To think there must be a cheaper way of teaching Home Ec

[Ceramicpumpkin281]

On today's list:

A clove of garlic
Pinch of paprika
Table spoon of olive oil
1 chicken breast

This is an area where lots of families are struggling, Couldn't the school have store cupboard basics for the class to share that we all pay an annual amount towards. I know people will say these are the types of things families will already have at home but a lot won't!

The food also comes back inedible after kicking around all day so it's not proving a meal for the family either.

Our school provides things like a teaspoon of spice etc or olive oil. I created a WhatsApp group with some other parents so we have occassionally pooled ingredients. Unfortunately I still have a bag of seeds that I had to buy for about 2 tablespoons and will likely not use.
My DS made pesto at school recently and I thought that was pretty expensive - pine nuts are ridiculously expensive!

I helped DS pack up NINE ingredients for cooking this week including two lots of 10g quantities 🙄🙄🙄 I can’t stand it!!

And no, this didn’t factor into my childbearing plans 🤣 parents paid at my school.

I would also have thought it would make more sense to do this tbh

I would sometimes ask my dc to agree with friends to share ingredients. But it is so wasteful.

They ABU for only using a pinch of paprika. Paprika deserves to be used by the tablespoon at least

Yes because when we decided to ttc, I really considered that I'd need some last minute thai curry paste or cream cheese for school

Errrm where does it say it was last minute ?????

I'm in Scotland and we don't buy or pay for anything, the school does.

It works much better for families in schools where they supply the ingredients needed for a fee, but my dc went to a school where we had to send in ingredients. I was lucky that my dc were in classes with others they knew from primary, so it was easy to make arrangements to share. In your position I’d try and get my child to find another child whose Mum is also pissed off at the situation, and see if you can get the kids to help make sharing agreements.

Yes they are worried about getting in trouble in yr7 so won’t listen when you say oh leave x out it’s fine without or take y instead of z it’s same thing and works fine.
I’d have preferred to pay a fee. I know shopping is supposed to be part of skill but it’s usually parent who does it (often only mentioned at 4pm Sunday as the shops are shut)

We don't have to pay anything and they even get in special ingredients to cater for allergies. Normal state school in Scotland.

Misses point entirely 🤦🏼‍♀️

I don't think I do .. by doing it this way you would be hoping that what was sent in within the product expiration date .. it's safer for every child to bring in their own so it can not come back on the school is a certain item is out of date .

Me too.
In fact that was really the deciding factor when I got that pregnancy test with the line...

My first thought was - 'how am I going to manage ingredients for home economics lessons'.

after 49 hours in labour though - I was kind of tired and was grateful for a piece of toast and a takeaway when i got home.

Babes slept for twelve hours.

My mistake though when I conceived. Obviously I should have been thinking ahead.

lol. 😀

My dd’s school has a pantry and they buy for a nominal fee what they need.

Surely you knew these things would come up when deciding to have children

Really? I can't see that being something that would come up in most households when deciding whether or not to start a family.

I left school in 1990 we always had yo bring ingrediants in ,all the girls had a cookery basket 🤣
My sons in year 11 and when he did food tech we had a list of ingrediants to provide its a pita ,i would have preferred to pay termly or whatever.

God yes, I spent £8 last week on one child's lesson, could've fed us all twice over for that. Things I currently have left over in my cupboard from these lessons include yeast, dried coriander, paprika, glacé cherries, demerera sugar, baking powder, hundreds and thousands... Yes I could bake and use them but I don't want cake as we eat e ough sweet crap and I'm the worst at making bread!

FFS op surely you predicted Brexit, Putin invading the Ukraine and the cost of living crisis before you had children. (Plus whatever things have happened in you personal life. )

Tsk tsk, silly you.

So glad this is the last year of Food Tech for DS. No more having to buy things especially for the lesson so he doesn’t get in trouble for not having the right thing. No more trying to find a variety of different sized containers including for 1/2 tsp salt, 1tbsp flour etc..which will also be able to fit into his bag along with PE kit, pack lunch and books. And no more throwing the food away once it is brought home (they are not allowed to eat it at school and it can’t be stored safely during the school day).

So bloody true ,luckily we have a sainsburys a ten minute walk away a remember many last minute dashes around sainsburys early on mondsy mornings for school trying to find random ingrediants .

When I was at school, years ago, we had to bring the ingredients.

I remember one girl saying that nobody liked apple snow, in her family, and she hadn't brought the ingredients. She argued it really well, and the teacher backed down, and gave her ingredients to make something else, and I always admired the girl for this.

I’m just here to say how delighted I am to know that a school somewhere is still teaching home ec.

my SIL was a home ec teacher in Aussie, they had to re-write their courses to reheating pre-made foods, and then re-skill altogether as a teacher to be able to teach something completely different as the education dept was culling home economics/domestic science…

Your kid has to bring in all their own ingredients for Home Ec? That’s ludicrous! I’ve never heard of that before. What do you even put a pinch of salt into for it to be taken to school?? What a total faff!

At the school I work in we ask the children to bring in the main ingredients and we provide herbs, spices, garlic, oil, vinegar, soy sauce etc. We emphasise that we don't want them to buy expensive ingredients. We also talk through ways they can adapt the recipes to make them cheaper and to appeal to their personal tastes.

We would like to be able to buy in bulk and provide all ingredients so everyone can cook (and not just the ones that remember to bring their ingredients in) but unfortunately we just don't have the room to store them or the time to weigh them out.

The finished dishes are kept in the fridge until the end of the day but unfortunately many don't come back for them. I keep them for three days then either throw out or freeze if possible. I currently have 10 chillies and several crumbles in the freezer waiting to be collected and I'm sure I'll be chucking them in the bin in a few months' time!

We are placing a lot of emphasis on using leftovers for meals and stretching food to make it go further.