Five Children, Ten Weeks and a Wooden House

Three older ones: L10, T11 and C10

Hello!  Welcome to our Little House Learning Adventure.  We are a home schooled family with five children who are spending ten weeks this summer ‘living like Laura’ from The Little House on the Prairie.  We will be reading the books, watching the DVDs and eating the food Laura ate.  The best part of this project will be making our own ‘Little House’ in our play house.  Together, the whole family will refurbish our two story play house and make it as much like the original as is practical, whilst learning lots of lovely skills along the way.

Two younger ones: A4 and B2

Each week we will post a loose outline of our plans for the following week.  This will help us all keep accountable and help us to achieve the goals we have set ourselves this summer.  It also keeps the family on the same page so to speak.

Our Plans this Week

Read Aloud each day

Watch an episode on DVD each day

General Little House Plans

(Just edited to add a picture of the house!)

Our Little House

As one of our main goals is to transform our run down, second hand wooden house into a beautiful playhouse for A4 and B2, each week the whole family will focus on the jobs which need to be done to make this happen.  You should know we are not trying to replicate any house Laura lived in exactly, more capture the essence of prairie living in the 1800s.  This week we will:

1. Clear out, clean and sweep house
2. Replace the windows, top and bottom
3. White wash the inside
4. Wood treat the outside
5. Wood treat the wooden planter Gary made

In addition the children will be doing the following, if there is any time left after doing  the house:

Mr Ingalls

1. Using his survival skills book, T11 will attempt to master making twine from leather and then making a rope from the twine.
2. He will use the twine to teach himself some knots, which he will use next week to make a ladder for the little house.  This will help our prairie family to reach the top exterior of the house, for cleaning and repair work

Mrs Ingalls and Mary

1. L10 and C10 will make the mattress which is to take up the entire upstairs space.  They will use some old cloth and fill it with straw.
2. Both girls will also be trying their hand at cooking prairie style recipes using this book:

Laura and Carrie

1. A4 and B2 will be making a button string
2. They will be given their paper dolls to play with
3. A4 will make some prairie pancakes and post the recipe (with Mummy’s help) on Thursday

The whole family will begin to rip up material and plait it for our plaited rag rug for the floor of the house.

Each week we will post about something we have done.  This weeks posting plans are as follows:

Monday: L10 will post a recipe she has tried, with a review and a picture of the dish in question (it is likely she will cook this at the weekend)

Tuesday: C10 will post about our how we have begun to renovate our little house.

Wednesday: T11 will be posting on his attempts at making his own leather twine, turning it into a rope and which knots he practiced in readiness for making his ladder.

Thursday: A4, with the help of Mummy, will be sharing the recipe she used to make her pancakes, bacon and maple syrup

Friday: We will post a picture of how our Little House looks.  Hopefully each week you will see some improvements!

Weekend: Post of plans for the following week

We are hoping this blog will serve as a keepsake of our Little House adventures.