April 2, 2013

Little Chef …

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Hannie B just finished up a huge project for her Family & Consumer Sciences {formerly “Home Economics”} class. The project required ten hours of effort on her part to research, plan for, prepare and serve an entire meal to her family.

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She had to go to the store and pick out all the groceries after reviewing her recipes. She had to prepare the recipes with only my supervision, but not my help. She had to set the table, clear the table and do all the dishes and clean up after the meal.

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She had to create a menu listing all the dishes included in the dinner, describing them in an appealing way to those who would be eating it {like a restaurant menue}. She had to go to MyPlate.gov and document which food groups each of her ingredients and dishes fell into. She had to keep a time log of everything she did and how long it took. And then she had to write a 350 word essay about her experience.

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I was lucky because part of the assignment was to document the project through pictures. Watching her do this project through the lens of my camera was a wonderful experience. I could see in her the many ways she is growing and learning. She felt happy as she accomplished each step. She was proud of what she was creating.

Her dinner turned out delicious! Our entire family were the very happy beneficiaries. We all oohed and ahhed over every dish. But the kids were most excited at the end when she surprised them with chocolate pudding and cut up bananas.

{In case you’re wondering, she chose to make HER favorite meal – Red Pepper Sausage Pasta, ‘Homemade’ Breadsticks, Spinach Salad with Strawberries and Blueberries and Lemonade. I’d better watch out or Hannie B. may put me out of a job!

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6 comments:

Bells said...

What a wonderful project and good learning experience, way to go Hannie B! I have a 13 yr old that would like to try out that pasta dish, any chance Hannie would share the recipe?

Ronalin said...

Good job Hannah! Like mother like daughter! You will be a great cook just like your mom.

Sue said...

Ooh, someone else cooking AND cleaning up after the meal? That Home-Ec teacher is a genius! Send her some flowers!

Nicely done, Hannah! Looks yummer!

The Queen Vee said...

Hopefully Hannie B will appreciate your dinner making efforts more. Looks to my like she earned an A+ on this project and you and the family benefited the most.

Well done Hannie B, well done. You can cook for me anytime.

Apis Melliflora said...

I think that was one fantastic assignment! We don't have anything like that here in our schools. Did Big C have to do the same thing in that grade?

Aiketa said...

What a great project! Such a great idea for the kids to learn and value the work of preparing meals for the family.
As Apis asked, did Big C. had to do it too?

I think this doesn't exist here (I may be so wrong..) and it didn't when I was at school. It existed some kind of extracurricular activity in my school that the taught us how to cook, to sew... and do some home stuff. We were only girls in there, but I enjoyed it.

Hannie B.'s meal looks delicious!