Lessons With Laura Little House in the Big Woods

Hello sweet friends! Welcome to Lessons With Laura Little House in the Big Woods. This is the second post in an eleven-week series.

You can find all of the Lessons With Laura posts HERE.

Lessons With Laura Little House in the Big Woods

In this post, we will feature three excerpt readings from Little House in the Big Woods along with some accompanying activities. 

• Chapter 2 craft: Paper dolls
• A Chapter 4 recipe: Ma’s vinegar pie.
• Chapter 8 historic fashion: Aunt Docia’s dress

This post works in conjunction with my YouTube channel.

If the video does not load automatically just copy and paste this link below into your search  bar:

https://youtu.be/gX_rJJ9vagU

Chapter 2 Paper Dolls

Mary and Laura loved playing with their paper dolls. I did too as a child. I also had great fun putting this collection of dolls together. 

Paper dolls are wonderful for many reasons. 

• They inspire creativity and imagination. 
• Coloring and cutting out paper dolls sharpen fine motor skills. 
• While playing, particularly with others, they aid in social development, oral communication skills, and auditory development. 

On Pinterest, I typed Little House Paper Dolls and Pioneer Paper Dolls in the search bar. Several pages of paper dolls were available. I have linked a few of my favorites below. 

From the Little House on the Prairie site, you can find free Pioneer Boy and Girl printables. They are available in color or black and white so you can create dolls that look like you. 

There is an official My Book of Little House Paper Dolls. 

I adore this sweet gal who is free and wears some fun fashions that remind me of the clothing worn on the Little House television series. 

This lovely set includes animals, covered wagons, and more. It offers both black and white and pre-colored options. 

For older children or those with advanced skills.

Who am I kidding? I’m totally making these!

A fabulously free site has printable models of many of the homes and businesses from the Little House television show. 

They also include backgrounds that enable fans to create amazing diorama’s. 

Chapter 4 Vinegar Pie

I have often wondered what a vinegar pie looked and tasted like. It sounds just so…HORRIBLE! As I started researching this recipe I learned that at one time this was a very popular pie. Pioneers loved it because:

• It required just a few pantry staples.
• The pie could be put together swiftly and easily. 
• The high caloric food was good for those who needed the high energy running a farm takes. 
• The ingredient apple cider vinegar provided vitamin C. This is a necessary nutrient that was not always easily available in the 1870s due to seasonal growing times and a lack of fruit available on the frontier. 

There are vinegar pie recipes in both The Little House Cookbook as well as The Laura Ingalls Wilder Companion. 

In the video, I share how I made the pie. As I have made many a pie in my day I knew that it was going to be a custard-style pie. I opted to add some dried apples to the mixture. It actually wasn’t too bad! My family and I ate it for breakfast with a bit of homemade whipped cream.

But in all honesty, I doubt if I will ever make it again. 

Chapter 8 Aunt Docia’s Dress

For this week’s historical fashion segment we examine a dress inspired by Laura’s descriptions in Chapter 8, Dance At Grandpa’s. In the video, I share all of the layers of undergarments and this dress style that possibly could have been worn by Aunt Docia. 

In addition, I share a few pieces of my antique jewelry collection including a special “love token”. 

Longtime readers of Decor To Adore may recognize Aunt Docia’s dress. I spent several months researching clothing, undergarments, and accessories of the time period and then created the garments in a historical fashion. This post includes all of the research links and some fun photos. 

Visit The Little House in the Big Woods

Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum

306 3rd Street, Pepin, Wisconsin 54759

715-513-6383

I hope you have enjoyed today’s lessons. Next week we will take a look at Farmer Boy. 

Laura