Little House on the Prairie resources?

[Fillyjonk]

My kids are obsessed with Little House on the Prairie.

We have the obvious stuff-the craft book, the cookery book, the maps, and the guide to the sites.

They want more. I think anything about American midwest history from that period, really. I'd really like to broaden things out a bit-in particular, I'd like a bit more context and especially a bit of balance re treatment of Native Americans.

Also anything about daily life and so forth. I've read, I think, most of the book for adults about LHOTP, but I'd like something with more info for kids.

I've looked at a few unit studies/curriculum (we are quite autonomous/unschooly, but my kids tend to go for stuff like this), and they mainly seem either VERY Christian (we are not) or just a bit irrelevant or maybe too young-identifying parts of vegetables, for example.

We are British, so American history, texts etc are not something we have ready access to.

This is a bit of a ramble, but all thoughts appreciated!

[Aeress]

There are a bunch of threads on mothering.
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...ouse+resources

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...ouse+resources

We ordered the Little House cookbook, activity book and the paper dolls and used them along with the above resources. Lots of good info. Have fun!

[Marimami]

If you want to introduce issues regarding Native Americans, here is some information:

http://www.oyate.org/index.php?optio...catid=35:avoid

Holli

[MamaFranklin]

How about planting a few trees for their own wood lot?
Have you tried quilting?
Playing the Violin?
Braile?
Grinding Wheat for flour?
building their own log cabin out of sticks?

We don't have the cook book or the craft book... So maybe what I said is just redundant.

~Jenn

[Lillian J]

Fillyjonk, what state do you live in? There are some very impressive sites you can visit in several states. For instance, the Wilder home in upper NY state is virtually the same as when they lived there - you can walk around inside and see the rooms where so much of Farmer Boy took place, and there's a living history day in the summer when the docents dress in costumes, etc. De Smet, South Dakota, hasn't changed all that much, either, since the family lived there, and you can go inside the Surveyor's shack and the general store - lots to see in that town - and there's a festival in the summertime. And in Mansfield, Missouri, you can go inside the home Laura and Almanzo built on their Rocky Ridge Farm - there's a nice little museum there with a lot of the Ingalls family's correspondence, among lots of other interesting things, including "Pa's fiddle." Here's a link to the homesite pages.

If you google "little house on the prairie sites," you'll find lots of websites with interesting material. And check out this fascinating biography of Rose Wilder Lane, Laura's daughter! She wrote a fascinating book called "On the Way Home: The Diary of a Trip from South Dakota to Mansfield, Missouri, in 1894," which I used to have an audio recording of. It tells the story from her perspective as a little girl traveling with her parents. If you can find the audio version, I think you'd especially enjoy it.

About the treatment of Native Americans, it's always been my feeling, as it was my son's when I read him the books, that the books aren't supporting the bigotry of Laura's mother at all, but actually showcasing it for what it was - an ugly attitude of the day, just as real as the nicer sides of life in that culture. I can certainly understand, though, why you'd be wanting to find a whole different perspective on the lives of the Native Americans of that time, because that's a whole other fascinating world in itself.
- Lillian

[Savoir Faire]

My daughter loves "Laura" too, but we haven't done much yet. I just wanted to add that I found a copy of a Little House movie for sale at a video store that was going out of business. (It appears we got a good deal-- I got ours for $9.)

[Fillyjonk]

Thank you so much all

Am not in the US at all-I am in Britain. Though I suspect at some point we are going to have to get the airfare together for a trip to the Midwest...

Thanks for the link Holli, very interesting. Have really struggled to find information specifically on the Osage in book form (dp found a little on a trip to New York, but that is about it) but what I didn't think to do was to google, duh! I think the whole issue of whether we introduce these texts, with what is, IMO, appalling racism coming from a sympathetic character, is VERY hard. Our approach has been to introduce the texts partly in order to have the discussion, and my kids certainly do not think that Ma is in the right here.

Given that there are about 100 prequels and sequels to the LH books I am kind of surprised that there is nothing from the POV of, say, the Osage. have ordered the birchbark house though.

Some good activities suggested too. The violin is covered-we all play the violin! Braille is a good idea though. quilting...hmm!

eta: ok have scoured internet for audio of on the way home. nowt. however-another question-are the sequels/preqels any good? we've actually read all the books now ex the first 4 years (I'd have held back with the later ones, tbh, but my kids broke into the boxset)

[completebeginnings]

If you need more reading Little Britches by Moody is from a boys perspective and more about ranching than farming but definitely up the same line.

[Pepper44]

My DD is only 3.5 but she loves Little House! We're reading the books a little at a time together.

We watched all of the TV shows during my miserable miscarriage and this current pregnancy, and that really got her interest. A few of the shows were over her head--the one where the blind school burns down was way too traumatic--but for the most part she enjoyed them.

We have 1800's bonnets and DD loves for us to wear them. We talk a lot about their life compared to ours. One thing DD loves to do is turn out the lights and pretend we don't have electricity! They sell some cool stuff on this site, like lanterns...
http://www.lehmans.com/

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by Fillyjonk

eta: ok have scoured internet for audio of on the way home. nowt. however-another question-are the sequels/preqels any good? we've actually read all the books now ex the first 4 years (I'd have held back with the later ones, tbh, but my kids broke into the boxset)

I don't particularly care for some I've seen - they can get pretty cutesy, whereas the originals are rich with details as remembered by someone who really lived in those times. That reminds me - I forgot about something I think is pretty important! The books have changed since the originals that many of us read. Here's something on that from FUN-Books - you can still find the originals:

"The publisher of the Little House on the Prairie series has decided to repackage the paperback editions in order to keep them "relevant to a new generation."..."Unfortunately, the other Little House books that tell the stories of Laura's family (Martha, Charlotte, Caroline and Rose) are also being changed. They will be abridged and, in some cases, more than 100 pages have been cut from the original edition..." FUN-Books carries some good books to supplement the series with.

In regard to appalling racism coming from a sympathetic character, the strange thing is that racism often does come in just such a form - so I think it's actually a potential positive to be able to see that and be aware that it isn't necessarily something that otherwise kind people don't also carry. It's a shock, to be sure, and hard to understand - but a good bit of reality. I was even more surprised to discover that Laura's mother actually lived with a Native American tribe in, I believe, the NY State area (or lower Canada) when she was little! I don't recall the reason why that came about, but I found it so odd that the experience hadn't broadened her mind. - Lillian

[PenelopeJune]

The only of the sequels I liked were the Rose years.

I'm the HUGEST Little House fan ever, so I'm so glad that more kids are loving it, too! I've been to the Mansfield homesite twice, the Independence site many, many times, the De Smet sites, and the Walnut Grove sites. (De Smet is by far my favorite, although I cannot even express how I felt sitting with my feet in Plum Creek next to the dugout site. Amazing. I was 18.)

When I was a fourth grader, I wrote letters to all the home sites and they sent me back packets of information, including postcards and bookmarks and such. Maybe that would be an idea for your kids? I still have all the info I got.

The first LH movie (from the 70s tv show) is very, very good, and close to the book. I love the rest of the series, but it's nothing like the books. (The first few episodes have some similarities, though.)

If it were me, we'd study the clothes, learn to make butter, wash laundry by hand, learn about horses and wagons, wagon trains, Native Americans, the history of the states Laura lived in, and some of Laura's more interesting family history.

[PJsmomma]

I've found lots of great info here on this site

http://beyondlittlehouse.com/