Little House on the Prairie

Little House on the Prairie Official Site

The Project eHIKES trip to the Little House Site was fun and interesting. I hadn’t been there since I was a kid. I think the most important realization I had at the site was the fact that the Ingalls moved around so much. I knew the books were written from different places, but it really makes me think. Why did the family move so much? Was this common for farmers at that time? Where can I go to find out?

I think I could build a lesson plan out of this. My students, whom most have read the books, could attempt to answer these questions as an individual or group research project. Because the topic would interest them, they might really get into it.

I would like to have my students propose a historical site of their own. They could research the topic, prepare a scale model, and write a proposal to a local planning board. Who knows what might happen—one of their ideas might actually turn into reality. How awesome that would be!

I thought that crucial to the success of the Little House site was the fact that it was run by the family who owned the land. They have a direct connection to the success of it. You can really tell that they work hard and put a lot of hours into it. However, I would like to see more signs up linking the site to the history of the time and of the area. I think this would be more beneficial to school groups and others visiting the site.

Life

Creating the timeline of my life was tough because it was hard to remember what happened in specific years. As I went along, I started to remember more and had to go back. This exercise taught me about how history is often recorded and the potential for mistakes and misinterpretations. I also left out some of the details that I didn't want to remember and that can show how so much history is lost or changed. I might use this exercise with my students to demonstrate some of the same concepts.