It’s rare to find someone who has not read at least one of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books. The depiction of her growing up years in the American prairie has captured the imagination of generations. What lessons we have learned from the hard working Ingalls family: obedience, perseverance, duty, love!
As you read my stories of long ago I hope you will remember that things truly worthwhile and that will give you happiness are the same now as they were then. It is not the things you have that make you happy. It is love and kindness and helping each other and just plain being good. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder ~
The first time our family read these books aloud my husband had an interesting experience. We were reading The Long Winter. Joseph stayed home from church with the girls who were sick while I went to church to fulfill some responsibilities. When I came back the girls said, “Dad, was reading us the book and he started crying.” Joseph was reading the part where Pa goes to the Wilder boys home, knocks on the false wall, drills a hole and lets the wheat that we being stored there fall into his bucket. As a father to his own little brood of girls it just hit Joseph how very hard it must have been for Pa to try to provide for his family who were slowly starving because trains could not get through with supplies.
The Little House books are some of our family’s favorite read-aloud. But guess what? All of the books are now available as audio downloads! Up until now they were only available on CD. We have Farmer Boy on CD that we listen to on car trips. I LOVE how Cherry Jones narrates these books! You can find all the audio books here to download so your whole family can listen.
There is also a set of My First Little House Books that has wonderful illustrations and is good for those early readers who aren’t quite ready for the chapter books yet. Sugar Snow and County Fair have been my kids’ favorites.
Which little house book is your favorite? Mine is definitely Farmer Boy. It makes me hungry whenever I read it. I am also just amazed at how industrious and self-reliant the Wilder family is from growing and preserving their own food to weaving their own cloth for clothes. Maybe someday we can be as efficient as they were!
Be kind to yourself and don’t try to compare your life and self-sufficiency to the Wilders or Ingalls. They didn’t have church callings to take up their time, or media to distract them from their work. They didn’t drive around shopping or taking children to activities. Our lives are very different from theirs. I for one am so thankful I don’t have to grow all of my food, or weave my own cloth. I believe it was Brigham Young who said something to the effect that because of all the labor saving devices and technology that they couldn’t even imagine, we, the women of the future, would have much more time to do genealogy and temple work. It is impossible to do it all, at the same time. We each have to find out what God’s will is for us and our families and do that. He will open the way for us to accomplish the mission he has for us, and they will all be somewhat different. Keep up the good work out your way.
Thanks for your encouragement! Maybe I should clarify. I wish I was as efficient with what we have as they were with what they had. So much I could be doing better!
I love all the books in the series; each has a special little lesson or association for me. I didn’t read Farmer Boy until I had children of my own because growing up I somehow thought that one was just for boys. Haha. As a mother of four boys, I really enjoyed reading the “boy side” of things and I can tell you that all that food is important to boys! My favorite part of Farmer Boy, though, is the chapter “Independence Day” where Almanzo’s father explains the work it takes to get a half dollar and then gives it to him and tells him he could get a pig with it (and what that would lead to) or buy lemonade. Such a great lesson!
But, The Long, Hard Winter had an enormous effect on me. I can so see why Joseph cried! I never got around to that book in the series when I was younger, so I was a mother when I read it and we were reading it aloud during a pretty long, hard winter of our own. That was a book that penetrated! I have thought of it so much since. I often think of it when I want bread and butter! And I just cringe and ache when I think of rolling the hay/straw bundles with sore hands all day every day just to try to stay a little bit warm.
Hm. I think it’s time to re-read the series now!
Joseph, Alma and I were just re reading parts of The Long Winter. I cry every time I read about Almanzo and Cap riding south of town to buy wheat and save the town. But then I cry at lots of things in the books 🙂 Such great books.
I just finished listening to the whole series with my 7 year old daughter. I loved listening to them and really paying attention so I could answer her questions. She absolutely loved the books. We immediately dove back in at the beginning because she wanted to experience it all over again. We listen to them while we build with Legos together. I LOVE experiencing the books anew with her. I’m also reading through Pioneer Girl to get the perspective between fiction and history. It’s fascinating!