My family and I may never be able to visit the "Little House" country in person, but this photo-filled book makes us feel as if we were there. This is a picture book in the most literal sense of the word! Each of the full-color, professional photographs has a caption of several sentences describing the photograph and some interesting details about the scenes in them.
Laura, at only 15 years of age, teaches school in a neighboring town and is courted by Almanzo Wilder.
Another fascinating read from an excellent storyteller.
Laura and Almanzo's first four years of married life and the difficulties of starting out as farmers. This book seems to have been written quite a bit later than the other books of the series and has quite a different flavor. When I first read the series in grade school I found this difference a little disappointing and confusing. The story is quite a good one, though, but geared more for older children (perhaps 12 and up).
"Art and Composition Activities for Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder"
This deceptively-simple supplement to Little House in the Big Woods packs a wallop of meaningful content into easy and fun art and writing assignments. Not only will it will help children understand the book better, but it provides full-fledged lessons in art appreciation and composition.
The bulk of this resource consists of "chapter activities" which generally include three segments:
DeSmet is a well-established town and the Ingalls family owns a homestead outside of town as well as a story on the main street. There are early signs in nature that the winter will be particularly cold and long. The Ingalls decide to move into town for the winter and thus share the fate of their neighbors as one blizzard after another pummels the region from October through May. The trains can't get through with food supplies, school is usually closed and the townspeople run dangerously low on food.
Laura continues her studies and enjoys life as a young teen in a growing frontier town.
Continue the adventures of the Ingalls family as they make yet another move, working in a railroad camp, and deal with Mary's recent loss of sight. The reader may discern that Laura begins to develop her story-telling abilities by faithfully following her Pa's request to be Mary's "eyes". The railroad workers move along and the Ingalls family stick it out for one very quiet winter before being present for the establishment of a brand new town.
In this story, the Ingalls family ventures out from their cozy log house in Wisconsin to the open prairie of present-day Kansas to make a new start. They spend a very challenging year building a house from scratch and dealing with tensions between other settlers and the local Indians. This is the classic story for which the entire series is named - filled with long journeys over open prairie in a covered wagon, building a log house, and wondering over mysterious Indian trails.
The dog, which has been trotting in the shadow of the wagon for maybe a hundred miles, lays down to rest. The family has just moved from indian territory to western Minnesota. Pa does a little negotiating and ends up trading the horses that helped them move for the sod hut of a Norweigan farmer who is ready to move farther west. So they begin their life at the new home. The delights of childhood liesure are described, not so much reminiscing as the matter-of-fact way that a child who simply enjoyed it would tell.
This mouthwatering book isn't about Laura. It is about her future husband, Almanzo Wilder, and told through his eyes. He works (hard) on his father's sucessful farm in upstate New York. As would be expected from the perspective of a hardworking young boy the book lingers on FOOD. They ate pretty well too! They have fresh fruits and vegatables, they make their own butter (some of which they sell for - about a buck a pound! - imagine that). The pies, the meat etc. etc. etc. Each is described just well enough that you want to make some for yourself.