5/23/2011

My daughter and I are continuing to read through the Little House books, after taking a break to focus on other things. We're onto the third book written by Laura Ingalls Wilder about her childhood - On the Banks of Plum Creek.

In this book, the Ingalls family moves to Minnesota and live in a small sod house. Pa builds a new log cabin house and plants his first wheat crop. Then come the grasshoppers! Grasshoppers so thick they block the sun and once they arrive, they eat every green thing in sight! I learned something new here - I had heard of locusts but not grasshoppers causing such a mess of the crops.

The resilience of the Ingalls family is commendable. They faced a new life in Minnesota, but they embraced it and pressed forward. They faced the grasshoppers, but pressed on. They faced fire that threatened to burn down their house, but they fought it with all their might and pressed on. Pa had to leave for weeks on end to find work elsewhere, but the family pressed on. Determined. Admirable.

I'm not sure if we'll make it to the next few books in the Little House series. My daughter is enjoying reading the Boxcar Children series on her own. And we have some other read-alouds that she is itching to start. The Little House books may be put on hold for now, however, I will post about the books we do read. I am loving all of the good children's literature we're reading and want to encourage others with young children to snuggle up with a good book and simply read!