At what age did you learn ...

melt71

Sew on a button - I was probably about 12 or 13 and learnt to sew at school
Knit - NEVER, mum tried teaching me but I hated it and gave up after 1 go
Darn - errrr what is that
Crochet - I'm not doing very well here am I?
Cook - I taught myself to cook from about the age of 15/16
Clean - same as above, taught myself
Patchwork - Never tried
Basic budgeting (7yo) - I taught myself how to budget properly when I was about 20 and owned my own house, I had to be careful with every penny.

I would love to have learnt to cook properly. I can do some basic meals and I'm fine if I have a recipe to go off but I wish I was a really good cook that knew how to do it all without a recipe.

HOLsale

Lillibet wrote:

My Mum taught me to cook from when I was old enought to safely stand at the counter on a stool. At 7 years old I could make a lasagne (under supervision) from scratch. My Nan died when I was 5 but not before she taught me how to plant seeds & bulbs & care for them, and how to lick the cake mix out of the bowl!

my grandmother taught me the same thing lillibet

i'm teaching dd how to cook now, she's 4.5 and really wanting to know how things work. i taught kids her age at a preschool back in the states for a few years so i know how enthusiastic they can be about learning in general right now and i'm taking the advantage while i can!

everytime we make something and she likes it i point out how good it is to make your own food and how you can make things the way you want them and not rely on the food companies etc. she's also getting some maths lessons and science lessons thrown in

she has also learned that cooking time is one on one time with mommy so she's always eager to help... she makes me so proud and i'm so happy to be able to help her this way, it's not something my mom did for me, she was never in the room when i cooked (except when i was first learning)

i'm trying to instill a love of cooking and showing her how not to waste things, i'm trying to put the emphasis on how GOOD it is to do things this way vs having her view it as doing it because we are deprived (like my mom did and like many people unfortunately perceive OS living) i think i'm doing a fairly good job, only time will tell!

dd gets £1 pocket money and right now i pretty much let her buy whatever she wants BUT i'm always making suggestions such as 'if you spend all that money now you may miss out on something you like better later this week... are you sure you want to spend it now?' and 'that sweetie is nice but it's 43pence... this one is very similar and nearly the same size and it's only 20pence, you can get 2 of these 20p sweeties and and have some money left over or you can just have the one sweetie for 43p' etc... just to get her to think about things. i let her make her own choices and she has to stand by the consequences of those choices as well. she's learning fast

by the way, she now loves boot sales and has particular charity shops she prefers as she knows she can get the most for her money at these places :T

cheletastic

i learnt to knit when i was 4 , crochet and sew at 5 , started making jewellery at the age of 9, making my sandwiches for school at the age of 5, started cleaning when i was about 6 or 7 (was changing my little sisters nappys at the age of 7!!!) :eek:

just learning to cook now at the age of 33!! (people have tried teaching me before but was never interested) can now do chillis, casseroles, pasta and a few other dishes (always on look out for easy recipes)!!- my sister is now teaching me! (ex boyfriends have always cooked in the past!! :T

have always known the imprtance of budgeting - used to count my coppers every day!!! never had pocket money to budget but had few paper rounds as soon as i was old enough (13 i think). also started receiving family allowance at that age and had to buy everything - school clothes, clothes, toiletries and anything else i needed apart from food and bills so have always been used to being careful with my money. unfortunately went off the rails a bit as i got older but rectifying that now!!! :rolleyes:

Joannaclaire

Sew on a button - not sure-maybe aged 8
Knit - from my gran when I was about 6 (was never any good though)
Darn - in girl guides when learning how to mend a tent, so maybe 12
Crochet - from a friend's mother when I was around 10 or so (was never any good at this either)
Cook - um, maybe when I was 14 for a girl guide badge. I didn't do cooking at school as I chose to do languages instead, so really taught myself properly when I moved out of home at 21
Clean - when I moved out of home at 21
Patchwork - from a friend's mother when i was around 10 or so
Basic budgeting (7yo) - at school and girl guides when planning menus, camp costs for a weekend camp for just my patrol.

I learnt more by watching my mum, rather then being allowed to help her if that makes sense or actually taught and allowed to practise with her, if that makes sense? She never let me cook in 'her' kitchen as I amde too much mess. But she was happy for me to watch and learn that way.

And rather then be taught household skills at home she let us kids play. At school we were encouraged by her not to do the Home Economics as an option (it wasn't compulsory), as there was 'plenty of time to learn that' and she was right!

She was useless at sewing/crafty stuff except for embroidery for some reason - think ti was because she used to be a teacher and she used to ahev to teach it to primary shcool kids. So I can do stem stich, hem, blanket stitch, chain stitch, satin stitch etc etc. I learnt all this when I was about 9/10. I did a dressmaking course as a teenager for a couple of years after school, so can sew clothes etc if I want to, which is really useful.

frugalfairy_3

This is such a great thread!

Like many others I can't quite remember when I learned to do most of the domestic things, I was another Brownie who had to do most of the basics to get my badges (and I became obsessed with having an armful of badges in the end!) so Mum taught me most of the things I needed to know. I never learned how to wallpaper though, since my Dad used to do the decorating round the house and refused any help.

I learned to cook in my early teens when Mum went back to work full time and I was first home from school - I cooked every night for all of us. When I eventually went to secondary school and did a cookery class it was very boring for me - learning how to make scrambled eggs when I'd cooked a two course meal for a family of four the night before!

Sewing I taught myself since I got thrown out of Needlework at school for being disruptive :eek: - after I got married I bought a machine to make curtains for our first house and got the sewing bug. Now I make everything I wear and all the soft furnishings etc.

Never did learn to do cleaning though - Mum was a perfectionist who hated anyone else to help round the house, so I never really learned the basics apart from dusting and hoovering. Thank goodness for OSers who have taught this old timer an awful lot in the past few months, thank you all!!

FF

kar

Sew on a button - Not really sure when I learnt this - I can do it but must have learnt some time in brownies or guides so i'm guessing about 9. I can't do much more than that with a needle and thread though my repertoire is a little limited. You should have heard my Gran laugh when I told her I wanted a sewing kit for xmas - like needles and thread and stuff. I've mainly only used it for buttons though and to sew said brownie and guide badges (i collected them too) onto my 'camp blanket' which i will keep as a keepsake. I'd love a sewing machine though think i might domore sewing if i could afford one of them.

Knit - still can't - gran tried once - but i'm a lefftie and she's not so it got confusing.

Darn - still can't do this either

Crochet - umm ditto to above - suddenly i don't seem very domesticated

Cook - not especially accumplished learnt home economics and school for the basics but learnt most from my fiancee when we got together. Still need cook books even for the basics but am certainly getting more adventurous with what i will try (and since i found the cookbooks in the library)

Clean - that's the thing u do with dusters right?? - no only joking about 11 I think i used to do a bit of cleaning and hoovering and stuff for my mum. Not up on the OS way though. Still learning that.

Patchwork - tried this once - i got bored with cutting out carboard squares so it went no further than that.

Basic budgeting - i'm still trying to learn this one.

I would love to be more domesticate - especially on the sewing knitting front - but learning from books just really doesn't seem to work.

kat

well-medicated

Sew on a button - Failed at primary school - I would guess that this was learned as a matter of necessity (school shirts)
Knit - Failed at primary school - taught myself in early 20s whilst off work long-term ill with nothing to do.

Darn - After marriage - OH wears extremely expensive wool socks

Crochet - Can do circles (school aged 12) - but can't stand even the look of crocheted items

Cook - More necessity here - left home at 19 and started with basics.

Clean - Seven or eight - but didn't get obsessive/compulsive about it until I left home and had a place of my own

Patchwork - never tried

In defence of my failures at primary school, were any of you left-handers either thumped or ignored for 'looking awkward' or doing their work 'backward' (bet you can all tell I was at convent-school)?