LHOP: Big Woods Week 3 and 4 Notes

This is our final week of reading Big Woods, chapters 10-13, although we can easily stretch out our time and spend some fun researching the California Gold Rush, and following the great Gold Rush links shared by We Love The Prairie Primer. Or complete the memory section, Psalm 91. How about a crafting week...did you start any special projects to go along with our Little House reading, like a stitched sampler or a lap quilt, maybe your own popsicle or stick built little log cabin or full town set?

Some Bible verses this week include:
Proverbs 22:15, 13:24, 29:15
Hebrews 12:5-11
Proverbs 24:13, 25:16, 25:27
I Peter 3:2
Titus 2:4-5
Proverbs 20:11
Proverbs 10:15, 10:23, 15:21, 26:18-19
Proverbs 17:12...try making your own warning poster about this verse!
Proverbs 17:25, 19:13
Proverbs 9:10-11, 16:6, 10:27, 14:27, 8:13...discuss what the fear of the Lord is :-)


Links for this week:
As always, follow along with We Love The Prairie Primer blog, and here are some links I've shared


Laura has seen and heard quite a few adventures in this first story, hasn't she? All the 'family stories' about life in the Big Woods, the day to day life of family visits, dances, trips to town and more, the loving times of a close-knit family...Laura and her family have provided a wonderful view for us reading her adventures.

Do you have any favorite tales from within the pagesof The Big Woods? Any favorite quotes that sparked your reading time into visions of her quiet but exciting life?  We sure did.  With the local bear sightings, my children were fixed on the bear tales and life in the Big Woods. Despite the heat wave that we've been under these past weeks, they have had many adventures of their own in our woods. I love living in the country and being so rural. It's the best place for my children to thrive and grow their imaginations and play!

Thankfully, books can open these kinds of adventures for anyone who reads them! City or country, adventures are just waiting to be had!

Some passages we enjoyed:
....The Little House was fairly bursting with good food stored away for the long winter. The pantry and the shed and the cellar were full, and so was the attic. Laura and Mary must play in the house now, for it was cold outdoors and the brown leaves were all falling from the trees. The fire in the cookstove never went out. At night Pa banked it with ashes to keep the coals alive till morning.
The attic was a lovely place to play. The large, round, colored pumpkins made beautiful chairs and tables. The red peppers and the onions dangled overhead. The hams and the venison hung in their paper wrappings, and all the bunches of dried herbs, the spicy herbs for cooking and the bitter herbs for medicine, gave the place a dusty-spicy smell. (pg 19-20)

....Ma began the work that belonged to that day. each day had its own proper work. Ma used to say: Wash on Monday, Iron on Tuesday, Mend on Wednesday, Churn on Thursday, Clean on Friday, Bake on Saturday, Rest on Sunday. (pg 29)

....Christmas was coming. The little log house was almost buried in snow. Great drifts were banked against the walls and windows, and in the morning when Pa opened the door, there was a wall of snow as high as Laura's head. Pa took the shovel and shoveled it away, and then he shoveled a path to the barn, where the horses and the cows were snug and warm in their stalls.
The days were clear and bright. laura and Mary stood on charis by the window and looked out across the glittering snow at the glittering trees. Snow was piled all along their bare, dark branches, and it sparkled in the sunshine. Icicles hung from the eaves of the house to the snow-banks, great icicles as large at the top as Laura's arm. They were like glass and full of sharp lights. (pg 59-60)

....As soon as the days were warm, Laura and Mary begged to be allowed to run barefoot. At first they might only run around the woodpile and back, in their bare feet. Next day they could run farther, and soon their shoes were oiled and put away and they ran barefoot all day long.
Every night they washed their feet before they went to bed. Under the hems of their skirts their ankles and their feet were as brown as their faces.
They had playhouses under two big oak trees in front of the house. Mary's playhouse was under Mary's tree, and Laura's playhouse was under Laura's tree. The soft grass made a green carpet for them. The leaves were the roofs, and through them could see bits of blue sky.
Pay made a swing of tough bark and hung it to a llarge, low branch of Laura's tree. It was Laura's swing because it was in her tree, but she had to be unselfish and let Mary swing in it whever she wanted to.  (pg 156-157)

...The store was full of things to look at. All along one side of it were shelves full of colored prints and calicos. There were beautiful pinks and blues and reds and browns and purples. On the floor along side the plank counters there were kegs of nails, and kegs of round, gray shot, and there were big wooden pails full of candy. There were sacks of salt, and sacks of store sugar.
In the middle of the store was a plow made of shiny wood, with a glittering bright plowshare, and there were steel ax heads, and hammer heads, and sawsn and all kinds of knives -- hunting knives, and skinning knives and butcher knives and jack knives. There were big boots and little boots, big shoes and little shoes.
laura could have looked for weeks and not seen all the things that were in that store. She had not known there were so many things in the world. (pg 167-168)

There were just too many favorite passages to share them all, but these are some of our most favorites. 

LHOP: Big Woods Week 2 intro

How was your first week sharing in the adventures of Mary, Laura, Ma and Pa and little Carrie?  We had a blast.  My children love the adventurous tales Pa shares.  It didn't hurt that we actually had black bear sightings only about 3-4 miles from our homestead, either! They aren't terrible common around here, but they aren't that rare, either.  Seems during June and July, the young males between 2 and 3 years old, leave their mothers and head off to stake their own territory.  Most often found in the Delta area of our state, they can be seen farther north here, as well as throughout Alabama as well. Of course that meant we had to pay close attention to things here.....like making rounds to check the animals in the barn, you know, just in case of bear attack!

Now we head into Week 2, reading chapters 5-9 this week.  We'll learn about how Laura's family spent their sabbath time, we'll read of the great adventure Grandpa's pig took (LOL), Ma and the bear, and Pa's "bear".  We'll work on learning some church hymns for our own Sunday time, including Rock of Ages, as Pa sang for the family. We'll also get to learn about the sugar snow....maple syrup time.

I've linked the Week 2 pages in the tab along with this post.  I'd love to hear if anyone sharing in the reading here has made their own maple syrup.  We have friends in Tennessee who do try each year, though it's a bit more difficult down here as opposed to the wintry north country Laura and her family are from!

Enjoy Week 2, and if you are working on any crafts along the way, or have plans for some local field trips that tie in with the story,or activities you're doing, please share them with us!

Here is the link to We Love The Prairie Primer blog's Week 2 lessons....enjoy!

added note: Here is another blog with a few goodies on Little House and Laura herself...

Westward Ho Everyone!

This week begins Little House in the Big Woods.  Each day we'll read one chapter, ending with chapter 4 on Friday.  Be sure to check out We Love The Prairie Primer blog for some great links and YouTube resources for each chapter as we go along! Don't have the books? Check out some sources here and here, including other titles of interest with Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Vocabulary lists can be made as you read, or you can use these great lists over at Garden of Praise.
There is also a great lapbook for Big Woods here at HomeschoolShare and another great one at Lapbook Lessons. Be sure to check out EasyFunSchool's Little House pages for ideas for crafts and more, as well as puzzles and games connected with the various books. A page of Laura Ingalls Prairie Books resources are here, with some crafts, some musid and more.

Pa spends time whittling...a great way to make this story a little more "boy friendly" might be learning to whittle, or easier yet: soap carving!  Ivory Soap Carving. There is a great book for kids on soap carving, Soap Carving for Children of All Ages.

There are plenty of resources for crafting corn cob dolls...but if a corn cob isn't available, try easy corn husk dolls instead! Most large grocery stores or specialty food stores carry bulk corn husks in the section with Mexican foods. Native American Corn Husk Dolls...NativeTech...and a great YouTube source.

Some other things to discuss this week....food preservation such as smoking foods,drying foods and root cellaring, gun safety and hunting regulations for your state, God's Umbrella of Protection in the home and His Order of Authority, etc.  There will be plenty of ideas coming to life as you read through this week's chapters and find areas of interest with your children!

LHOP: Big Woods, Week 4

The Gold Rush tops this week’s study. See our resources in the first unit as well.

A Gold Rush Poem from History-for-kids
PBS GO! WayBack Files: The Gold Rush
Huntington Education interactive story page on the Gold Rush
American History Kids Page and here for teachers
The History of The Gold Rush
California Gold Rush for Kids….and scroll down to the bottom for additional related articles
History.com The Gold Rush
study the refining and processing of gold and its uses
study mining techniques
Have a Gold Rush Day: layout a ‘claim’ with your Bible memory verses written on yellow paper and crumpled up (gold nuggets), eat yellow foods (cornbread, jell-o, pears, bananas, yellow squash, honey, lemonade, etc)…

some fun movies and documentaries:
The Gold Rush…maybe not historical correct, but Charlie Chaplin is a classic!
American Experience: The Gold Rush
The History Channel’s documentary on Gold

Little House: Big Woods, Week 3

Nutrition Data on all types of chesses
Honey vs Sugar at Honey Health


Enchanted Learning: The Moon
Google Moon
Space.com's Moon pages
The Moon at NASA


Yellow Jackets information
Yellow Jacket Wasps
anatomy of a wasp drawing
anatomy of bees and wasps


Purdue University: Oats
Oats
History of Oats
Guide to Growing Oats


Straw Hat Making
Family Crafts pages: Making Hats How-To's lots of links
Cousin Ed's Paper Hat


Sumac from The Handmaiden's Kitchen blog...you will learn alot visiting her often! She is learning and sharing a great deal about foraging from the wild and using herbs for medicinal purposes.

Sumac Lemonade from Mother Earth News
Sumac Identification
Sumac Identification at REWILD
Medicinal Herb Info: Sumac



Nevada County GOLD California Gold Rush
Eyewitness to History: The Gold Rush
California Gold Rush Timeline
Gold Rush pages at About.com
PBS Go! Gold Rush pages
The Gold Rush and Native Americans
A Book in Time listing of 1850's American History reading
EasyFunSchool: Gold Rush pages- there are tons of great links to be found here!
Fun Facts of The Gold Rush
Teachers Guide to The Gold Rush 
GoldRush.com's pages on Finding The Elephant 

About Salt 

Little House: Big Woods, Week 2

We will not be getting  into a long study on the Sunday vs Sabbath debate that pulls Christians into dividing camps, but we will look at a few articles in general to get a very basic overview of these two days...please use or ignore this portion of our notes after prayerful discussion with your husband.  I am not promoting either one as that is fully between you, your husband, and God.

Yahweh's Set Apart Days
Reasoning from The Scriptures Ministry
Christian Answers: The Sabbath
Sunday Law Net

Dictionary Skills at eMints contains several links, including this PDF on using a dictionary
The Best Source of Words
How to Use The Dictionary interactive

Maple Syrup PDF file  great information
A good, informative article with lots of links and YouTube clips on maple tapping and syrup making
CTMaple tutorial 
an Illinois home syrup maker
How to Make Maple Syrup tutorial
Maple Tapping tutorial
Minnesota Maple Series: tree identification
Tap My Trees:  Backyard Maple Tapping

Making Hasty Pudding and a history


Video Square Dance Lessons online from Saddlebrook Squares
Open Squares: Basic Figurin' online clips
History of Square Dancing article
Q&A History of Square Dancing

Online Knitting Tutorial
RocketMoms Learning to Knit  links several YouTube clips

Wax Rose Tutorial

Your Skin...from KidsHealth
FactMonster: Your Body Systems
Heath HowStuffWorks: The Skin Channel

Nutrition Data on all types of chesses
Honey vs Sugar at Honey Health

Enchanted Learning: The Moon
Google Moon
Space.com's Moon pages
The Moon at NASA

Yellow Jackets information
Yellow Jacket Wasps
anatomy of a wasp drawing
anatomy of bees and wasps

Purdue University: Oats
Oats
History of Oats
Guide to Growing Oats

Straw Hat Making
Family Crafts pages: Making Hats How-To's lots of links
Cousin Ed's Paper Hat

Sumac from The Handmaiden's Kitchen blog...you will learn alot visiting her often! She is learning and sharing a great deal about foraging from the wild and using herbs for medicinal purposes.
Sumac Lemonade from Mother Earth News
Sumac Identification
Sumac Identification at REWILD
Medicinal Herb Info: Sumac


Nevada County GOLD California Gold Rush
Eyewitness to History: The Gold Rush
California Gold Rush Timeline
Gold Rush pages at About.com
PBS Go! Gold Rush pages
The Gold Rush and Native Americans
A Book in Time listing of 1850's American History reading
EasyFunSchool: Gold Rush pages- there are tons of great links to be found here!
Fun Facts of The Gold Rush
Teachers Guide to The Gold Rush 
GoldRush.com's pages on Finding The Elephant 

About Salt

Little House: Big Woods, Word Studies

We'll be going through several mini word studies as we work through these books, using the short lists within the Primer itself, as well as any words that the youngers might have trouble understanding or remembering.  We have the 1828 Webster's Dictionary here and use it as our main schooling resource and between that, and our Concordance, we'll have our word studies covered I'm sure.

Here is an online version of Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary for you to use.

Also, there are several online Concordances you can use if you don't have one available at home.  We have an older Strong's on our book shelves, as well as using the e-Sword program on our computers.  There are several wonderful resources for free download at e-Sword, including a great many Bible versions.
Blue Letter Bible
Bible Gateway
Online Bible Net


We plan to out together some spelling and general vocab lists as we go along, using the books themselves, as well as the added studies (such as grizzlies, firearm safety, Louis Pasteur, etc.) and we'll be utilizing our Bibles quite a bit, working on the various character traits of Laura and her family, as well as for the suggested Bible memory -- in this particular book, the Primer suggests Psalm 91, regarding the all encompassing peace and comfort in The Lord:

A great truth laid down in general, That all those who live a life of communion with God are constantly safe under his protection, and may therefore preserve a holy serenity and security of mind at all times.  Matthew Henry Commentary

Some Vocabulary:
trundle bed, leather,venison, lard, metaphor, ravine, gaiters, toxins, meditate, homograph, hearth, callouses, galluses, cholesterol,

Character Issues:  
manners in general, interrupting others (Philippians 2:3-5, Proverbs 18:13),
God's authority umbrella (Ephesians 6:1-3, Proverbs 6-20:21, Proverbs 15:5)
jealousy (Proverbs 14:30, 27:4, 1 Corinthians12:26)
mercy (James 2:13)
fear (Psalm 64:1, 53:5, 73:19, 8:13 Luke 21:26, Ezra 4:4, Proverbs 9-10-11, 16:6, 10:27, 14:27 )
foolishness/fools (Proverbs 22:15, 18:6-7, 26:4, 20:3, 17:21, 17:25, 19:13)
comparing ourselves with others (2 Corinthians 10:12, Isaiah 45:9, Romans 8:19-20, Ephesians 4:29, Job 40, Matthew 19:19)
man's greatness compared to God's (Isaiah 40:6-31)
punishment (Proverbs 22:15, 13:24, 29:15, Hebrews 12:5-11, Hebrews 12:5-11)
Godly attitudes (1 Peter 3:2, Titus 2:4-5)
known by your deeds Proverbs 20:11
shame (Proverbs 10:5)
company of fools (Proverbs 17:12)

We will discuss the various methods we personally use for food preservation, or putting food by, here:  dehydration, canning, freezing, etc. 
As well as the varied uses surrounding our fresh goat's milk, and comparing it to fresh cow's milk, and store-bought commercial milk (homogenized), cheeses, cream, butter making, and so forth. 
We will also look at the varieties of honey available in our area at the store as well as private sources and compare them to other sweeteners.
A good study on herbs and their many uses, both culinary and more importantly, medicinally.

Little House: Big Woods, Week 1

You already know where my favorite resources are for activities using Little House on The Prairie and The Prairie Primer are...
Here are some goodies I'm adding in for our walk through...you might check back later as I will add more if I come across other trinkets worth keeping!

HomeschoolShare pages for Little House in The Big Woods

National Geographic:  Grizzlies article 
Sheppard Software Online: Bears  be sure to check out their many other pages while there!

Animal tracks:  Beartracker's Animal Den
scroll down the page to find plenty of subpages, including making a plaster cast, scat tracks, learn to be a tracker, etc.
Funschool Kaboose:  Animal Track game online
Animal Tracks:  Field Journal

Prisms: Separating light with a prism PDF file
Light-Science site
some YouTube videos on Light and Prisms

How Stuff Works:  Rust
Corrosionist:  What is rust?

Owl Pages
Washington Dept of Fish and Wildlife Owl Pages  They also have a great PDF file
Information on Owls  a great resource
Enchanted Learning:  Owls

brief history of Guns
another history of firearms
About.com's Timeline of Gun History
Firearm Safety  there is a somewhat graphic picture about halfway down...just fair warning

Kidcyber site: My Lungs  geared toward younger children
National Geographic:  Lungs, Breathing  including lung anatomy

CDC pages on Rabies
Indiana State pages on Rabies

Corn Husk Dolls  1  2  3  4

Louis Pasteur