Category: Meal Planning

Little House On The Prairie Adventure: Language Art Lessons

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog13 Comments

**This post may contain affiliate links to some of the products and resources that we have used. These are provided at no extra charge to you and help to support our blog and family if a purchase is made through these links. -Thank you!

These are divided into weekly work as we like to use Loop Scheduling in our home. We simply work on a little bit and then move on to the next subject area. We have four days of ‘school’ and then the fifth day is used to finish up projects that we have been working, for independent study, or fun activities and field trips. Have fun on your Little House on the Prairie Academic Adventures!

Here are our Lesson Plans For Language Arts

These lessons were made to go along with ‘The Little House On The Prairie‘ written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. We are planning to go through the whole series and I am keeping track of the different topics we are learning about here on my blog. We hope you enjoy these as much as we have!

You may find it easier to buy a Workbook for your children to work through as you go along with the rest of the study.

Mornings:

We Start every morning off with our prayers and the Pledge of Allegiance. Below is a picture of the prayers that we say and a video of the Pledge of Allegiance.

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Not the prettiest example but that’s what we’ve been using for the past few years.

Don’t have a flag? Grab one HEREand print it out to put up somewhere… you could even let the kids make a flag to proudly display. Amazon also has some little ones like this one HERE and HERE.

After this we have our calendar time also where we go over such things as the Days of the Week, the months, and some basic math.

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This one came from Lakeshore Learning.

Tip: If you want to go to a certain week/chapter or topic simply push the ‘ctrl’ and the ‘F’ button down together and a small bar will pop up. Type in the week number or chapter number you want and it will take you to it.

Week 1: Chapters 1, 2 & 3

We plan to use this FREE Lapbook to go along with our study.

Reading:

Read Chapters 1, 2 & 3

Discussion Questions:

Chapter One:

  • What was happening at the beginning of the chapter?
  • Why did Pa say they needed to leave? Where were they going?
  • What season was it? How do you know?
  • What states did they travel through?
  • What did Pa trade the horses for? What did they name them?

Chapter Two:

  • How did Mary feel about crossing the water?
  • Did Laura feel the same way?
  • Why do you think Ma covered the girls with a blanket?
  • What sad thing happened while crossing?

Chapter Three:

  • What was the spider? Why was it called that? Click HERE for pictures.
  • What did the girls have to share?
  • What sound did Laura not like to hear?
  • What surprise did they get?
  • What did Laura wish Pa would give her?

Additional Reading:

Each child would complete a reading lesson from our McGuffey Primer Books or other reading materials that we chose for the day.

Younger kids will also be doing one lesson a day from Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

Vocabulary/Spelling:

Older Kids:

Parents click HERE for the answer key.**see instructions at the top of the page.

Younger Kids:

Handwriting:

Using  Spencerian Penmanship go over the instructions on p. 1-4

Writing:**

We will be making a journal to record some of our pioneer adventures in. The link to the journal will be HERE.

Choose one prompt below:

  • Make up a campfire song.
  • Write about your favorite camping adventure and be sure to describe what you see, hear, smell, and feel. Draw a picture to go with your story.
  • Review some skills with this worksheet HERE.

**Remember to use the thesaurus to come up with different words.

Other Activities:**

Group:

Older kids:

Younger kids:

Week 2: Chapters 4, 5 & 6

Reading:

Read Chapters 4, 5 & 6

Discussion Questions:

Chapter Four:

  • What did they eat for breakfast? Would you like this? Why or why not?
  • What chores did they have?
  • Name three animals that the girls saw while exploring. Name three different animals that Pa saw.
  • What did Laura want to see?
  • What did they have for dinner?

Chapter Five:

  • How did they set up house?
  • What did Pa go to get from the creek bottom?
  • What did Pa do with the logs?
  • How did Ma get hurt?
  • Where was Mr. Edwards from? How did he help them?

Chapter Six:

  • Why did Pa say that they hadn’t seen any Indians in the beginning of the chapter?
  • What did Pa use for the roof?
  • What did Pa use for a door?
  • What did Pa say he wanted? Why?

Additional Reading:

Each child would complete a reading lesson from our McGuffey Primer Books or other reading materials that we chose for the day.

Vocabulary/Spelling:

Older Kids:

Parents click HERE for the answer key.**see instructions at the top of the page.

Younger Kids:

Handwriting:

Using  Spencerian Penmanship go over the instructions on p. 5

Writing:

Choose one prompt below:

  • Practice writing a friendly letter with this worksheet HERE.
  • Practice some writing with this worksheet HERE. (You may need to make a FREE account to print these out.)

**Remember to use the thesaurus to come up with different words.

Other Activities:

Group:

Older kids:

Younger kids:

Week 3: Chapters 7, 8 & 9

Reading:

Read Chapters 7, 8 & 9

Discussion Questions:

Chapter Seven:

  • How long did it take Pa and Mr. Edwards to build the stable?
  • What wonderful thing did they find in the morning?
  • Why did Pa come back home in a hurry?
  • How did Pa get away from the wolves?
  • What scary thing happened that night?

Chapter Eight:

  • What did they see outside the next morning?
  • What did Pa plan to make for the house? Why?
  • What did he need? Did he let it stop him or did he find a way to get the job finished?
  • What was Pa’s next project for the house?

Chapter Nine:

  • What did Pa need to get for the fireplace?
  • Describe the process that Pa used to build the fireplace.
  • What did Ma put on the mantel?
  • What did Pa warn Ma about?

Additional Reading:

Each child would complete a reading lesson from our McGuffey Primer Books or other reading materials that we chose for the day.

Younger kids will also be doing one lesson a day from Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

Vocabulary/Spelling:

Older Kids:

Parents click HERE for the answer key.**see instructions at the top of the page.

Younger Kids:

Handwriting:

Using  Spencerian Penmanship go over the instructions on p. 6

Writing:**

  • Complete this worksheet HERE and use some of your vocabulary words for the bottom part.
  • Practice brainstorming for upcoming reports with this worksheet HERE.

*Remember to use the thesaurus to come up with different words.

Other Activities:

Group:

Older kids:

Younger kids:

Week 4: Chapters 10, 11 & 12

Reading:

Read Chapters 10, 11 & 12

Discussion Questions:

Chapter Ten:

  • What did Ma say about snakes?
  • What did Ma scold the girls for?
  • Why did Pa say Mr. Edwards was a good neighbor?
  • What difference did the roof make in the house?
  • After Pa finished the floor what did he wish he had for the house? How did he plan to get it?

Chapter Eleven:

  • Why was Jack sad? How did the girls try to cheer him up?
  • How did Laura describe the Indians?
  • What made the bad smell?
  • What did the girls share at the dinner table?
  • What did the Indians take?
  • Why did Pa warn the girls about being disobedient?

Chapter Twelve:

  • What did Pa make that Ma really liked?
  • Where did the girls sleep?
  • Why did Pa dig a hole?
  • What happened to make Ma say it was a terrible day?
  • Why did Pa and Mr. Scott use a candle in the well?

Additional Reading:

Each child would complete a reading lesson from our McGuffey Primer Books or other reading materials that we chose for the day.

Younger kids will also be doing one lesson a day from Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

Vocabulary/Spelling:

Older Kids:

Parents click HERE for the answer key.**see instructions at the top of the page.

Younger Kids:

Handwriting:

Using  Spencerian Penmanship go over the instructions on p. 7

Writing:**

Choose one prompt below:

  • Sometimes we might come across words we don’t know but we can use context clues to help figure out what the words mean. Complete this worksheet HERE.
  • Start on this workbook HERE. Complete 1-2 pages a day.

*Remember to use the thesaurus to come up with different words.

Other Activities:**

Group:

Older kids:

Younger kids:

Week 5: Chapters 13, 14 & 15

Reading:

Read Chapters 13, 14 & 15

Discussion Questions:

Chapter Thirteen:

  • Why did the cowboys need Pa’s help?
  • How would they pay him?
  • What did Laura want to be?
  • What did Pa bring home?
  • What did they let Baby Carrie have?

Chapter Fourteen:

  • What time of year did Ma say it was?
  • Where did Pa take the girls?
  • What did they find?
  • What did the girls make with their beads? Who did they give it too?

Chapter Fifteen:

  • What did the Laura help Ma pick? What did they do with them?
  • What did Mary do while Laura was helping Ma?
  • How did they keep the mosquitos away?
  • Who came to help when the family was sick? How did they help?
  • What was different about the Doctor?
  •  What did Mrs. Scott say caused the sickness? What really caused the sickness?

Additional Reading:

Each child would complete a reading lesson from our McGuffey Primer Books or other reading materials that we chose for the day.

Younger kids will also be doing one lesson a day from Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

Vocabulary/Spelling:**

Older Kids:

Parents click HERE for the answer key.**see instructions at the top of the page.

Younger Kids:

Handwriting:

Using  Spencerian Penmanship go over the instructions on p. 8-9

Writing:

Choose one prompt below:

  • Write a story about when you were not feeling well. Tell about who helped you and what made you feel better.
  • Continue working in your workbook.

**Remember to use the thesaurus to come up with different words.

Other Activity:

Group:

Older kids:

Younger kids:

Week 6: Chapters 16, 17 & 18

Reading:

Read Chapters 16, 17 & 18

Discussion Questions:

Chapter Sixteen:

  • What preparations were they making for the winter?
  • What bad thing happened? What did Ma do?
  • Why did Ma say that Laura was brave?
  • What did Pa bring home? What did he say they could make from the feathers?
  • Why did they need to go to town?

Chapter Seventeen:

  • Where did Pa go?
  • Why did Mr. Edwards come to the house? What did Jack do?
  • Who came to visit Ma the next day? What did she say about their house?
  • What did Ma make for Pa to warm him up?
  • What special thing did Pa bring back from town that made Ma so happy?

Chapter Eighteen:

  • What did they see more and more of?
  • What ran in front of the house?
  • What did the Indian try to take from the house?
  • What did Pa say the government made the Indians do?

Additional Reading:

Each child would complete a reading lesson from our McGuffey Primer Books or other reading materials that we chose for the day.

Younger kids will also be doing one lesson a day from Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

Vocabulary/Spelling:

Older Kids:

Parents click HERE for the answer key.**see instructions at the top of the page.

Younger Kids:

Handwriting:

Using  Spencerian Penmanship go over the instructions on p. 10

Writing:**

  • Start planning a holiday menu. Include beverages, sides, main dishes, breads, and desserts. Click HERE for worksheets.
  • Design a nice invitation for the meal and send them to people, with your parent’s permission. Click HERE for worksheets.
  • Continue working in your workbook.

Other Activity:

Group:

Older kids:

Younger kids:

Week 7: Chapters 19, 20 & 21

Reading:

Read Chapters 19, 20 & 21

Discussion Questions:

Chapter Nineteen:

  • What holiday was coming up?
  • What did Pa bring Christmas dinner?
  • Why did the girls think Santa couldn’t come?
  • Who did Mr. Edwards say he had saw? What had he sent for the girls?
  • What did the girls find in their stockings?

Chapter Twenty:

  • What games did the girls play with Baby Carrie?
  • What did they hear? Who did Pa think it was?
  • What was really screaming?
  • Who killed the panther?

Chapter Twenty-One:

  • How long was Pa gone?
  • What did Pa trade the furs for?
  • Why did Pa give Mary her package first? What had he brought for them?
  • How did the Indians feel about the settlers?

Additional Reading:

Each child would complete a reading lesson from our McGuffey Primer Books or other reading materials that we chose for the day.

Younger kids will also be doing one lesson a day from Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

Vocabulary/Spelling:

Older Kids:

Parents click HERE for the answer key.**see instructions at the top of the page.

Younger Kids:

Handwriting:

Using  Spencerian Penmanship go over the instructions on p. 11-13

Writing:**

  • Describe a favorite holiday meal that you had with your family.
  • Continue working in your workbook.

Other Activity:

Group:

Older kids:

Younger kids:

Week 8: Chapters 22, 23 & 24

Reading:

Read Chapters 22, 23 & 24

Discussion Questions:

Chapter Twenty-Two:

  • What did Pa like so much about the land?
  • Why did they keep their food hidden and locked up?
  • What scary thing happened? How did they handle it?
  • Where did Ma say they would’ve went if Pa had been in town?
  • What were some things that could have caused the fire?

Chapter Twenty-Three:

  • What made the family so uneasy?
  • What woke Laura up?
  • What did Pa do at the table? Why?
  • What did the Osage Indian tell Pa?

Chapter Twenty-Four:

  • What did Laura finally get to see?
  • Who was the first Indian in the procession?
  • What did Laura want Pa to get for her?
  • What did Pa have to do to Jack? Why?

Additional Reading:

Each child would complete a reading lesson from our McGuffey Primer Books or other reading materials that we chose for the day.

Younger kids will also be doing one lesson a day from Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

Vocabulary/Spelling:

Older Kids:

Parents click HERE for the answer key.**see instructions at the top of the page.

Younger Kids:

Handwriting:

Using  Spencerian Penmanship go over the instructions on p. 14 – 15

Writing:**

  • Write about a time when you were scared and what happened.
  • Continue working in your workbook.

Other Activity:

Group:

Older kids:

Younger kids:

Week 9: Chapters 25 & 26

Reading:

Read Chapters 25 & 26 

  • You can read it or let the kids help to read it aloud.
  • You can also access an audio version:

Discussion Questions:

Chapter Twenty-Five:

  • What were they busy doing?
  • What did they plant in their garden?
  • Why did Pa say they had to leave?
  • Who did he give the cow to and why?
  • What did they eat for dinner?

Chapter Twenty-Six:

  • What item couldn’t they take with them?
  • Who did they find? What had happened?
  • How did Pa offer to help?
  • What were they taking with them that they didn’t bring with them?
  • Where do you think the family is going?
  • Who did Pa say would eat the garden?

Additional Reading:

Each child would complete a reading lesson from our McGuffey Primer Books or other reading materials that we chose for the day.

Younger kids will also be doing one lesson a day from Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

Vocabulary/Spelling:

Older Kids:

Parents click HERE for the answer key.**see instructions at the top of the page.

Younger Kids:

Handwriting:

Using  Spencerian Penmanship go over the instructions on p. 16-17

Writing:**

  • Write about what you would plant in your garden and why?
  • Continue working in your workbook.

Other Activity:

Group:

Older kids:

Younger kids:

Week 10: Finishing Up

Reading:

Finish up any reading. 

Optional: Read Chapter 2 from Laura Ingalls Wilder Country ‘Kansas Prairie Country’.

Additional Reading:

Each child would complete a reading lesson from our McGuffey Primer Books or other reading materials that we chose for the day.

Younger kids will also be doing one lesson a day from Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

Vocabulary/Spelling:**

Older Kids:

Parents click HERE for the answer key.**see instructions at the top of the page.

Younger Kids:

Handwriting:

Using  Spencerian Penmanship go over the instructions on p. 18-19

Writing:

  • Continue working in your workbook.

Other Activity:

Group:

Older kids:

Younger kids:

Bonus Activity:

**BE SURE TO SAVE A FEW SAMPLES OF YOUR WORK FOR YOUR  PORTFOLIO!  TAKE PICTURES OF BIG PROJECTS!

A Little House On The Pond Gold Rush Party Menu

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog1 Comment

**This post does contain some affiliate links which could possibly earn me a small commission if a purchase was made through them. These links help to support our blog and our family.

I know I did another post about our Gold Rush Party preparations but I thought it might be helpful to just post the basic menu that we used and decorations that did. This was a lot smaller scale than we had originally planned as I had some unexpected bills come up which made our food budget a little tighter this month.

Here was the menu that the kids came up with:

Gold Rush Party Menu

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Main Menu:

  1. Lemonade (The actually chose some ‘Tampico Island Punch’ instead… it was a golden/yellowish color so we went with it.)
  2. Gold Rush Chicken aka Alice Springs Chicken for the adults (I tried some of Alvi’s Incredible Seasoning in place of the Seasoned Salt and it was AMAZING!)
  3. Golden Nuggets aka chicken nuggets for the kids.
  4. Honey Mustard dipping sauce
  5. Gold Noodles aka Grandma’s Mac N Cheese
  6. Golden French Fries

Look at this HUGE bag I found at Sam’s Club:

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Desserts:

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  1. Goldfish crackers
  2. Butterscotch candies
  3. Pineapple chunks
  4. Pineapple upside down cake (I made a few individual cupcake size cakes and used fresh pineapple which made them extra delicious.)
  5. An assortment of gold wrapper candies like Mini Twix bars, Hershey’s Kisses, Rolos, and Mini Reese’s cups.
  6. Peanut Brittle Chunks mixed with Hersheys Gold bar pieces and yellow peanut M&Ms.
  7. Fiddle Faddle popcorn.
  8. Gold Coated Cookies (We used a store brand oreo cookie with some gold spray mist color. 1 can did approximately 12 cookies.)

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Decor:

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A lot of these were found at Dollar Tree and/or Walmart. Oriental Trading had some great decorations but I just didn’t have time to get them. Amazon also has a wide assortment of gold party supplies. 

  1. Gold Balloons
  2. Gold plates
  3. Gold buckets
  4. Gold Trays
  5. Party Hats (They couldn’t find any yellow or gold ones so they chose Minions, of course.)
  6. Glow sticks
  7. LED Party Favors (we had these left over from a product review I had done a while back.)

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They also used a lot of the different candies as decorations around the centerpiece and around the house. They also had to include a dinosaur… who knows maybe there have been some dinosaur fossils found while gold mining?

We had some gold flakes to show everyone as well as a few pieces of pyrite from their Gold Digging kit that they had done last week. This would have been a great activity for kids to do although it would be best for older kids as it was a bit difficult for the younger ones.

I printed out this Gold Rush Wordsearch for the kids to do as well. There are a ton of ideas for games that you could do. We just didn’t get around to playing any as the kids had too much fun with the LED toys and glow sticks. They were also busy helping out with the decorating and and putting their skills learned from Kids Cook Real Food  to help with the food prep.

The girls also gave a speech about the California Gold Rush and answered questions. Joey gave a simple speech as well off the top of his head. All in all everyone had some great fun and enjoyed themselves quite a bit.

We are looking forward to our next party when we finish up our Little House on the Prairie book.

Eureka! I Found My Belt And A Lot Of Gold!

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog1 Comment

**This post does contain some affiliate links which could possibly earn me a small commission if a purchase was made through them. These links help to support our blog and our family.

Oh my! What a day we have had. As you know from yesterday’s post I was feeling a bit overwhelmed before we even made it to our dance… I finally found that missing belt though and you’ll never guess where. If it had been a snake it would have bit me… it really would have.

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Remember the pile of clothes I had laid out on the bed? Can you guess where it is? Take a closer look…

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See it now? I have no idea how it got there even though I am quite sure I must’ve done it before I put away my crinoline. I’ve never done this before so I’m really quite puzzled as to why I did that but it is safe and sound where it belongs now.

Crazy thing is I didn’t really even need it last night as it wasn’t quite the right shade… sigh. Here’s a quick pic of my outfit… I was hoping to get a better pic last night but that never happened either.

img_5557-1 Continue reading “Eureka! I Found My Belt And A Lot Of Gold!” →

Finding Peace Amongst The Dirty Socks, Grocery Lists, Stuffed Animals, And Buffalo

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place BlogLeave a comment

**This post may contain affiliate links to products and/or services that we use in our home.

How’s your day going? I hope you said it’s going well but if it didn’t you may be having a day like mine. I’ve been busy, too busy on too many things… you probably know how that goes when you try to multitask. Sometimes multitasking can be great and you can accomplish a lot but then there are those times that nothing seems to get done.

I’ve been working on our next unit study using  ‘The Little House On The Prairie‘ written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. We had so much fun with our last unit study Little House In The Big Woods Adventure that we decided to keep on going. This is A LOT of work though but I want my kids to have fun learning so it is well worth it. To be honest I’m having a blast doing this with them too.

This next unit study is going to be so much fun! I have found so many projects, crafts, and fun activities to go along with our studies. We will be studying about so many things like prairie animals including prairie dogs and buffalo. Then there are the Native American studies that we will be doing along with continuing our state studies. We will also be touching a little bit on stars and constellations as the kids have really been interested in this topic lately. One of the girls asked to do an herb study too so I am trying to work on that as well.

Of course I have a lot more than that included in the study and I still have to finish up our Life Skills section. This time I am hoping to do it a little differently but still plan to include some fun activities like baking some molasses cookies, sewing sun bonnets, and memorizing some bible verses. I think I will have some camping tips, information, or other activities in this study as well so we may see a Weenie Roast and S’mores in our future! I’m not sure what other fun activities I will find to go along with it as I haven’t really even started this section yet and I plan to start this unit next week! AHHHH!

You can check it out and use some of the activities to go along if you plan to read this series with your kids too. A good majority of the resources I link to are FREE because I really like FREE stuff. Some of the links are affiliate links to things we are or will be using.

I am slowly working my way through the books and coming up with lots of fun stuff to do. It has been such slow progress because of so many unexpected interruptions. The biggest being the impromptu trip to Pennsylvania due to the passing of my Mom-mom. I am still not quite over that as much as I felt I should have been by now but I know everything takes time.

Then on top of that I have a houseful of kiddos running around. There are so many chores, like the never ending laundry, and so much cleaning that I need to catch up on I get overwhelmed at times. Not to mention I have to feed these little monsters at least three times a day! No wonder I can’t get anything done. Another issue this week has been our internet… yes, again. It seems that no matter what I do I can’t get it to do like I feel it should. We don’t have a lot of choices so I’m kinds stuck with what I have for now but I do plan to research options… really I do when I get a free moment… lol.

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Continue reading “Finding Peace Amongst The Dirty Socks, Grocery Lists, Stuffed Animals, And Buffalo” →

Maple Glazed Brussels Sprouts

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog4 Comments

**This post does contain affiliate links to products we use. These links help to support our blog and our family. Thank you!

So with our Little House On The Prairie  Academic Adventures, we’ve been studying about some of the uses of  Maple Syrup. We happened to see some that could be used in Brussels Sprouts.

They turned out quite well and I thought I’d share the recipe with everyone. Continue reading “Maple Glazed Brussels Sprouts” →