Looking for an at home, home economics / cooking class.?

Question

Free please. Must be Over the internet or through the mail.

Answer 1

Alpha Omega Publications has home economics courses in the Lifepacs and Switched on Schoolhouse. Go to www.aop.com to find them.

Answer 2

Look into Abeka. They have all sorts of books, on line classes as well.  You could always start your own class. Get together with a few others and have your own class. Look for recipes on line and cook your own stuff and allow parents, neighbors  to taste test. Grade it. This would be fun and a way to get what you want.

Good luck!

Answer 3

Hi,

How about joining Cook's Illustrated website? Also, why not watch programs on Home and Garden Show and The Cooking Channel, if you have cable? These programs show you how to cook, bake, sew, do crafts, etc. These programs are very good for ideas, too. Every Saturday in our area (central Ohio) the Public Broadcasting Station (PBS) offers several cooking shows. These range from the Cook's Illustrated people to Lydia's Cucina (an Italian show), to shows about outdoor grilling. A wide variety that will give you all kinds of ideas.

Like the other poster, what about the library? There are cookbooks and sewing books galore at the library. I know you can read and follow directions, which is all you need to know in order to follow cooking directions from a cookbook. The library also offers a wide variety of magazines such as Taste of Home, Cook's Illustrated, Gourmet, Bon Appetite, Cooking Light, and many others. Every library is different, but even many women's magazine's such as Better Homes and Gardens and Women's Circle have recipes in them. Most local newspapers have at least one section in their paper once a week devoted to recipes.

Have you thought to ask your parents to teach you to cook? Or do you have a grandma or other trusted relative or friend who would be willing to show you how? Most people know how to cook and/or sew/crochet/knit and would be willing to show you how to do these things.

I taught myself to cook and bake by watching others cook, then trying it out myself. I have been cooking since I was 7 1/2, and baking since I was 11. I am mainly self-taught. I found a brownie recipe in a cook book, asked my dad if I could make them (I was raised by my dad back in late 60's, early 70's), he allowed me to purchase the ingredients I would need, I made them, and I have been baking and cooking ever since. (These were brownies from scratch, not a box mix). I taught myself to make bread when I was 15. I can make most anything I want if I put my mind to it. So can you.

Jo Ann Fabric's and Michael's Craft stores have sewing classes that they hold every so often. You could sign up for one of these classes. They also sometimes offer classes on knitting, crocheting, and other crafts. Just check out the store nearest to your home.

Anything you want to know you can teach yourself. Your education belongs to you. An education is not something we get in a school or from someone else, it is something we gain by experiencing, watching, and doing. Take charge of your life and your education and begin to grow as a person. You will amaze yourself at how competent you are!

Good Luck!

Answer 4

Why not get a cook book and teach yourself?  I don't know how it could be anymore 'free' than that.  Do you have a library card?  My mom loves to cook and is always getting cookbooks from the library.  Plus, I don't see how you could do a home ec. class over the internet.  It would be like doing a science lab over the internet.  It doesn't really work.  I have been wrong before, but that's how I see it.  

Have your mom/dad teach you how to you how to do minor repairs arond the house, learn to cook dinner for your family, learn to balance a check book/pay bills, do laundry, make a gudget for living expenses, mow the grass, do the grocery shopping for a week's worth of food, anything that might have to do with living in your home.  That's what my family did.

Answer 5

Alpha-Omega has Lifepac, and Switched-on-Schoolhouse Home Ec. courses available.

Oh, I didn't see your free part.  Try contacting your local county extension office.  They have a LOT of 4H materials available, even if you're not a 4H member.  They are free, or very inexpensive, depending on what the material is.

You could also find the AOP Lifepac books on PaperBack swap.  I've recently rec'd about 10 of them for free.

http://www.paperbackswap.com

Many online high school programs have Home Ec courses.  However, the courses cost money.  You could find out what textbooks they use and try and find them at your library, or on PaperbackSwap.  I just rec'd a $120 textbook on PBS last week!

Check with local colleges and universities.  Sometimes they have free courses, or parts of them, online, especially in their "adult learner" programs.

Another idea is to check the MIT open courseware.  I know they have a course for the Science of Cooking.

Ah, yes, I just checked.  They have Kitchen Chemistry

All courses:

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/co...

Kitchen Chemistry course:

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Special-Progra...

The text they use is a HUGE one and a course all to itself:

_On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen._, by McGee, Harold.  New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1997. ISBN: 9780684843285.

The "Joy of Cooking" cookbooks, especially the newest edition, is all you need to know about cooking.  It doesn't have many photos or drawings, but you can always find "how to" stuff online.  If you work your way through it, you'll know a LOT about cooking.

One of our digital PBS stations has a TON of cooking shows on.  Cable TV has even more.

EDITED TO ADD:  There may be a HS'ing co-op in your area that has a cooking class.  Ours has one.

Also, check with your local parks and recreation department.  They may have free, or low cost, classes.

EDITED TO ADD after your detail:

If you just want proof (which you don't need, BTW), then go through the AOP curriculum I suggested.  It's not very expensive.

You do not need to prove anything to a public school.  If you want to take Home Ec., then you can.