Comments on: Lessons learned from Little House

By: Carolyn

Carolyn

This is so relevant to us as we have been listening through the Little House series as a family! (In fact, I just noticed my comment love post is about Plumb Creek!). These books are just so rich! I’m sure we’ll come back to them again when my youngest is old enough to understand, and I’ll continue to learn from them.

By: Nicole

Nicole

I cannot WAIT to read this series and do some activities with it! About what age do you think is good to start? She is 6 and loves read alouds so maybe she’s good. I know the Primer is recommended for a little older.

By: Charity@TheHomeschoolExperiment

Charity@TheHomeschoolExperiment

In reply to Heidi. The Long Winter stood out to me too! The circumstances were horrendous, but what courage Almanzo and all the others had! Reading it as a mother, I notice Ma's attitude so much now--her steady patience and determination to be cheerful despite all the stress and fighting for survival. No meltdowns from Ma!

By: Barb Hawkins, Little House Site Tours

Barb Hawkins, Little House Site Tours

I enjoyed reading all the posts about Little House. For the past twelve years my husband and I have taken people to Little House Places. We have written three
Little House Books and have two DVDs. I have read the books many times and learn more every time I read them again. I hope you will check out our website and think about joining us in the future.

By: Kara

Kara

My sister-in-law passed along her box set to my daughters at Thanksgiving, and now we are just a few chapters away from Laura’s wedding! My kids are young, so I know this is only our first time through, but my 4 1/2 YO loves them and can listen to three or four chapters in a row. I have skipped over a couple paragraphs here and there — tonight I skipped what happened to the boy caught up by the cyclone — but as far as the racism goes, I am so impressed by how Laura portrayed both her parents’ points of view. I feel like this helps me explain how we can be more motivated by fear, at times, and how important it is that we strive to be motivated by love, always. The Ingalls and Wilder families are great inspiration to homeschoolers, even as their children attend formal schooling situations. Thanks for this post, and for the above commenter w/ the info about the music. There is much to be treasured in these books.

By: KC

In reply to tuxgirl.

There are some parts where I agree with this, especially in the Little House books, where there are some “good” characters (like Ma) who are definitely racist… but where even in the books, there is opposition in the writing to the racism itself (Laura asking “but isn’t this *their* country? why did we come here then?”).

Books which are straight-through racist (where characters of different races are portrayed in a derogatory way by the author) rather than that contain racist characters are a lot messier to deal with, though – there it’s getting to insinuate itself into the brain, rather than being brought up directly and questioned.

And there’s also a problem with a lot of old books, where the meaning of particular words has shifted are also really challenging to explain why words that were used back then shouldn’t be used now. (for instance, “fondle” used to be used positively instead of “caress” or “hug”, so you’d have parents lovingly fondling their children in books instead of hugging them, with no sexual content implied… but that word usage would not fly with child protective services now!)

I don’t know that there *is* an ideal way to deal with any of it.

By: Constance

Constance

In reply to Kika@embracingimperfection. Link doesn't work:( You need a password

By: Nickolina

Nickolina

I read all of these aloud to my kids. People said that “The Long Winter” was the least interesting to children but mine loved it because we read it in the winter, during a blizzard that snowbound the area for a few days. My youngest daughter would look at every word on each page, carefully and solemnly, and tell me she was ‘reading’ before she actually learned to read. These books were the impetus for her.

By: Constance

Constance

In reply to Kika@embracingimperfection. Like you I devoured the entire series as a kid and am loving reading this not only to my kids but husband as well, we are all loving it. We are currently on the third book "Farmer Boy". I also found myself editing passages from "Little House on the Prairie". I also found myself editing passages from "Little House on the Prairie". Part of me thinks well, this is how it was and my kids should know that this attitude is unacceptable and on the other hand, since they don't even have that kind of idea in their realm of consciousness why on earth would I introduce it to them. It also happens that the area where we live is in fact a very large and vibrant First Nations community (Indian Territory) . Thank you for including the link Kika.

By: Pennie

Pennie

I LOVED this series! My grandma bought me the entire set as a child, and I didn’t have the good sense to take care of them :-(… but I did devour them while I had them! I am going to be reading these with my children, and I don’t plan on editing out any of the story. Yes it shows some things that aren’t… savory… but it’s a true picture of life and mentalities in that kind of setting. Pioneers were brain-washed to believe that the Indians were dangerous. Laura had the good sense to question why people go there if they don’t want to deal with it. Either way, I love these stories and would love to take a road trip to all the different locations she lived in.