Ladies Day: Training my Daughters in Manners and Modesty

Homeschooling to me is more than just ABC's and 123's.  There is so much knowledge that I want to give to my girls.  For some it might seem a bit taboo, teaching my daughters how to cook, clean, mother and such.  Shouldn't they be independent and professional minded?  Nope...not it my house :)  Someday, regardless of whether they marry and have a family, they will need to know how to take care of a household, no matter what  the size. 

 

Twice a year it's shopping time.  Once in the Spring, once again in the fall.  Being the mother of 5 girls, I have to be quite methodical in how we buy and plan our clothes.  There is only so much space in our house and drawers for clothes, and whatever we get for #1 needs to last through #5.  Our budget doesn't allow us to do retail shopping so I hit up my favorite consignment sale for our seasonal clothes. 

 

Since Makayla turned 5 I have been taking her along as I clothes shop to teach her lessons in modesty and budgeting.  Caroline of course now likes to tag along...until she realizes that she's not walking away with a whole new wardrobe. :)  I have turned our outing into an educational experience.  They learn skills in being ladylike, budgeting and thriftiness and modesty.

 

A little while ago we had our biannual outing.  We started off at a "nicer" restaurant (meaning there was no fried food).  We talked specifically as we ate about polite table manners, such has where we put our napkin, how to sit at a table, and proper and polite disposal of food. 

Here are the girls tasting some bread samples with some yummy oils that were put out while we waited in line.

 



My sweet ladies ready for a fun meal!

And of course, so special outing is complete without a special treat, chocolate covered marshmallows, yum!

 

 

 

Now the real work begins!  Consignment shopping!  We arrived a little bit early, so we had some time to snap some shots while we  were in line. 

 



We begin the madness by going down the rows looking at clothes.  Makayla has a chance to look through and find clothes she likes, while I look along side her.  Each outfit must meet my approval before getting into the basket.  I review all clothes based on our family standard of modesty and by price.  Makayla quickly catches on to how much is a good price for an item and what clothing is modest, by the end, she is baulking at all the "improper clothes" and putting anything that is $6 or more back on the rack with out any prompting from me. 

 



 

 

Once we fill our basket, or Makayla gets tired of looking, we go to an open area and start sorting our clothes.  I sort by shirts, pants, pjs and dresses.

 



Once I sort by type of clothes, then I sort by price, placing the least expensive items on top.  We go through each item, choosing the cheapest first.  Once we have met our max number (8 shirts, 8 pants, 4 pjs and 4 dresses), everything else goes back on the shelf... promptly.  That way we are only spending money on the least expensive items and any of the more costly items are put back.  We don't look twice! 

 



This process happens with each article of clothing, here are the pants sorted by price. As we go through each item, I also talk about what makes them modest and inspect for stains. 

 



 

 

All the selected pants go in the basket!

 



Here is each dress sorted by price, Makayla is allowed to pick her favorites, starting at the lowest price.

 



In the end, our basket is full of our final choices. When budgeting is tighter, there may be some shuffling based on how much money there is to spend.  I total up our purchases before we get to the register.  If I have gone over the budget, it's back to the shelves to find some cheaper items. 

 



 

This year we are starting the "one week of clothes" rule. All the girls will only have a weeks worth of clothes in their drawers, with one extra outfit just in case craziness happens.  This is an idea that I stole from another mother with many children.  This will limit the clothing chaos that happens in our drawers and closets!

 

It's a thorough process, but it does only happen twice a year.  We do no other clothes shopping (other than replacing socks and panties) throughout the year. 

 

Once the clothes are home we give daddy a show of our purchases and then put them away to be detagged and washed.  Then we prepare for the "changing of the seasons" when we switch out everyone's clothes from one season to another...which is another post in itself!