How many times have you said this or thought this? How stressful does it feel when you feel this way?
Maybe it’s not that you don’t have enough time but maybe you have too much to do, too much to take care of, too many unnecessary obligations. When you have young kids that time can slip by all too quickly and in the blink of an eye your toddler will be towering over you with keys in his hand.
I know that things can get really crazy, really quickly around here and I’m sure it’s the same in other homes as well. The past week was a train wreck with us being sick and not being able to do many of the things we had planned to get done so now we are almost a week behind already for the New Year!
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You may be wondering what butter making, bear hunts, and bull dogs have in common, right? Well, these were just a few of the topics we covered in our first week of our Little House On The Prairie Academic Adventure.
We have had so much fun as I’m sure you’ll see in the pictures below. I’ve been meaning to post our progress but we’ve been so busy there hasn’t been a lot of time for another ‘b’ topic… blogging! I’m gonna try to catch up a little tonight before I go to bed and put away my computer for our Screen Free Sunday which is another post in itself.
Caitlyn’s new glasses.
The first week we were quite busy with school, doctor appointments, and square dancing not to mention everything else that LIFE seems to throw at us. We read through the first two chapters of Little House in the Big Woods and discussed what we read. The girls also worked on some Vocabulary matching and crosswords that I made up.
We’ve been working through the topics I have listed in the weekly guide and the kids have been so excited to learn so many things about Laura Ingalls Wilder and her pioneer family. Our Pioneer Journals were one of our first projects and the kids loved making them. They will be using these for various writing assignments throughout the year.
**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!
Here are our Lesson Plans For Life Skills
This page contains our lesson plans for a few different areas that I have included with our ‘Life Skills’. You will find lessons on cooking, cleaning, and organization as well as bible memory work and character training. All of these will go together to help raise our children into the responsible and caring citizens of tomorrow.
On weeks where there are several activities listed just choose a couple that interest you the most to work on.
We will be focusing on OBEDIENCE this unit. If you don’t have the book we used you can go HERE and download a lesson plan guide to use in your home.
Tip: If you want to go to a certain week/chapter or subject 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.
Laura interrupted Mary in the story. Was this wrong?
Discuss how important it is not to interrupt others and how it might make others feel when we interrupt them. (It can make others feel like you don’t think what they have to say is important or that you feel you are better than they are when you interrupt them.)
Come up with a way for children to let you know that they need to tell you something without interrupting. (They can gently place their hand on your hand or arm and wait until you finish.)
4. Memory Verse
Work on memorizing a verse during the week for a special prize.
He who answers before listening – that is his folly and shame. –– Proverbs 18:13
Older kids can check out this Doodle Page via Verse Doodles.
5. Fun Activities
Plan a meal where you can use cracklings. They can be put into cornbread (or hoe cakes) for flavoring. You could substitute chopped bacon if cracklings are not available.
Make butter. Click HERE for a recipe or watch the video below.
Write out the steps for making butter.
How does your butter compare to store bought butter?
See if you can get or borrow a sewing kit. Start practicing the sewing skills listed on pages 6-11 of My Little House Sewing Book.
6. Bonus Skills — Choose one or two to work on
Practice these until you finish this unit study and then we will move on to another new skill.
Memorize the books of the Bible:
Learn about archery which is a skill that has been around for thousands of years.
Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field and take me some venison. — Genesis 27:3
You will need a good book or DVD on archery.
You will also need a properly sized bow and arrows for practice.
Don’t forget a target and a backstop.
Learn the parts of the bow and what they do.
Learn the parts of an arrow and what they do.
Ask an adult to show you how to safely shoot your bow.
Learn the skill of baking homemade nutritious foods from scratch.
…It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone but by every word of God — Luke 4:4
You will need a good cook book.
Start with simple recipes.
Make sure you have all of the ingredients before you start.
Read through the entire recipe before you start.
Ask an adult to show you how to work the oven safely.
Start a recipe collection.
Week 2: Chapters 3 & 4
1. Research Pioneer food preservation.
How do the different food preservation methods keep us from getting sick?
Watch the video:
Discuss what you learned.
Name 3 methods of preserving food that we still use today.
2. Ways to help around the house like Laura
For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine… for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof. — Psalm 50:10
Taking Care of Your Pets
This video is about taking care of a dog but many of the responsibilities will be the same for other pets.
Practice these until you finish this unit study and then we will move on to another new skill.
Memorize the books of the Bible:
Learn about archery
Learn about baking
Week 4: Chapters 8 & 9
1. Research a Pioneer Laundry Day
Discuss what you learned.
How is this different from the way you wash clothes?
Watch this video about soap making.
Discuss what you learned.
Why did they keep the kids away?
Other:
Springtime was when the gardens are planted. Click HERE to learn more about pioneer gardens.
Here is a fun video about a pioneer dance which may be similar to the one described in Chapter 8.
2. Ways to help around the house like Laura
Sin can pile up in our hearts just like dirty clothes can pile up in our rooms. We need to make to sure to get our hearts washed and our clothes washed on a regular basis.
Use this Sequencing Worksheet to make a chart showing the laundry cycle from sorting, to washing, to drying, to folding and putting away, and clean up.
Check out this video about the benefits of hanging your clothes out on the line:
I know, we’ve all heard about how important routines and schedules are. Some of us may have every minute of every hour planned out on a ‘perfect’ schedule while others would rather just have a ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ kind of routine. I’ve always been kind of in the middle while I can say that at different times of my life I have leaned more towards one side than the other.
How do we find a balance?
Well, the answer is not the same for everyone, every family, or every situation. For instance, there are some children who thrive on strict routines and schedules and they don’t like change, I have one of those children. Then there are some families who are extremely busy with things, maybe a home business, and there is no way that they could guarantee that they would be home by 5:00 every day to eat dinner. Then we have work routines where sometimes there are deadlines and things that must be completed in a certain time frame.
I went through a period of time when I was really sick. I went from being a vibrant young wife and mother (who also held down a 40 hours + job) to almost being bedridden. I had a couple of different surgeries, followed by infections and long recuperation periods. These illnesses triggered an autoimmune response in my body and I have been plagued by chronic pain ever since. I had been diagnosed with scoliosis, DDD, herniated discs, IBS, GRD, hiatal hernia, migraines, and fibromyalgia among a long list of things.
My doctors prescribed a cocktail of medications to help with the problems but those medications caused lots of side effects. I was extremely fatigued, developed seizures, and was constantly having various rashes and other conditions that couldn’t be explained.
During this time my housework really suffered. My house wasn’t a total mess but it did get pretty bad. The more I tried the worse it looked. This caused major problems between my spouse and I. I was trying to keep up with the inside of the house, the outside of house, the garden, the animals, and the kids.
I was OVERWHELMED!
Then I found an index card system for housework. They also have a book called Sidetracked Home Executives which I never bought but maybe should have. I immediately jumped in and began to use the system. I tweaked it here and there to make it work for our family. I then developed a similar system for work and it made an amazing difference in my productivity levels.
Unfortunately my spouse wasn’t as thrilled with my new found method. I could never keep our home as ‘showplace perfect’ as he felt I should. The marriage fell apart and I moved with my four kids to our current home. This is where I found FlyLady, who has been a lifesaver to so many people. (You may want to check out the site for yourself.) A lot of the routines I will list below follow along with her basic plans. I again tweaked them to work for our family.
My house is not ‘showplace perfect‘ nor will it ever be. My house is lived in and it shows. I do get a lot of compliments like, ‘I would never know that you had so many kids here.’. I’m not quite sure what they expect my house to live in but I am pleased to surprise them.
The outside of my house is a bit of a mess and I am working on that. Many people have stopped as they thought I am running a daycare. I guess I kind of am in a way. Some of the mess is beyond my control as it doesn’t belong to me.
I really believe that everyone should be proud of what the Lord has blessed you with. Be content where He has put you and make the best of it. I pray that you will find some helpful tips and suggestions as you read through the links. (If a link isn’t working please let me know in the comments below.) Please remember to use these as a guideline for setting up your own routines. If something isn’t working then change it and make it work for you. Don’t get discouraged!
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