Courses with a focus in child development teach students the basics needed to understand developmental milestones in a child's life as well as basic care of a child. Students may learn to change diapers or how to heat up a baby's bottle in order to feed. Students may register in courses such as First Aid or CPR in order to gain skills necessary when working in a career field with children, such as teaching. The life skills learned in a child development course can be a benefit to men and women that may one day become parents.
While many schools do not mandate that students participate in a nutrition education course, it can be beneficial to the students to learn about proper nutrition and food handling procedures. Some schools offer extracurricular courses involving nutrition that teach students about the different food groups and how to form healthy eating habits they can continue to maintain throughout life. It is important to introduce children to healthy eating habits at a young age through home economic programs and to encourage them to make healthy food decisions in order to avoid diseases like diabetes and heart disease later in life.
Many school home economic programs continue to offer voluntary courses that instruct students in basic sewing skills. Students work on projects that may vary from learning to sew a button to a shirt to sewing a decorative pillow. In order to complete these projects, the students have to learn patience and maintain their focus on the task at hand, skills that may prove useful later in life. While it is not uncommon to purchase a majority of clothing and textiles directly from a store now days, it can still be a good skill to know how to sew a minor tear or button.