What are you teaching your kids?

We've been reading Little Town on the Prairie. One chapter talks about what Laura saw while she worked in town. Last week before track practice, Lamb 2 was repeating what he heard in the book. I was horrified to hear him saying over and over again:

"My name is Lamb 2 and I'm DRUNK!"

*The Lambs participate in track with the Idaho CHRISTIAN Running Club.

Reading Progress

Lamb 1 taught himself to read when we were on a homeschool break after Ram had major surgery. One day everything clicked and he knew how to read.

I have worked and worked with Lamb 2. We have used several different "teach your child to read" programs, he knows his phonograms, etc. but he just has not had that moment when everything clicked. This worries some of our family and friends and they have given several nice suggestions to help him. Some may not believe that Lamb 2 has even worked on reading at all. I haven't been worried, I've patiently waited for that moment for everything to click while continuing to work on teaching him to read daily.

I thought we were close to that point towards the end of Vision Therapy. He is able to go on to more difficult lessons in The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. Motivation is definitely not a problem-he has lists of books in his head that he is going to read as soon as he knows how to read. But that clicking moment has not totally happened yet.

A few weeks ago I remarked to Ram that I really didn't know what I was going to do when Lamb 2 did learn how to read. He is not interested in most easy readers, they are too babyish. But I want to give him lots of practice reading short books before chapter books. I'm talking about that point between very easy readers and Amelia Bedelia books. I'm talking about him not being interested in Biscuit books or books about Thomas the Train. Unfortunately Lamb 3 is not a baby either so Lamb 2 can't even practice reading easy readers to him.*

Last night Lamb 1 was taking a long time to get ready for bed before we had family read aloud time. Lamb 2 was impatient to hear the next chapter in Little Town on the Prairie. I had the book open waiting for Lamb 1. So Lamb 2 started reading the chapter aloud. He needed help with a few words, but he did great.

I think he'll do just fine. He may skip the easy readers and go on to easy chapter books. We have had a short break of school recently due to sickness, Lamb 1's standardized testing, family visiting, and other activities. It wasn't a complete spring break, but it wasn't 5 days a week school either. Perhaps this was Lamb 2's moment to put everything together during a break like Lamb 1 did. Whether it was or not, I look forward to our next regular week of school to see his progress some more.

I don't even want to think about Lamb 3's reading progress. Motivation is a problem for him.  He thinks, "Why should I learn to read when there are 3 others in the family that will read to me?" He's smart and he'll learn to read when he is motivated to. I will pounce on that moment and help him, but currently I'll keep snuggling and reading aloud to him.

*Note: I realize that the library has easy readers on other topics that aren't as babyish and we even own some many of them too. Elephant and Piggie books have been a hit with Lamb 2 and 3. I also saw this as problem when I taught in the classroom though. If you have a child that doesn't learn how to read in kindergarten or first grade, they aren't going to be interested in the books that are written at K or 1st grade reading level. I know there are worse problems in life. I realize Lamb 1 teaching himself to read and Lamb 2 needing vision therapy are special cases. This has all been interesting to me to see 3 boys from the same family and how they learn so differently. In the classroom there wasn't time to focus on each child like there is in homeschooling. Unfortunately in the classroom even with the children that I held back and worked with them for two years, there was never time to really get to the root of the problem such as Lamb 2 needing vision therapy. Especially for boys that learned to read later than "normal" finding books they were interested in was difficult.

Oops...ok...

At the January book club they passed out bookmarks that listed the books we will read each month for the rest of the school year. We worked ahead and read the April book, which I thought was Little House in the Big Woods. On Thursday I looked at the bookmark and it said the April book was Little House on the Prairie. I realized my mistake but then when we went to book club I found out the April book is Little Town on the Prairie. The bookmarks were incorrect. So tonight we started reading Little Town on the Prairie.

I don't regret reading Little House in the Big Woods first because I think the Lambs are more interested since they had an introduction to the Ingalls family. But I do think they really missed a lot in all the books that come between Little House in the Big Woods and Little Town on the Prairie. For example: They didn't hear when/how Mary became blind so I had to fill in the details. We don't have enough time to read all the in between books before book club. Thankfully I have read the series several times so I can fill in the details. Maybe some day I can read more of the series to the Lambs.

I used a free Shutterfly code to make a photo book of our visit to De Smet, SD. It is helpful to show them pictures of what Laura's house looked like in Little Town in the Prairie.

DeSmet, SD Part 3

It was after 6pm and we were getting hot and tired, but we fit in a few more sightseeing sites in DeSmet. On the corner of the Ingalls Homestead there is the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Site. This corner was donated to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society in 1957. This is where the 5 cottonwood trees remain from Pa's homestead claim. Laura said during her 1937 visit to DeSmet, "Yes, these are trees my Pa planted".

This is the original Loftus Store. It was closed by the time we got there. It is interesting that it is still there.

Then we went to the DeSmet Cemetery and saw the graves for Carrie Ingalls Swanzey, Mary Ingalls, Infant son of Laura and Almanzo Wilder, Caroline Ingalls (Ma), and Charles Ingalls (Pa). We walked a few more steps to see the graves of Nathan and Grace Ingalls Dow. There are many other people mentioned in the Little House books in the cemetery but we didn't take the time to look for those graves. It is a huge cemetery with some headstones dating back to 1881.

I already blogged about the rest of our day. We drove to Watertown, SD and ended up eating at Culver's and then hurrying to get some shopping done and getting home around 11pm. It was a very full day. We were all glad that we went to the Society museum sites first and the Homestead second and then ended with a little more sightseeing at the end. There was more that we could have done in DeSmet but I think we hit the highlights of the town. I would love to go back again. I am thankful that we did take a day and do as much as possible.

Desmet, SD Part 2

After we were done with the tour in town, then we headed to The Ingalls Homestead. The sites in town were part of a tour led by the Laura Ingalls Wilder Society. They were a tour where you could look and listen, not touch or try. I am so glad that we went there first and Ewe took the tour by herself. 

The Ingalls Homestead is called Laura's Living Prairie and it was the complete opposite of the sites in town. Our Lambs were a great age to go to this. We had only read the first book (Little House in the Big Woods) so the Lambs were a little confused asking to see sites that were in WI in that book, not sites that were in DeSmet. The tour didn't make much sense to them. Ingalls Homestead encouraged the children to touch everything. We stayed until 6pm and had a great afternoon. We all agreed we were glad we went there second. 

Ingalls Homestead was expensive, our family was $36 with AAA discount and Lamb 3 was free. We all agreed it was worth it.

First we all climbed this tower.

Climbing the tower gave me the first chance in my life to really visualize 160 acres. This photo doesn't show it well, but you can see some of the 160 acres. Yes they had to work hard. Yes they had to pay filing fees. But after 5 years if they met all the requirements they got 160 acres for about $16 of fees. Pa far exceeded the requirements and easily got his land.

This photo was also taken from the tower. The white building was a  museum showing all the places the Ingalls family lived. The only place they lived that was not mentioned in the books was Burr Oak, IA. That was not a happy time in their life when her parents ran a hotel and lived next to a saloon. She only wanted to write books about happy memories for children.
In the back of the photo are 5 cottonwood trees that are what remains of the thousands that Pa planted on the homestead claim. 

I took this photo of the places Laura Ingalls Wilder lived. The numbers are in order where they lived-yes they lived some places twice.

Lamb 1 standing in a hayloft barn like Pa built.

Lamb 2 working hard to pump water-can you see it in the photo coming out of the pipe?

Lamb 1 and 2 in a sleigh-I pictured my Grandma riding to church in this.

We took many photos of the Lambs riding and driving the stagecoach.

We rode a covered wagon that was built for rides at the Ingalls Homestead, much larger than a real covered wagon. 

Each Lamb had a turn to take hold of the reins and drive the horses.
Lamb 3

Lamb 1

Lamb 2 left his hat in the car and was sunburned the next day.

In the driving seat of the wagon

Then there was an old car repair garage with activities for the children. The Lambs each used this machine to make a jump rope and see how they made rope.

The Lambs each used a corn sheller to get the corn off the cob and make a corn cob doll. They were so happy to each have their own doll to name and hold on the way home. Shh... don't tell them only girls are supposed to have dolls. They made a little bed for them the next day out of a shoebox and bandanas for blankets.

They each took a turn to practice grinding wheat.

Lamb 1 practiced playing a pump organ. I couldn't help but contrast that with the pump organ behind a rope that we couldn't touch at the site in town.

Lamb 2 practiced sewing with a machine like Ma was so happy to receive.

The Lambs all helped to wash clothes on a washboard and hang them on the clothesline.

When we first got there the Lambs were timid, but before we left they all took a pony ride.
Lamb 3 had a miniature pony

Lamb 1 has come so far from his fear of animals

Lamb 2

We sat in the pony cart but didn't take a real ride. It reminded me of Winona's Pony Cart (Betsy Tacy).

It was 6pm but we still weren't done in DeSmet. More next time...

DeSmet, SD Part 1

Last Friday we took a one day trip to DeSmet, SD. We ate a fast lunch in Brookings at 10:30am and then headed to DeSmet. Our first stop was the Laura Ingalls Wilder tour. The tour was almost full and we didn't want to wait for the next tour so only Ewe took the tour. That ended up being very wise as the Lambs would not have been able to listen for that long of a tour before wanting to play outside after the long car ride.

Surveyor's House 1879-1880
No photos were allowed inside. Laura felt like they were moving into a mansion when Pa was asked to live here so the railroad workers could go home to their families. They were very fortunate to live here through a long hard winter. This is where the tour guide talked the longest. Did you know only 5% of the Little House on the Prairie TV show is accurate according to the books? The Walnut Grove tour stressed the TV show so I enjoyed the DeSmet tour because it stressed the books. Our tour group had a group of Hutterites (or some Christian group like that by the way they were dressed) so it was very interesting to hear their questions. The women asked questions about baking bread and homemaking and the men asked questions about the tools. I'm not sure the tour guide could answer all their questions, but it was interesting to hear their point of view and they knew the answers to many of the questions by the tour guide because they had read all the books (children too). And the children were very well behaved and interested in the tour.

Lamb 3 is standing in a replica of the Brewster school that Laura taught in first.

The school was very small and Laura was just 16. No wonder why she was anxious for Almanzo to pick her up and take her home for the weekends! It was important for her to "survive" teaching here and help get money to send Mary to Braille school.

DeSmet's First School that Laura and Carrie attended. It was only a school for about 5 years before they built another school. Then it became a house and they recently moved the house here.

Renovation is still in progress and will take a long time. But it was easy to visualize the whole town coming to this school house for school presentations.

Then we drove a few blocks to see the Ingalls home from 1887-1928. No photos were allowed inside. Here the tour guide talked of what happened to Laura's sisters and family. I had read all the Little House books but I didn't know the history of what happened after that. The tour guide also pointed out other sites of interest near this house but we did not go see them. 

It was getting warm and the tour took about an hour and a half, maybe longer as I was listening and not paying attention to time. The Lambs ran around this garden, played on the playground across the street, and went to the Discover Laura Learning Center while I took the tour. Ram was so nice to allow me to go on the tour without the Lambs!

The rest of these photos were in the Learning Center.  They had a little play stove.

Lamb 1 and 2 were the students.

I think Lamb 3 would have a difficult time with discipline as a teacher with a smile like this!

Sorry for the glare on this photo, but the play train set helped visualize the placement of the homestead. The Lincoln Log house was not really in the lake!

Lamb 1 made some papers with split peas that were like Braille. Lamb 2 and 3 didn't have enough patience for this.


Not everything in the Learning Center was historically accurate, but it was a good chance for the Lambs to be allowed to touch and play with things unlike if they would have gone on the tour. I was glad we spent some time there.

Then we went to make a contribution to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Society aka gift shop. The Lambs played with some John Deere tractors and were shocked when we didn't buy that for them. Ewe bought some treats for herself and her goddaughter, sorry Lambs.

Next time I will post activities for what we did after we were at this site. There is so much to do in DeSmet that a day isn't really long enough!

A first for me

I don't think before yesterday I had ever walked out of a restaurant before I was served. Yesterday we went to DeSmet, SD to see the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites (a big blog post is eventually coming about that!). We waited until we were back in Watertown, SD to eat supper. It was almost 8pm and the Lambs did fantastic to not complain since they hadn't eaten since 10:30am. We tried a local sub shop but they were closed. Then we tried a local barbeque place but they weren't there any more. So we ended up at Applebees. We were seated right away. We waited and waited and no one came to take our order. Finally Ram spoke to an employee. We waited some more. We finally got up and left. The Lambs were quite confused since we hadn't even ordered yet. Where to go at 8pm when we're starving? We walked over to Culver's. It was very busy and Ram waited in line for awhile. He finally ordered and then we waited longer for them to deliver our food to our table. Drive up was even worse. We were finally done eating about 8:45pm. Then it was a mad dash to get to Starbucks, Target, and Menards before they closed. They were open longer than I thought so we made it to everything. We finally got home about 11pm after a very fun day.

MN Authors

I never read Betsy and Tacy books when I was little. I checked a few out of the library (our library didn't have any so I had to interlibrary loan them!) and have been enjoying some quick reads. I'm not sure about the Lambs enjoying these girl books. I may read at least the first book to them because the author's hometown is Mankato, MN. Then while I was searching for info about hours to tour the Betsy and Tacy houses, then I discovered that Wanda Gag is from New Ulm, MN, which is not far from Mankato. I read Wanda Gag's books to my students in the classroom and our boys have almost worn our ABC Bunny book out.
Last year I was able to go to Walnut Grove and see the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites there. I still want to get to DeSmet, SD and see those Laura Ingalls Wilder sites.
We are very busy in June, but perhaps in July we can take a few days to go some of these places. It is always a possibility that Ram will receive a Call somewhere else. I don't want to regret not going to some of these places when they were just a few hours away now. Perhaps the Lambs are too young to really enjoy or understand these author's homes, but maybe just the memory and photos of going there now will be enough if we aren't able to go again when they are older.
Do you know any other historical sites in MN that our family shouldn't miss? I think it is interesting that all these authors are from southern MN. That there has been money to restore their homes and give tours is even better!

On the Banks of Plum Creek Part 3

I went on a bus trip to Walnut Grove, MN by myself on Monday. I had asked some friends, even asked a friend if her little girl could go with me, but no one was able to go that day. I knew our Lambs would have not enjoyed the day for several reasons. It was hot, a long bus ride for them, and it wouldn't have been interesting to them because we haven't read the Little House books yet. When I first had 3 boys I planned to only read one or two Little House volumes to our boys. Other Loopers have told me that their boys enjoyed all the Little House books and I should read them all to my boys. I may end up reading some and leaving some out for them to read if they want to. I can still remember where on the shelf at our small public library the Little House books were at. I reread the Little House series this spring. I was glad I did this so the info was fresh in my mind for Monday.
I really enjoyed the day away and I'm so thankful that Ram babysat for me. I read most of The Story Girl by Montgomery on the bus on the way there. I ended up having one of only two empty seats by me on the bus. I had room to spread out. It was so nice to not have anyone to "help" on the bus, at lunch, and actually have time to read the information at the museum. I ended up going my own pace and being towards the end of the group. At lunch time we had time to shop at the local stores and I spent a long time in a scrapbook store. Lunch contained a candy stick that Lamb 1 wouldn't have been able to have because of his caps on his teeth. On the way home I took a nap most of the way. When we got back I stopped at DQ for a treat for myself. It was a wonderful day away.

On the Banks of Plum Creek Part 2

On Monday I went on a bus tour to Walnut Creek, MN. I will try to post more about our trip later this week. When we arrived we first went to the site of Laura's dugout home. Then we saw/heard "Pa's bell". Then we had a long lunch hour so we could eat and also shop at some of the local stores in Walnut Grove. Then we toured the museum before heading home.

Lunch was provided in these lunch pails that we were able to keep. Ham sandwich (with white bread),  chips. applesauce (with HFCS), sugar cookie (yum!), and candy stick. There were also special water bottles from the museum.

At the museum was this china shepherdess that Ma treasured. I wasn't clear if this was a reproduction or the actual china shepherdess, but my guess is it is a reproduction. Thanks to the illustrator, Garth Williams, and Laura's description, this is what I pictured it to look like.

I was surprised how small the covered wagon was. I didn't picture having to put all your belongings on a covered wagon this small. I did realize from my study of history what kinds of things they took on the wagon, and that it was small, but not this small.

The museum built a reproduction of a dugout. It is basically a basement turned upside down for the museum. Putting this together with the site at the actual dugout site, helps to put it all together in my imagination.

Look at how small the dugout was! This is the reproduction dugout at the museum. This was "home" for 5 people for the almost 2 years that Laura's family lived there. Imagine the insects and critters that lived there with them. No wonder why Ma hated this home and was glad when they moved on. She was glad to move here though so the girls could go to school at a real school and not be homeschooled.

This is the fireplace from the set from the TV show. There was a whole room at the museum about the TV show, but I wasn't as interested in that as I was the history of the Ingalls family.

Pa's Bell

Pa went to town to buy new boots. He ran into the pastor who was taking donations for a bell for their church. Pa donated his $3 for the church bell instead of getting new boots. Records show that he gave over $25 to that church bell. We know he did not have that kind of money, so he must have taken donations from others for the bell. The congregational church that the family went to was torn down in the 1950's. The bell was moved to this ELCA church. The bell is only played on Sundays, weddings, funerals, and for bus tours. We were fortunate to hear the bell and imagine what it was like for Laura to hear the bell from her dugout. I wish I was better at technology so I could have recorded the bell for you to hear here.

On the Banks of Plum Creek Part 1

Laura remembered a Big Rock. The rock was across the creek behind the dugout. The only large rock on the farm today is this one, which is nearly submerged. This rock once protruded above the ground, but the surrounding banks rose with silt deposits from each spring flood until it is now nearly covered. Unfortunately efforts in the late 1970s to raise this rock failed. This rock is 8x10x10 and about 70 tons.

Laura's Dugout Home was located where that sign is.
You can see how it was located on the banks of the
Plum Creek in this photo.

Laura's dugout home was located here.

Can you see the plums? I wish I would have visited a few weeks later when the plums were ripe. The plums are wild plums so I probably wouldn't want to eat them anyway.

I apologize for the formatting on this post. I just can not get used to this new Blogger format! If you like Laura Ingalls Wilder's books, stop back often this week. This week I plan to post lots of photos and info that I learned on my bus trip to Walnut Grove, MN yesterday.