As previously mentioned on this blog, I have a hobby which involves studying for and sitting A-Level exams. This is partly to continue in lifelong learning and partly to stop my brain from stagnating.
Don't get me wrong, my job is far from boring, but eventually I tend to fall into a bit of a rut and feel the need to stretch my mind a bit.
So far, I have accumulated A-Levels in Pure Maths and Physics (when I was a 'normal' student) and Applied Maths and English (as part of this hobby).
While preparing for the Applied Maths earlier this year, Mike said in jest, "Do you think that next time, you could do Home Economics?".
Well, I went and looked up the Home Economics A-Level syllabus, and it actually looks quite interesting, so I have decided to go for it.
I informed my mother of my intentions this evening, and she was very proud. However, like Michael, she was very suprised to find out that I can actually do the whole thing and get away with not cooking anything (I suspect Michael was much more disappointed than she was, he had visions of lovely meals being cooked for him).
So far, Michael is the designated cook in this family. I occasionally make scrambled eggs, and whip up the occasional Betty Crocker dessert, but that's about it.
At my mother's encouragement though, I think I will try to do some cooking, at least until I get the A-Level, lol. At least one of the textbooks apparently has recipes in it, so I shall see how I shall get on.
The syllabus is divided into three parts. The first part is about family members and their needs, and running a household, while the second part is about food and nutrition. Each of these parts is a third of the total grade and is assessed by written exam in May. The third part of the syllabus involves two pieces of coursework, where the candidate picks a suitable topic and basically goes to town on it, doing research/interviews/surveys/design a product, whatever whatever. This part is assessed based on reports written and submitted by the candidate.
The family part is going to be the most out of my field, I think, because I've never studied any sociology at all. There's a textbook about child development, and all I know about that is that they get taller and use bigger words as they get older.
I'm not worried much about the food and nutrition part because I already studied food and digestion as part of Biology O-Level, so I'm not entirely clueless. Plus, I love science!
And I'm actually quite excited about the coursework because there's so much freedom to do what you like. I've already drafted proposals for both of them, but I'm lacking a tutor. It's compulsory to have someone to sign for your coursework if you're a private candidate like I am (i.e. not studying at school) so I'm trying to find one. I have a friend taking H.E. at a school and she's going to ask her teacher to be my tutor... hope she says yes.
Anyway, I think this whole thing will be interesting, simply because I've never done anything in this field before.
In the meantime, here's some cookies I baked just now (but I must confess that it was a Betty Crocker mix, how I love that woman).

P.S. I am such a bad cook that once I forgot to put in one of the three ingredients you have to add to a Betty Crocker mix, and the result was inedible. So please keep Michael in your thoughts over the next few months as I start to cook for him...