By the Shores of Silver Lake: Life Skills Lessons

Here are our Lesson Plans For Life Skills

These lessons were made to go along with ‘By the Shores of Silver Lake‘ written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. We are planning to go through the whole series and I am keeping track of the different topics we are learning about here on my blog. We hope you enjoy these as much as we have!

This page contains our lesson plans for a few different areas that I have included with our ‘Life Skills’. You will find lessons on cooking, cleaning, and organization as well as Bible memory work, manners, and character training. All of these will go together to help raise our children into the responsible and caring citizens of tomorrow.

We will be discussing some of the character qualities that are displayed in the book but if you would like to do a separate character study lesson you can download one HERE.

On weeks where there are several activities listed just choose a couple that interests you the most to work on. You may have a chance, later on, to go back and look at anything you missed or do a more in-depth look at a topic that interests you.

We are using the books listed below as we learn about Hospitality. The books may need to be read and paraphrased for younger children.

Tip: If you want to go to a certain week/chapter or subject simply push the ‘ctrl’ and the ‘F’ button down together and a small bar will pop up. Type in the week number or chapter number you want and it will take you to it.

Week 1: Chapters 1, 2, 3, & 4

Memory Verse:

We will be memorizing Romans 8:31-39 during this unit study. Print it HERE.

Work on memorizing one verse during the week for a special prize.
- Verse 31:What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Older kids can copy the memory verse down in their notebook.

Character

Taking Care of Ourselves

Why was Laura so tired?
What had happened to the family?
Why is it important to take care of our bodies?
Work on Family relationships – brothers and sisters

Manners

Let’s start reading about hospitality. Choose one of the books below to read from:

Read:

A Life That Says Welcome p. 11-20
Practicing Hospitality p. 19-46

Discussion:

What are some things you learned?
What are some areas you need to work on?

Try one of these activities:

Fun Activities

Watch how this train turns around:

Other:

Watch this scene from the book:

Have you ever lost a pet?
How did you feel? How do you think Laura felt?

Find some ways to make your chores a little bit more fun.
Watch The Polar Express.
Research ways to preserve foods with Preserving Everything.
Click HERE to learn about fun and unusual holidays.

Bonus Skills — Choose one or two to work on

Practice these until you finish this unit study and then we will move on to new skills.

Susie’s Chem Free Zone

Can you find the flu virus, bacteria, and protein in the picture below? Compare these to the size of the frog egg.

It is so important to clean well, especially when someone in the family is sick so that you can remove the viruses and bacteria and prevent them from making anyone else ill. Viruses and bacteria are tiny and can’t be seen by the naked eye… just like the proteins from the raw chicken in the Norwex demo video below:

Discuss what you’ve learned.
Write out your family’s cleaning process for dealing with sickness.

Kids Cook Real Food

Work on your next lesson.
Help to prepare a meal using your new skills.
Packing and Eating Real Food on Road Trips

Skill Trek

Work on at least one task a week.
Practice your new skill this week.
Coughs, Colds, and Bees? Learn how honey and other BEE products can keep our kids healthy!

Herb Study

Using one of the following for your study:

Discuss what you learned.
Be sure to jot down some notes.
Play Wildcraft! An Herbal Adventure Game, a cooperative board game

A Kid’s Herb Book: For Children of All Ages

Trim Healthy You

Read through your lesson.
Discuss what you learned.
Complete any bookwork.
Try out a recipe using your new information.