Living Book Summary: Little House on the Prairie
In the Charlotte Mason method, we use living books for all our school lessons, but they are especially needed for language arts or literature lessons. Living books are written in excellent language and told in an engaging story or narrative form, and the Little House on the Prairie series fits the bill perfectly!
This is one of our absolute favorite book series in learning about American frontier life, experiencing it together with Laura Ingalls and family as they constantly move west and build a life through homesteading.
I admit, because I didn’t read many picture books to my oldest son, when we first read it, he squirmed through the length of the chapters that we had to shelf it for a bit. For my second son, though, even from a very young age, he sat captivated and begged for more every time I ended a chapter!
I’ve read the books aloud to at least three of my kids, and every time I’ve loved it myself!
Major Themes in the Little House on the Prairie Series
Here are the things that I’ve loved having my children learn through the context of an engaging story that stretches out over a series:
- The importance of hard work;
- Values like integrity, perseverance, prudence;
- Children contributing to family chores;
- Experiencing how challenging it was to move out west, especially in places where there wasn’t much development yet;
- Some of the hard and fast decision-making that Laura (and Almanzo in Farmer Boy) had to make throughout the years;
- Mary’s losing her sight and how the family adapted to it;
- Laura’s serving her sister Mary by telling her excellently-described scenes wherever they went
And the list goes on and on!
Book Summaries of Little House on the Prairie Series
Would you believe I was able to complete the set from thrift store shopping? But if you don’t have the time or patience to hunt them up individually, look at how pretty the boxed set looks:
Alternatively, if you want to check out what’s inside each book before plunging in, here are some quick summaries. We hope these can help you know what to look out for, if you’ve not read them yourself, or to jog your memory, if you actually read them when you were younger:
Little House in the Big Woods
This book opens the whole series, with 4-year-old Laura and her family settling in the big woods of Wisconsin in the year 1871. Experience what it was like to live in a log cabin as a little girl, with all the strange night sounds in the deep woods. See how Pa hunts to provide for the family, and how they work hard to make it nice and cozy through the cold winter, giving each other homemade gifts to make Christmas special even through the hardship!
Farmer Boy
Although this is technically Book 2 in the series, in our experience, we read this third, picking Little House on the Prairie first to continue with Laura’s adventures. Since this book features Almanzo (who, spoiler alert, would become Laura’s beau in later books), it can stand alone, and therefore we recommend reading it after Little House on the Prairie.
But this is a great book, too, in all aspects! We especially loved Almanzo’s experiences, young as he is, helping out in their farm, hauling wood, waking up at the crack of dawn to feed the animals–and his special love for horses. We can also watch him and his older brother and sisters make not-so-wise decisions, and also see him grow in maturity and start to make better choices.
Little House on the Prairie
The third book in the series, this is aptly called the second book in the “Laura years.” Personally, I would recommend reading this after Little House in the Big Woods, if only to get our children further engaged in Laura’s life. *wink*
In this book, the Ingalls family move West in a covered wagon all the way to Kansas. Laura and Mary enjoy playing and exploring, and of course soon it’s time to get started clearing the land and farming for food. And then, just as they’re finally settling into their new home, conflict arises: will they be forced to move again?
On the Banks of Plum Creek
In this next book, Laura and her family pack up again, this time heading to Minnesota. Through Laura’s story, we get to experience what it’s like living in a house underground—right under the sod! But (spoiler alert!) when a bull falls through the roof, Pa needs to build them a more solid home, this time with real glass window!
In my opinion, this was one of the more suspenseful books in the series, owing to Pa’s not coming home weeks after he’s supposed to come home. Although he actually has a harrowing–and almost fatal– experience of getting stuck in a blizzard, the author expertly weaves the story so that children reading or hearing it can feel the tension but not too much of it!
This is also the book where the family face up to a terrible grasshopper infestation, which eats up all their crops and forces Pa to think again about whether to stay or move once more.
By the Shores of Silver Lake
Here the Ingalls family have moved again, this time near the shores of Silver Lake. In this book, Laura’s sister Mary loses her sight due to an illness.
(Side note: The book attributes her blindness to scarlet fever, although fact checks seem to indicate that it’s not possible; in fact, Laura Ingalls-Wilder’s biography points to a different sickness, and experts speculate that she only used scarlet fever in the novel because it was more relatable.)
The Long Winter
If I could only recommend one book about the power of perseverance, prudence, and endurance, this would be it! Prepare your heart for the drama of having our beloved Ingalls family stuck in their home with food dwindling out during an unusually harsh winter that lasts months longer than usual! I could practically swear our feet were getting icy cold just reading this book!
Also, this seems to be the first time that Laura and Almanzo’s lives cross. 🙂
Little Town on the Prairie
After the harsh long winter, the town of De Smet is thriving, and Mary has gone off to a school for the blind. Laura, now 15 years old, starts to enjoy social activities in the bustling community, including Almanzo’s getting her father’s permission to walk her home!
These Happy Golden Years
In this book, Laura is starting to teach at a town several miles away from home. Her friendship with Almanzo deepens through his picking her up and bringing her home on the weekends. The story also tackles more difficult issues, such as Laura’s struggle with her landlady.
As such, I personally feel this would be a good book for a bit of an older audience, perhaps fourth to sixth grade will make for excellent discussions.
The First Four Years
In this book, Laura and Almanzo are married and starting their new life together with their own farm, and even giving birth to their first daughter, Rose.
Although the book is still written in a way that’s accessible to young children, because the themes revolve more on homemaking and the responsibilities of a young mother, I would recommend scheduling it towards fifth, or even sixth, grade.
Using Little House on the Prairie for Charlotte Mason Literature Lessons
In my personal opinion, these living books are great to add to any Charlotte Mason homeschool between first grade to fourth or fifth grade. Since it’s a series, you can read through all the books in one or two years, or opt to read one or two books per year and stretch them out over several years.
In some Charlotte Mason curricula, this book series is recommended as a free read over several years, which means that the child can read it on his or her own time, or you can read it together as a family, minus the narration. Either way, I think it can be an excellent addition to any Charlotte Mason homeschool.
How about you? What are your favorite memories in reading these Laura books? Share them in the comments below.
