LHOP: Little Town on The Prairie, intro

Yes, I know.  I left everyone hanging with The Long Winter. We trekked off the course I had planned and totally disappeared from Little House on The Prairie reading. Somehow a sudden and deep interest in Medieval Times, King Arthur, Knights, and more entered in and we went with the flow.

I suppose I need to have some sort of heads-up, a disclaimer notice of some kind, alerting friends who visit and maybe don't know us that we are a wide and varied eclectic sort here.

I love structure. I believe structured days, expectations of routine and so on, really hold our schooling (and homesteading) together here. I do. I know for some of you that is near impossible to believe given my seeming flighty nature and all, but really, structure and routine is a big thing around here.

But I also know that when the interest level hits a peak, we need to run with it. A quick movie on Arthur and bingo...Laura and her family were left to fend for themselves on the Prairie and we ran off to search out castle and slay dragons. And we had a blast. But, Laura deserves our attention again, and as we have an interest in the Civil War getting started around here as well, what perfect time to collect Laura and visit Little Town on The Prairie.

Events and projects for Little Town include a family Spelling Bee, a History Bee and more.  The Primer suggests a Presidential Timeline, and study of key facts from the writing of the Constitution thru to 1882...covering our interest of the Civil War and the trails we will be taking here. a Presidential Study to work along with runs from George Washington to Chester Arthur taking over as President for James Garfield. There is a great 50 page Presidents of The United States to download found here.  For your own narration and memory work, take the chosen Presidents above and write out their dates of office, facts or famous quotes and accomplishments. any special notes you can find about them. Study 2-3 each week and try to memorize your card of facts for each.

Biographies we will read throughout the Little Town work will include many Civil War titles and biographies. We are using book lists from a few sources, as well as some unit study and lapbook components. Here are some of the resources I have gathered from online friends and blogs we will browse through as we go along:
Our Homeschooling Expedition blog has a great Civil War unit study with booklist
USA People Search has some great links for all sorts of Civil War information
Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids
Guest Hollow American History 2
Civil War.org has some good lesson plans for our unit
Small Planet's Civil War unit
The American Civil War Homepage
History.com's Underground Railroad pages
Scholastic Teacher Comparing North and South in the Civil War World
Abraham Lincoln Facts
History Place The Civil War
Pathways to Freedom, Symbols of the Underground Railroad
Timeline of the Civil War


The key memory selection for Little Town is Romans 12. And as always, our Primer and the great links at We Love The Prairie Primer blog are being utilized.