to responsibility may be appointed in turn to a.s.sist in this duty.
In rural schools, the afternoon recess might be taken from 2.15 to 2.30 and, during this time, tables, stoves, and supplies may be placed, so as to be ready for the lesson to follow in the remaining hour and a half.
For pupils who are not in the Household Management cla.s.s, definite work should be planned. They may occupy themselves with manual training, sewing, art work, map-drawing, composition, etc. In summer, school gardening may be done.
Since the end of the week, in many schools, is chosen for a break in the usual routine, Friday afternoon seems a suitable time for Household Management lessons.
Under such limited conditions, it will be necessary to group the larger pupils into one cla.s.s for practical work, and it may be necessary for the pupils to take turns in working. In some cases, the teacher must demonstrate what the cla.s.s may practise at home.
It will be impossible, in such schools, to cover the prescribed work.
From the topics suggested in the Course of Study each teacher may arrange a programme by selecting what is most useful to the pupils and what is possible in the school.
Even in schools which have no equipment, much of the theory of Household Management can be taught and some experiments may be performed. On Friday afternoons a regular period may be devoted to this subject, when the ingenious teacher will find ways and means of teaching many useful lessons.
The following will be suggestive as suitable for lessons under such conditions:
1. Any of the lessons prescribed in the Course of Study for Form III, Junior.
2. Measuring.--Table of measures used in cookery, methods of measuring, equivalent measures and weights of standard foods.
3. Cleaning.--Principles, methods, agents.
4. Water.--Uses in the home, appearance under heat, highest temperature, ways of using cooking water.
5. Cooking.--Reasons for cooking, kinds of heat used, common methods of conducting heat to food, comparison of methods of cooking as to time required and effect of heat on food.
NOTE.--An alcohol stove, saucepan, and thermometer are necessary for this lesson.
6. The kitchen fire.--Experiments to show necessities of a fire, construction of a practical cooking stove.
7. Food.--Uses, kinds, common sources.
8. Preservation of food.--Cause of decay, methods of preservation, application of methods to well-known foods.
9. Yeast.--Description, necessary conditions, sources, use.
NOTE.--A few test-tubes and a saucepan are necessary for this lesson.
10. The table.--Laying a table, serving at table, table manners.
11. Care of a bed-room.--Making the bed, ventilating, sweeping, and dusting the room.
12. Sanitation.--Necessity for sanitation, household methods.
13. Laundry work.--Necessary materials, processes.
14. Home-nursing.--The ideal sick-room, care of the patient"s bed, and diet.
CHAPTER III
FORM III: JUNIOR GRADE
The pupils of Form III, Junior, are generally too small to use the tables and stoves provided for the other cla.s.ses and too young to be intrusted with fires, hot water, etc.; but they may be taught the simpler facts of Household Management by the special teacher of the subject, or by the regular teacher in correlation with the other subjects. In either case a special room is not necessary.
If the latter plan be adopted, the following correlations are suggested:
CORRELATIONS
Arithmetic.--1. Bills of household supplies, such as furniture, fuel, meat, groceries, bed and table linen, material for clothing. This will teach the current prices as well as the usual quant.i.ties purchased.
2. Making out the daily, weekly, or monthly supply and cost of any one item of food, being given the number in the family and the amount used by each per day.
_Example_: One loaf costs 6c. and cuts into 18 slices. Find the cost of bread for two days for a family of six, if each person uses 1 1/2 slices at one meal.
3. Making out the total weekly or monthly expenses of a household, given the items of meat, groceries, fuel, gas, etc. This brings up the question of the cost of living.
4. Making out the total cost of a cake, a loaf of bread, a jar of fruit, or a number of sandwiches, given the cost of the main materials and fuel used. Compare the home cost with the cost at a store. This may be used to teach economy.
Geography.--1. The sources of our water supply.
2. The geographical sources of our ordinary household materials, their shipping centres, the routes by which they reach us, and the means of transportation.