Lessons from "Little House in the Big Woods" (day 1)

Today the girls and I sat down and read a chapter from "Little House in the Big Woods".  I have always intended to read through as many of the books in the Little House series as possible with the girls, but time and other commitments have kept me from it.  At Gracie's urgings, we finally sat down today and began to read.  We had actually started this book some time over the summer so instead of starting at the beginning, we simply picked up where we left off.

First we read about Laura and Mary helping Ma with the chores through the week.  Each day Ma would have a different chore she would focus on.  We reviewed the days of the week and talked about routines in our house.  The book described in great detail how Ma would churn the butter and how she used carrot in the winter to make the butter yellow so it would look pretty.  The girls were fascinated that you could make butter by yourself so we decided to try it.  I poured some heavy cream into a mason jar and screwed the lid on tight.  We took turns shaking it until it became so thick it wouldn't shake anymore.  Then we took off the lid and sampled our creation.  We all agreed that as yummy as our butter was, it was a lot of work and we are thankful we can go buy ours at the store!

After chores, Ma would sometimes cut out paper dolls and bits of colored paper.  Then Mary and Laura would sit together and dress the dolls and pretend.  So I found a set of paper dolls online, printed them out (complete with several outfits and hairdos) and we started coloring them and cutting them out.  Now they each have a paper doll and lots of clothes to dress it with, just like Mary and Laura.

At the end of the chapter, Pa told the girls a story about Grandpa and the panther.  We talked a little bit about panthers and that was the end of our lesson (and their attention spans).  We are all looking forward to reading together again tomorrow!