Laura's Corn Cob Doll:Yikes!

V with her corn cob doll.

In Little House in the Big Woods, Mary has a rag doll, but until her fifth birthday, Laura has only a corn cob doll.  I did a little browsing around the web, and apparently a corn cob doll was as primitive as it sounds, a dried corn cob with a face drawn on. (I did find pictures of some that were a little "fancier," having a little calico dress, but Laura states that hers was just wrapped in a hankie.)


I made this one for V. (Made is probably an overstatement in this case.)

Corn cob doll.

We discussed what it would have been like to trade in all the toys in the playroom for one of these. The kids were, understandably, sort of appalled. On the other hand, we discussed all the things the girls would have had that we don't, like farm animals to play with, lots of open space outside to explore, and frankly, a lot more chores to keep them busy.

It's humbling to think of all the things we take for granted. My kids can't imagine a life without toys, radios, and televisions. I've "roughed it" before, living in a house without a dishwasher, washer/dryer, and central heat and a/c. It was brutal, but I can't fathom what it must have been like, (and still is like in some parts of the world,) to live without running water, a refrigerator, and access to random things like Tylenol and toilet paper.

Little House Peg Dolls

Laura Ingalls and family, at the Little House in the Big Woods.

V has been enjoying the Little House play set we've been putting together. Now that we're really into the book though, she's been complaining that our plastic settlers aren't quite right for the Ingalls family. (We didn't have any plastic children, for one thing. That would never do.)

I did some browsing on Pinterest and elsewhere, and found several sets of Little House peg dolls, which inspired me to make my own. (Go check out the peg dolls at Along the Way, and Craft Phesine, and be inspired by their steady hand and artistic ability.)

Laura Ingalls and family.

So here's my (super simple) version, which only took me oh, 700 hours, give or take. (I have shaky hands, and had to make several corrections.) The peg doll blanks came from Hobby Lobby, and were painted with acrylic paint.

If you need a set, and don't want to DIY, I found a very nicely done set on Etsy.

V is very happy to have the whole Ingalls family at her disposal now. The plastic pioneers have been relegated to occasional visitors.

Fimo Food for the Pioneer Family

Apparently the settlers are getting hungry. V and I sat down to make them some Fimo clay food today. (She helped with the pumpkins, and made suggestions. L made sushi for his Pokemon. Not exactly Little House related, but whatever, right?)

Fimo pumpkins, eggs, cheese, carrots, lettuce, squash, a watermelon, and blueberries.

I already had some bits of clay, so this was a free project, but at any rate, even if I'd had to purchase the clay, you could make a ton of food for the cost of a couple of pieces of dollhouse food. This would be a fun project just to make for fun, for Barbie Dolls, or Littlest Pet Shop, or whatever.

Rationing out food to the settlers.

Revisiting an Old Favorite: Homemade Butter

Butter, before rinsing and salting.

We've made homemade butter before, but we revisited it this week, after reading about how Laura's mama churned their butter. We talked about what a lot of work it would have been to make your own butter, (and virtually everything else,) instead of just jumping in the car, and driving to the grocery store.

As expected, each kiddo shook the jar approximately 5 seconds, leaving me to shake it for the other 20 minutes or so.

V, in her new favorite outfit, (read: dance costume,)  shaking the jar.

I persuaded L to try the buttermilk, which Laura and Mary apparently regarded as such a treat. He declared it "yuck." He was more impressed by the butter, on wheat toast.

The final product.

My mother, born in 1949, says she can remember her grandmother making butter, sometimes with a churn, sometimes with a jar when she was a kid.

A New Adventure: The Prairie Primer

Back to school has been a little bumpy for us here. After much consideration, I've decided that maybe we're ready to try something new.

We're starting a modified version of The Prairie Primer this week. It's modified somewhat because my kiddos are younger than the intended audience. L is reading several years ahead of his grade level, thought so I think we'll be able to make it work. (The Prairie Primer is an in depth unit study based on the Little House on the Prairie series.)


I'm not sure whether we'll spend a few months, a year, or longer on this curriculum, it depends on how the kids take to it. I do love these books though, and this period of history. I think the kids are going to enjoy all the opportunities for hands on projects and experiences.

(I picked up my copy of the curriculum for about half price on Ebay, by the way.)

I've been collecting Little House related ideas for a while on my Pinterest board, and loved the little log cabin  from Delightful Learning.  Here's our version, along with a fluffy pipe cleaner forest, some barrels for food storage, and some "Wild Wild West" characters purchased on sale at Hobby Lobby. (I made the roof removable to make the inside of the house and the attic more accessible.)

Our "Little House."

The kids have already suggested several missing components, like Jack the dog, and the grizzly bear. I think this will be a work in progress for us, but the kids are having a blast with it today.

Ladybug Week

Ladybug display.

We're starting off a unit on insects by learning about ladybugs, and I thought I'd share some of the resources we're using, and activities we're doing. (L is still doing his HOD curriculum, also, in case you were wondering.)

Ladybug sensory bin.

Our sensory bin this week is pretty simple. It consists of red rice, large and small lady bugs, tweezers, and magnifying glasses. V has been having a blast "catching" the ladybugs, and making up little stories about "mommy ladybug," and her "babies."

Our "science center" display.

On our little science center, we've got pictures of ladybugs, a magnifying glass, and a homemade bug box filled with models of the ladybug life cycle, (as seen below.) Get the how to for the bug box here.

Ladybug math.

We've been doing some ladybug math, using the buggy addition and subtraction boards found here, and some ladybug gummy candy from Dollar Tree.

I've set up a tweezing activity for the kids, using the little bug catching kits from Dollar Tree, and pom poms. The kids are to remove the red and black pom poms from the bug jar with the tweezers, and sort them into small baskets.

I also picked up a red rubber ball from the dollar store, and drew black dots all over it with a sharpie. We're using it to practice catching and throwing. (You may or may not remember that L has SPD, and has some motor delays.Things are actually coming along wonderfully in that department, by the way.)

We've been using components from this I is for Insects packet. The kids are especially enjoying the activity cards. Actually, so am I. Their interpretations of the activities are hysterical.

V is enjoying the preschool pack from here, and L has been working on some of the Grouchy Ladybug lapbooking components from homeschool share.

My bug themed Pinterest board is exploding with more fun ladybug ideas, some of which we'll be exploring as time and interest permits.

Week in Review: Teeth

This week our topic was teeth. Here are some of our tooth related activities:

We used some tooth brushes and chattering teeth from the dollar store to practice our tooth brushing technique.

This marshmallow tooth game from Teaching Heart was a big hit.

We painted with toothbrushes.

We brushed the "plaque" off of hard boiled eggs.

We discussed which foods might make your teeth "happy," or "sad."

We gave an apple a cavity, and watched it decay. The kids drew their observations day by day.

If you're looking for some links for a dental related unit, here's a few to get you started:

Teaching Heart's Dental Health Unit (Many of the ideas above came from here.)

Oral B Teaching Tools

Here are some of the books we used, (via an affiliate link.) :

Homeschool Week in Review: Doctors & Nurses

Last week we had a light week, on account of my being out of town Tuesday and Wednesday. Our topic was doctors and nurses.

We spent a fair amount of time playing "hospital." I had picked up a pretend doctor's kit on clearance at Target a while back, along with some cheap band aids and bandages. The hats, mask, and nurse's vest came from Michael's, and the scrub top from Goodwill. We talked about what the various instruments were for, and when they might be used. My kids are lucky, neither has spent any time in the hospital since infancy, so they were unfamiliar with some things.

We relied heavily on the awesome Doctor and Nurses Preschool Pack at Homeschool Creations. Both kids enjoyed the activities in the kit, and I found the range of activities suitable for both 5 year old L, and nearly 3 year old V.

L and I worked extensively in a math workbook this week. He likes workbooks, and they're an easy plan B on weeks like this one when I'm short on time, or energy, or both.

He read me several Dr Seuss books, which I loved, and we started reading The Magician's Nephew, which is the first book in the Narnia series. Somehow in spite of being a voracious reader my entire life, I've never read that series, so I thought it would be fun to do together.

Valentine's Day Unit

I normally write about our homeschool week after the fact, but I thought I'd write about my plans instead this week, in case anyone was still looking for Valentine's Day ideas.



Below is a picture of our sensory bin. I had it about halfway finished when I saw the bins at 1+1+1, and Counting Coconuts. I ended up borrowing some of their ideas.

Some of the contents of ours are:

flower petals

feathers

pom poms

heart shaped beads

felt hearts

red plastic letters

plastic heart bracelets

We'll be doing some scavenger hunt type activities, like "find two kinds of red hearts," " find something fluffy, and something hard." I'll also be doing some color sorting with V.

After reading through the excellent list of Valentine's activities at Counting Coconuts, I set up a lacing activity with beads and pipe cleaners. I also pulled out red and white Unifix cubes to work with this week, red wooden beads and laces, fake flowers for V to arrange and pretend with, and dot stickers as a fine motor activity for V, who by the way loves stickers.

We're going to talk about different kinds of love, the love a parent has for their children, love for a pet, love for a friend, the love God has for us.

We'll be making handmade Valentine's Day cards as a crafty activity.

To practice writing, we'll be filling out the to and from sections on ready made cards, and writing a "love" letter to a favorite person of L's choosing.

We'll be doing some math and pattern activities with conversation hearts candy. The kids never seem to get tired of "candy math."

I printed out some of the printables from Confessions of a Homeschooler to use as well.


Below you'll find some of the resources we'll be using this week.

Bird Unit: Chicken Week

Last week was chicken week here, and frankly it was a dud. The kids and I spent the entire week sick with a virus, first them, and then about the time they got better, I got sick.  About the only school related thing we managed was reading several books about chickens.
That's how it goes, sometimes, right?

Bird unit: Week 2 Owls

This week our focus was on owls. We had several interruptions in the routine this week, namely the passing of our dog, and a morning doctor appointment. We didn't get to everything I had planned, but here are some of the owl related activities we did do:

We dissected a synthetic owl pellet. It was a neat experience, but not quite the same as a real one. Someday we'll do a real one.

Afterward, L drew a picture of the pellet and it's contents.

L did some bird related puzzles.

He laced a homemade owl card. (Easily made from the cardboard backing from a notebook, a sharpie, and a hole punch.)

Below are some of the resources we used this week:

Bird Unit, Week 1: Penguins

This week was our first week learning about birds, penguins specifically.

At the beginning of the week I set up a little "learning center" with the materials we were going to use. I used a project board to make a little display. I put pictures of penguins, the Spanish word for penguins, and little library pockets to hold some math manipulatives. I figured we'd add to it as the week progressed, mounting L's work as he completed it. (Sort of like a huge lapbook.)

Here are some of the activities we did this week:

Goldfish math. We added and subtracted goldfish crackers. (You know, because penguins eat fish...)

Penguin math game, from Lapbook Lessons. (We got several other activities from there also.)

L and I drew some penguins.

L decorated a bird feeder, (barely visible in this lousy picture,) and we hung it in the front yard. (Clearly we don't have penguins in our yard, but I though we could observe our native birds.)

We used a yard stick to measure the relative heights of various types of penguins on the wall, and then compared them to the kids' heights. (Didn't get a picture of this activity.)

L practiced spelling and handwriting on a chalkboard.

L and I also spent several hours putting together a 300 piece puzzle together. Although it wasn't bird related, I thought I'd mention it, because he was so proud when we got finished.

He's able to do 100 piece ones by himself, but this was pretty challenging for both of us. When we finished, he asked what the puzzle had to do with school. I told him he had learned a little about not giving up, and he agreed.
Below you'll find some of the resources we used this week: