Friday, August 30, 2013

Hayden’s 14th Birthday!

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Hayden just turned 14 on August 12th.  *AMAZING!*  How did that happen?!?  As he prepares to go off to high school for the first time next week, it has suddenly dawned on me that my sweet, treasured first child has grown up on me!  He’s now a lovely young man who towers over me and has bigger feet than his father.  Gone are the days of bedtime stories and dinosaur books.  How I miss those days with my precious firstborn son!  Sigh.  This is the beginning of the last stretch of years at home.  It’s bittersweet, and I’m feeling sadder than ever to realize he’s almost grown up…like all the way!  Sad smile

DSCF0809Hayden and Haylee had their big annual birthday bash on a Saturday between their birthdays, but I still celebrate with them individually on their actual birthdays. So for Hayden’s actual birthday, he asked me to make him a pineapple upside down cake…his long time favorite.

Before we dug into the cake, Steve took him to the local driving range to hit some golf balls.  He had a great time!

Hayden, being the wonderful big brother that he is, called Holden into the kitchen when it was time to sing and blow out the candles so he could “help” blow them out.  So sweet!  They did a great job as a team in getting all 14 candles out!

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There’s no denying it…Hayden is certainly no baby any more.  But I dearly love him, big or small.  Happy birthday, honey!

Saturday, August 24, 2013

REVIEW: Freedom & Equality: Harriet Tubman & Rosa Parks Curriculum by Hands of a Child

My 9-year old daughter, Haylee, got a chance to use and review the Freedom & Equality: Harriett Tubman & Rosa Parks Curriculum by Hands of a Child.

 

WHAT IS IT?:

Hands of a Child offers a myriad of unit study products that include mini-studies on a variety of topics and hands-on activities that include Lapbook Project Packs and and Notebooking Packs.

This Freedom & Equality study provides an overview of the lives and works of Harriet Tubman and Rosa Parks, two courageous women who made a significant impact in the lives of so many people in a difficult time in history.  This Project Pack includes:

  • a 5-day planning guide
  • related reading
  • 15 hands-on activities
  • an 8-page research guide

This product is currently available as an e-book for just $5.00 (reg. $12).  It’s also available in a variety of other formats for additional cost.

You can take a look at a sample of this product to get an idea of how the materials are set up.  This Project Pack is designed for children in 2nd-4th grades.

 

OUR EXPERIENCE:

We were excited to receive this product!  Haylee and I have already read a lot about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad recently (Haylee read the book “Freedom Train”), so we decided to focus our study on her and save the Rosa Parks portion for later, as we’re currently studying the Civil War period. 

The first step was to download the .pdf file and print it out.  It was 64 pages, so I printed the reading and instructional portion double-sided to save paper and then printed the activity portion single-sided since that section requires a lot of cutting and pasting.

Since we were only doing half of the unit study, we were able to complete it over two days.  On DSCF0818Friday evening, we sat and read the informational material about Harriet Tubman and were impressed to find that although we’d studied her life already, there were still some new things we were able to glean from the research guide.  For instance, neither of us new what a “basket name” was (one of the vocabulary words), and we did not know that Harriet Tubman was not born with the name Harriet but had later changed her name when she married in order to honor her mother, Harriet.  Then we began to prep some of the hands-on activities for the lapbook by cutting out some of the pieces to be worked on the next day.

On Saturday morning, we sat and cut out the rest of the pieces and began assembling each little project.  Each one was unique and included a Fat Fan, a Matchbook, a Two-Flap Book, a Timeline Accordion, DSCF0821a Trapezoid Book, a Three-Flap Book, a Diamond Book, and a Petal Book.  One of the cool things about this Project Pack is that the responses that go inside each folded element of the lapbook are available pre-printed, traceable by the student, or blank to be written in by the student.  This is a brilliant idea and allows you to adapt the project to children of different ages and skill-levels, as well as accommodating the amount of time and effort you want to put into the project.  We were on a time-crunch with this review, so we opted for the pre-printed responses, and I kept the educational factor up in other ways.  For instance, I had Haylee match the pre-printed definitions with the vocabulary words as a matching game before gluing them on and creating the Fat Fan vocabulary book.

Once we’d assembled each of the 9 individual projects for Harriet Tubman, we then created our double lapbook base using 2 manila file folders following the instructions in the kit, and we beganDSCF0820 creating our layout and gluing the projects into the base.  Since we split this project up between Harriet Tubman to be done now and Rosa Parks to be done later, we decided we’d create them as separate lapbooks altogether.  So we attached our Harriet Tubman projects and then filled in the gaps with some of the artwork that was already in the kit.  We even cut out Harriet’s photo from the cover of the kit and used it on the cover of the finished lapbook! 

I probably should have printed the projects on colored papers to add interest to the appearance of the final product, but I opted to print it on white paper and have her color it with colored pencils, because she really enjoys coloring. 

I’d have to say that overall, we were very pleased with this kit!  I think the included research guide gave a good overview of the life and works of these remarkable women, the projects were quick and easy to create, and the instructions were simple to understand and follow.  The finished project was a nice keepsake to reference later and summarize what we’ve learned.  I loved that the projects weren’t too time-consuming, and we weren’t required to do a lot of extra research, although the option is there if you want to delve deeper and add in the recommended extra reading.  We look forward to completing the other half of this kit on Rosa Parks in the future!  I would definitely consider other products from Hands of a Child.  While they don’t include a lot of fancy graphics or frills, they do cover meaningful material in a simple fashion and allow you to summarize your learning in a memorable way.

Take a look at what other Crew members had to say about this and other unit study from Hands of a Child by clicking the banner below.

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Monday, August 19, 2013

The Annual Burgess Birthday Bash 2013

It’s that time of year again…time for Hayden and Haylee to celebrate their birthdays together with their friends in one giant birthday bash!DSCF0789

This year’s party took place on Saturday, August 10th.  Traditionally, the kids pick a theme, usually a country, and we build the whole party around that theme with authentic foods and music and lots of fun.  We’ve done so many popular country themes that we were frankly running out of ideas!  So this year, it dawned on us that we hadn’t done our own country, the good ‘ol USA!  So we had a patriotic American themed party this year!

I have to say that this was the easiest theme we’ve done so far.  I had no trouble finding party goods between Memorial Day and Independence Day.  I had lots to choose from.  That was cool, ‘cause some years, I’ve really struggled to find what we needed, and eventually had to shop online.

So our fare this year was sliders, turkey hot dogs, cheese and turkey cocktail sausages, fruit tray, veggie tray with ranch dip, snacks galore, potato salad, three kinds of French fries, and sliced everything bread with bruschetta spread.  For the cakes, I made a 1/2 sheet cake that was strawberry with whipped cream cheese frosting, and then I made 24 Stars & Stripes Funfetti cupcakes with vanilla frosting and 48 mini cupcakes of the same kind.  On the cake, I drew an American flag and sprinkled it with red and blue colored sugar.  Fun!

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Outside, we had tons of activities for the kids.  They had all kinds of crafts, bubbles, a washer toss game, baseball, golf, silly string, candy-filled cupcake containers for a hunt, 100 water balloons ready to throw, and motorized water guns.  It was hot, so it was a perfect day for them to get wet.  Then I made up goody bags for all of the kids to take home.

 

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We had our largest group ever with 13 adults and 15 kids in attendance.  It was a full house, for sure!  Everybody seemed to have a great time, and I was so thankful that the torrential downpour and severe thunderstorm warning held off until right after the last guest left the party!

 

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The kids had so much fun with their friends, and poor Hayden had to be the guinea pig while all of the girls drew all over him with blendy markers!  Too funny.  He spent half the night scrubbing it off his face, arms, and legs.  It was hysterical!  He looked like a canvas.

Now that another celebration has drawn to a close, we have to think about what theme to do next year.  Hmmmm…what could it be?

REVIEW: Online Guitar Lessons by MacPhail Center for Music

My 9-year old daughter, Haylee, was given the opportunity to take and review some online guitar lessons by MacPhail Center for Music.

 

WHAT IS IT:?

MacPhail Center for Music offers unique individual 30-minute music lessons via Skype on a compatible device such as a computer or tablet.  You register your student and answer some basic questions that allows the Center to match your child to an appropriate instructor for weekly lessons that occur at a designated day and time.  Then after some brief testing of lighting and equipment, your lessons begin.  Lesson can take place M-F between the hours of 11 AM-4 PM EST.

The Center can work with students of all ages and abilities from beginner to advanced.  Live online lessons are available for piano, guitar, violin, viola, cello, harp, flute, clarinet, trumpet, low brass, saxophone, and percussion.  You can receive your first online lesson for free with code ONLINE-1STFREE13 when registering, but you must register for a minimum of 2 lessons to take advantage of this offer.

There is special introductory pricing available for homeschool students:

  • Four 30-minute individual online lessons for $111
  • Available to all K-12 homeschooled students
  • This is a 25% discount off regular tuition rates

After the introductory period, they offer Flex Packs:

  • Schedule 8 live online lessons within an 18-week semester at $37 per 30-minute lesson
  • If you have a scheduling conflict, you have the option to cancel a lesson 48 hours in advance without forfeiting the lesson

 

OUR EXPERIENCE:

Someone from the Center contacted us in advance of our lessons to explain the process and to help us test whether or not we had equipment sufficient to Skype with the instructor.  We tried out different locations for lighting purposes, background noise, and positioning.  We decided on the best physical location, tried out laptops vs. tablets that we have, etc., and determined the best feed was occurring with my daughter’s Nabi 2 Tablet in our dining room in front of a window.  The representative had me set up the instructor in our Skype address book, she instructed me to tune Haylee’s guitar, and we were all set to begin our lessons the following week!

Our instructor’s name was Randy.  He was a friendly fellow.  At the first lesson, we called him on Skype, and he introduced himself to both of us.  He chatted for a bit with Haylee and got to know a little about her.  She is very shy with new people, and I had let them know this in advance, so he was prepared to spend a little time finding common ground with her in an effort to pull her out of herself a bit more.  Pretty soon, he had her giggling and talking to him, so we were off to a good start.  In terms of instruction, he taught her proper posture, how to sit in the chair with the instrument, how to position the guitar in her hands, and how to hold the pick properly.  He had her practice each movement 4 times without assistance from me so he could see that she could do it on her own.  This was great reinforcement of her understanding, and I joked with him that I might have to steal that tip for practice in other areas of her life!  Smile  Randy also taught her how to number the strings rather than referring to notes at this point (she is a true beginner), and how to number the first few frets.  He also taught her the parts of the guitar.  This lesson went very well!  He assigned her some homework to practice a steady rhythm as she picked up and down the scale, playing each note 4 times in succession.

Our second lesson took place on Haylee’s 9th birthday.  Randy remembered it was her birthday from their conversation the week before, and he spent about 10 minutes chatting with her about her cake and her plans for celebration.  She was much more talkative this time.  He noticed that her pick was more of a decorative pick and was much too large for actual playing, so he requested that she get some proper picks before the next lesson.  In the meantime, he taught her how to pluck the guitar strings with her thumb instead.  Now I must say that she struggled a bit with that, and I wish he had just let her use the pick she had until the next lesson.  I felt like it slowed her progress a lot, and they didn’t accomplish a lot in this lesson compared with the last one.  He did teach her what letters to call her fingers, and he reviewed with her the things that she learned in the first lesson.  He had her write down some sentences that would remind her of some rhythm patterns that he wanted her to practice playing for homework.  That was that!  We went right out the next day and purchased a package of guitar picks so she could use one to practice her homework assignment before the third lesson.

For our third lesson, Randy spent just a couple of minutes warming Haylee up with questions about her birthday and about her upcoming party.  Then he quickly had her review sitting properly with the guitar and holding the pick.  Then the remainder of the lesson was about demonstrating for him the rhythm patterns that she had been assigned for homework the previous week.  She had a much better time with those using the pick rather than trying to strum with her fingers like she did the week before!  It was a good thing we ran out for those new picks.  Haylee did pretty well with playing those four rhythm patterns.  Then he gave her two new ones and had her try them.  She struggled a bit with the new ones, so for homework, he told her to practice playing all six rhythm patterns smoothly as she goes from string to string, up and down the scale. 

For our fourth and final lesson, Randy spent a couple of minutes chatting with Haylee about her party and how things went.  Then he went ahead and recapped the things they’d learned so far.  He had her demonstrate all of the rhythm patterns he’d taught her so far by playing them up and down the strings at a steady beat.  He clapped for her and cheered her on, saying that he could tell she’d been practicing because she had improved so much and had done a great job.  Then he spent some time talking with her about the frets and showed her how to place the tips of her fingers on one of the guitar strings and practice lifting one at a time.  She struggled a bit with lifting the third finger alone, and he said that was common at her age, but that if she practices using those fingers individually, she’ll strengthen her muscle control in those fingers and will be able to do it in just a few weeks.  Then our lesson came to a close, and we said our goodbyes. 

Overall, this was a very positive experience for Haylee.  She hasn’t expressed a great interest in continuing to learn how to play the guitar, but she definitely learned some things, and I think the lessons were a good experience for her in general.  I know we could not afford to continue lessons ourselves, but if you have it in your budget and have a child who is interested in learning to play an instrument, you can’t beat the convenience of these lessons via Skype and the personalized attention your child gets from this unique one-on-one training opportunity.  I would definitely recommend these lessons to anyone in the market for them.

Take a look at what other Crew members had to say about online music lessons for a variety of instruments by clicking the banner below.

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Monday, August 12, 2013

Haylee’s 9th Birthday

My daughter, Haylee, turned 9 on July 31st.  She was very excited!  It actually just dawned on me that this was her last birthday before she hits the double digits…scary thought!  When the heck did that happen?!?

Anyway, she and her brother get a HUGE birthday bash right between their birthdays, I always let them choose the cake they want me to make for their actual birthday.  This year, she was dead set on a Red Velvet cake with Double Chocolate frosting.  Not only that, but she wanted my infamous colossal cupcake version, which is a giant cupcake made from 2 cake mixes and set into a solid chocolate base.  I made the chocolate cup by melting chocolate candy melts and spreading them into the silicone base pan for the cake and cooling it in the refrigerator.  Then I unmold it and store it in the fridge until the cake is baked and cooled.  She absolutely loves this colossal cupcake!

So here it is:

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And here she is with it, just a tad bit excited, as you can see:

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This was actually the day after her birthday.  I made it on the actual day, but her dad had a business dinner meeting until very late that day, and she insisted that she couldn’t have cake without daddy, so we did the cake the next day when he got home from work. 

Since she couldn’t spend her actual birthday with her dad, I took her out to Mi Casita to celebrate, and she had a fabulous time.  She’d requested tacos for dinner, so I figured this outing would kill two birds with one stone.  The fellas at Mi Casita sang to her in Spanish and put this huge pepper in the seat beside her while she wore a beautiful gold sombrero.  She loved it!  Then they brought her Mexican Fried Ice Cream to celebrate.  It was awesome, and she had a great time!

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Here are a few more pics of her special day, and one of her and Holden dancing out in front of the restaurant on the way out…crazy kids!

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Happy birthday, baby girl! Smile

Saturday, August 10, 2013

REVIEW: Beginner and Intermediate Levels by Bible Study Guide for All Ages

My 5-year old son, Holden, got to use the Beginner Student Pages and Beginner Time Line.  My 9-year old daughter, Haylee, got to use the Intermediate Student Pages and the Bible Book Summary Cards. They both got to use the Children’s Songs CD Set.  These were all provided by Bible Study Guide for All Ages.

 

WHAT IS IT?:

The Bible Study Guide for All Ages is a unique concept that allows children of various ages and even entire families to study the bible together.  It offers plenty of variety to fit every family and group.  All participants can just do the oral study from the Unit Teacher Guide, or you can use that for the adults and teens and incorporate Student Pages for children, which are available in several levels for various ages.  When working this way, the group reads one set of passages aloud and then has written activities that are age appropriate for each child.  The levels of the Student Pages include:

  • Beginner Level for age 3-grade K
  • Primary Level for grades 1-2 (this level also requires a Primary Teacher Guide)
  • Intermediate Level for grades 3-4
  • Advanced Level for grades 5-6

You can read the FAQ’s to get a better feel for how to select the materials you’ll need to accommodate your whole family into a group bible study.

The FAQ section will also explain the order of study for the program and why it doesn’t start at Genesis and proceed through Revelation in that order.  Instead, the program provides a mix of Old and New Testament in each year of the program so that your children don’t have to wait four years before they get to study about the life of Jesus! 

The Student Pages are grouped into 26 lessons per workbook, with a total of 416 lessons at each level.  Each workbook of 26 lessons can be purchased for just $5.95.  They’ve set it up so that if your child changes grade levels before they’ve completed the study, you can just order the next workbook at the next level up and continue on with the same study without having to repeat any previously studied material.  In other words, a given lesson # will cover the same material in all levels, providing activities appropriate to the student’s grade level.  This is one of the many things that make this program unique!

Other items we used include the Beginner Time Line that is $24.95, the Bible Book Summary Cards that are $24.95, and the Children’s Songs CD Set that is $19.95.  While these items are not required, they do add a lot of value to the lessons, and I personally would consider them essential.  Assignments for these items are made on the Student Pages.  The nice thing about summary cards and time line is that they are large and durable (like mini-posters), so you only need one set of them for all of your children to share, no matter how many kids you are teaching.  They come shrink-wrapped in plastic, so if you choose to use them, I’d recommend that you get a sturdy expanding pocket folder to store them in.  I had some on hand, and they were perfect for storage.

 

OUR EXPERIENCE:

I was really excited at the opportunity to do bible study together with my 4th grader and Kindergartner at the same time.  I’m just going to be discussing the Beginner and Intermediate Level products in this review, because that’s what I used with my own children. You can take a look at the Beginner Level sample or the Intermediate Level sample before reading the rest of my review so you can see what I’m talking about.

The Student Pages are essentially age-appropriate workbooks that you select based on the skill level of the child. I’d recommend starting off with their grade level, or at least trying out the samples of their grade levels before committing to a whole series so you can make sure the assignments are on level for your individual children. But I went by grade level only and found them to be a good fit for my kids.

Right from the start, I loved how easy it was to follow the flow of the activities.  We began with reading a couple of passages of scripture directly from the bible, and that was the lesson portion on which the activities in the Student Pages were based.  The scripture reference was stated at the beginning of the lesson on the Student Pages, and their lessons corresponded to one another, even though their activities were different. 

Once we’d read and talked about the scripture, we move on to the next step.  For Holden, we’d review a Beginner Time Line Card, which came from a set of 8.5”x11” colorful cards that helped to convey a bible event we were studying.  This provided a great visual cue to help him remember bible events from one lesson to the next.

While he looked at that, Haylee would review a Bible Book Summary Card.  These were 8.5”x11” colorful cards that provided visual cues on one side about major events that take place in that book of the bible, and on the other side, gave a brief summary of that book along with some simple comprehension questions.  Answers to those questions are provided right on the cards themselves.  These were great for helping her to remember the significance of each book of the bible.

Then I’d have both kids listen to the related song from the Children’s Songs 2-CD Set.  These contained 91 a capella songs sung by children that helped the kids with their memory work and covered things related to what they were studying.  For instance, when the kids were learning about Jacob and his sons, they listened to the song “The Twelve Sons of Jacob” to help them remember all of their names.

Between the songs and the cards, we found it was a fun way to kick off our lesson.  Then the kids would be working on their Student Pages.  The workbooks are oversized, so we found it easier to just tear out the current lesson page and work with just that one page, which is printed front and back for each lesson.  Since Haylee is older in 4th grade and can read and follow directions independently, she’d then begin working on her page on her own.  Then while she set to work, I would give a little more individual assistance to Holden who is just in Kindergarten. 

Both of their worksheets began with a review section called “Remember It?”  Holden’s had a series of questions we’d do orally, and the answers were printed in small print underneath the questions.  Haylee’s review section gave a varied approach from lesson to lesson with things like true and false, selecting the correct answer, tell what happened next, draw in a symbol from a key for the correct answer, etc.  This offered her a lot of variety so things weren’t the same from one page to the next.

Then they’d both have an application section where we’d consider the story we’d read from the bible, talk about it, and use the discussion questions to make self-application of what we learned.  These were entirely age appropriate and a good opportunity for kids to figure out how the events in the bible apply to them today in their everyday lives.

In addition, Holden’s pages had a pencil drawing that demonstrated the bible story, and he could look at that while we talked about it and color it if he wanted to.  Haylee’s pages always had either some map work or timeline work for her to do. 

DSCF0807On the back side was the “Discover the Bible” section.  Their pages had numbered boxes with some sort of illustration or cartoon in each one, and there was a corresponding numbered instruction for what the students needed to do to that illustration in order to answer a question or demonstrate understanding of the bible story.  Sometimes Holden would have to color something specific that identified a bible character or an event.  Sometimes he’d have to trace a word in a speech bubble or something of that nature.  Whereas Haylee would have to draw in something missing from the picture of the event, mark out things that didn’t belong in order to make the picture represent what happened, underline or circle something, or fill in some blanks in the speech bubbles.  Again, there was a LOT of variation in the activities within a lesson and from one lesson to another.  I can honestly say she never got bored with these pages and looked forward to doing them!

There was also a “Get Active!” section for both of them.  These gave suggested activities for the teacher to do with the students that helped to demonstrate the concept in a meaningful way.  The kids always enjoyed anticipating what this might be, and it was totally different from lesson to lesson.

For both of them, the worksheets, cards, and songs really helped ensure that they had comprehension, retention, and application of the scriptures we’d read at the beginning of each lesson.  The bottom line is that these were engaging lessons we could work on together in one sitting that were fun and offered a lot of variety and practical application.  They were fun, and the kids sincerely looked forward to doing them. 

The vendor recommends doing these lessons twice per week, but you can do them as often as you’d like.  Haylee was always begging to do more of them.  She didn’t view them as schoolwork and really thought they were fun!  I liked how they tied together things they’d already studied at church and at home and made it all fun and real for them.  I loved how the lessons and worksheets flowed easily, and I didn’t need to keep referring to a separate teacher’s manual for what to do next.  There’s a brief summary of how the lessons go in the front of the Student Pages, and that’s really the only thing you need to read before you start…then off you go! 

This program is simply delightful.  I can definitely see us continuing to use this long-term, and I’m also going to recommend it for the children’s multi-age bible study class at our church.  We have a small congregation, so there are children of mixed ages in one class, and this lends itself to that environment beautifully!

I hope you’ll spend some time checking out this program.  You won’t be sorry you did!

Take a look at what other Crew members had to say about this and other levels from Bible Study Guide for All Ages by clicking the banner below.

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Sunday, August 4, 2013

REVIEW: The Little House on the Prairie: The Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder DVD by Legacy Documentaries

My kids and I had the opportunity to watch and review The Little House on the Prairie: The Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder DVD by Legacy Documentaries.

 

WHAT IS IT?:

The Little House on the Prairie:  The Legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder DVD is a one-hour and fifteen-minute documentary film that chronicles the real life of Laura Ingalls Wilder.  It includes film footage of the various locations that the Ingalls and Wilder families lived.  This documentary was filmed by Dean Butler who played “Almanzo Wilder” on the Little House television series.

This documentary is designed for the whole family to enjoy, but it’s targeted at ages 8-13, which is the age group for reading the Little House book series.

This DVD is available for $24.95.

There is another related documentary by Dean Butler called Almanzo Wilder:  Live Before Laura, available for $21.95.

 

OUR EXPERIENCE:

This is an excellent documentary film that will open your eyes to the real life of Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I watched this DVD with my 13 year old son and my 9 year old daughter.  We all enjoyed it very much, and I think it’s well-suited to a variety of ages. 

The film is narrated by Dean Butler, who played Almanzo Wilder on the popular Little House on the Prairie television series.  It used a combination of real life photographs, illustrations from the Little House books, simple reenactments, and pencil drawings to keep us entertained and engaged as Dean told about the events of Laura’s life. 

The story began with Laura’s married life, omitting a great deal of the details of her childhood.  It only relates details of her childhood as it discusses the contents of the Little House series of books.  This documentary was more the story of how Laura Ingalls Wilder came to write the series in the first place and her struggle to get each novel published in the way she saw fit.

Personally, I found her story fascinating!  I watched the television series religiously as a child and could relate so many of the childhood antics and experiences of Laura’s life from my exposure to that.  But this was entirely different.  This told how those stories came to be written and why.  It told how she kept notes of her life events in a box for many years before she ever began to write them down as the basis for books.  It also explained the places in which Laura chose some poetic license and wrote the stories differently from how they actually took place, and how she sometimes altered real life characters.  One example of this was the character of Nelly, who was actually a composition of 3 young girls with whom Laura went to school.

The documentary also went on to tell of Laura’s children and her daughter Rose in particular.  I thought it was wonderful how Rose and Laura collaborated and how Rose got Laura into writing for publication in the first place, herself being a renowned and recognized magazine writer at the time.

It impressed me that Laura started writing her books amidst the Great Depression as an inspiration to children who were struggling to get by with their families in difficult times…to show them that perseverance and hard work could see them through to better times ahead.

I also loved that Laura and Almanzo, despite their struggles and tragedies of their early lives, remained together as much as possible and both lived to be 90 years old. 

I think this documentary was well-written and gave a unique perspective on Laura’s adult life and how her books came into being.  I think anyone, adults and children alike, who have ever seen the television series or have read Laura’s books would be equally fascinated with this excellent film that gives us extra insight into the life of an amazing and inspirational person who truly represents a historic time in our nation’s heritage.

Check out what other Crew members thought of this and DVD’s from Dean Butler with Legacy Documentaries by clicking the banner below.

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