Kid’s Pick–All Things Laura Ingalls Wilder

I joke and say that Lulu is the world’s youngest living expert on Laura Ingalls Wilder, but I’m really only half-way kidding.  Way back before Christmas, we began checking out audiobooks of LIW’s books from the library.  We decided that a few of these audiobooks (along with a few others) would be a joy to find under the tree (or in the same room as the tree, as is the case at our house) come Christmas morning.  I thought this would be a short-lived obsession, but it’s still going strong.  I honestly think four-and-a-half year old Lulu (and sometimes even three-year-old Louise) would rather listen to a Little House story than do anything else in the world.  I have to put limits on the length of time they can listen.  Really.

Our whole family has been amazed at the things our girls have learned through this obsession.  I have recorded just a few of the words and phrases that they have used just since the middle of January:

• scarlet fever
• bureau (“I keep my treasures in my bureau.”–Lulu, age 4 1/2)
• fever ague
• “We’re fidgeting.”
• malaria

Do you notice a pattern?  My children have a rather morbid interest in diseases, obviously.  : )

The one that astounded me the most was one day at the beginning of February when Lulu, who was sitting in her car seat and looking at the sunset through the van window, said,  “Is that the West?”  Now I know that it is probably not unusual for a preschooler to have picked up on a fact like this through discussion or reading, but I honestly could not remember having ever discussed this with her.  When I questioned her about how she knew that, she responded with a rather lengthy explanation of something that happened in one of the Little House books (I believe On the Banks of Plum Creek was the current audio-obsession) that taught her that.

Can I just say that these audiobooks are a definite Kid’s Pick here at the House of Hope?

The latest development in this ongoing saga happened last Thursday while the girls were playing in their playroom.  Steady Eddie and I have grown accustomed to answering to Ma and Pa; likewise, we know the identities of Mary, Laura, and Baby Carrie here in our own household, too.  Steady Eddie had moved some old-timey school desks into the playroom earlier in the week, and the girls were having a grand time organizing their school supplies and playing school.  Lulu came skipping out of the playroom with a little bucket in hand, and when I asked her what it was, she responded, “My tin pail.”  Oh, of course.  She had fixed her school-day lunch, complete with wooden butter, a bottle of ketchup, a pork-chop, a chicken leg, and a banana, in a patriotic pail left over from some Independence Day festivity.  I love their book-based imaginative play!

Are you interested in other Kids’ Picks?  If so, head on over to 5 Minutes for Books!