O Pioneer

Yesterday I went on a field trip to Prairie Village (http://www.prairievillage.org). I have a disclosure to make-I've had a fascination with pioneer life since reading the Little House books as a kid. I loved the tv show and was obsessed with it. When Mary went blind, my friends & I pretended to be blind, too. We played wagon train on my bed, where we'd put stuff on the bed as we went across the plains. It encouraged me to learn as much about that era in American history.

My favorite little house book still is Little House on the Prairie (which is not the first in the series, that distinction goes to Little House in the Big Woods. My obsession has a new layer as many of the books are set in South Dakota, my adopted home state. Earlier this school year, my son and his class read By the Shores of Silver Lake (http://www.littlehousebooks.com/books/bookdetail.cfm?ISBN13=9780064400053) and I was so excited to share my love of these books with him.
Except, he's all boy and would much rather read Conspiracy 365 or Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

The Ingalls homestead is in DeSmet, SD (http://www.ingallshomestead.com/index.html). The amazing thing to me is her life bridged two centuries and many, many changes in the world. She was born before South Dakota was a state, and died as rock and roll started to take off.

I was fascinated by the various buildings at Prairie Village. The size of the homes-especially the sod house-was amazing in how small they truly were. He was fascinated by the one room school house.
He went on his first train ride.
We saw the Lawrence Welk opera house (which was a source of entertainment in that era)
There were many churches on the grounds.
The boys were fascinated by a snake and a salamander in the bathroom.
The boys claimed everything was haunted.
The carousel was great.
They loved the merry go round the best.

It was a great day to go back in time.