Preparing Your Hope Chest

Preparing Your Hope Chest isn't exactly what it sounds like--that is, if you think hope chests are just cedar trunks to put kitchenware and linens in to save till marriage. A wooden trunk of some kind is involved, but traditionally hope chests were used to hold evidence of and tools related to skills a young lady would need when she became a wife and mother.

This is the kind of hope chest the authors of this book want to help daughters create, leading them through a variety of highly practical activities that range from baking and cooking to sewing clothes. A follow-up volume to Personal Help for Girls, which focused on virtue and character, this is a one-semester home economics curriculum with twelve weekly lessons that include text to read and projects to complete.

The authors address girls directly, explaining the need for godly women to be trained in the arts of homemaking as none of these magically appear after marriage. Some of the activities will require adult supervision if you're having young daughters work through this text; high schoolers should be able to finish them on their own. Of course, since the authors also stress the importance of having godly women to look up to, it wouldn't be a bad idea for mothers to accompany daughters of all ages through completion of each chapter.

Many mothers are already teaching their daughters the things taught here without the aid of a book. While there is good practical information, it's all pretty basic--how to remove stains, recipes for things like bread and fried chicken, how to knit and cross-stitch. Perhaps the most useful pages are those in the very back which contain lists of more in-depth treatments of individual skills, and include books and websites.

This works best as an introduction, especially if you (mothers) don't have some of the skills covered in these pages but want to pass them to your daughters. In that case, you could work through some of the projects together. While there is reference to character-building, Preparing Your Hope Chest is primarily practical. For what we feel is a more thorough and balanced introduction to the duties of a wife and mother, check out Edith Schaeffer's The Hidden Art of Homemaking.