I can’t believe that I haven’t found this site before but I just had to share it with everyone else because this is so awesome! I mean this can and will save me a ton of time and it makes some parts of homeschooling so much easier and my kiddos actually enjoy reading this series.
Magic Treehouse books are geared towards 1-4 grades (6-10 years old) but I’m actually going to be using them with my 3rd grader and my 5th grader because it’s just easier to combine things when I can. The older kiddos (and little miss) will be listening in as we will be in the same room so they will all be learning as we go.
**This post does contain some affiliate and/or referral links to products and/or services that we use. If you happen to click through a link and make a purchase we may earn a teensy-weensy small commission (at NO EXTRA cost to you) if a purchase is made through these links. These links help to support our family, our blog, and our homeschooling mission. This means that we can keep bringing you great recipes, ideas, and tips for FREE! Click HERE for a full disclaimer. –Thank you!
We usually school year-round so this week is a planning week for me… actually, it’s a ‘catch-up’ on everything around the house week before the place gets condemned (jk) kinda week but I have been getting some planning and printing done, and have the next three weeks of learning ready to go. I still felt like I needed a little more reading for the boys and I’d found a couple of Novel-ties study units but you know me… if we were going to do a few books out of the series why not do them all? BTW, I haven’t forgotten about the Little House on the Prairie Unit Studies and I will get back to them just as soon as I have a chance to catch my breath around here. I also have some plans to create a ‘ready-made’ unit study guide that can be used with just about any book…. when I find some spare time that isn’t already set aside for something else or being used to chase around the almost 2-year-old who is getting to be very mobile despite her prenatal diagnosis of ‘being nothing more than a vegetable’… she sure fooled them!
Where has the time gone? I can’t believe it’s been two years this week since little miss made her debut and I still remember how scary that was but she has been such a blessing to us and we are so very grateful to all of our prayer warriors for helping us get through those traumatic events… words could never express how grateful we are and how blessed we have been to be surrounded by so many loving and caring people!
Anyways, getting back to my reason for writing this post… I couldn’t find any ready-made unit studies for all of the books so I figured I’d just make my own, but who am I kidding? I don’t really have time for that right now so the next best thing was to ask my dear old friend, Google, and she hooked me up with some links to check out. Among them was a link to this wonderful blog post HERE, which is where I learned that the Magic Treehouse has a website and FREE Lesson Plans to go along with their books… WHATTTT????? Why has no one told me this before????
They also have a ‘special education’ lesson plan to use with grades 3-5 and this will work put great with our kiddos. My kids are already using the Living Education for Language Arts and Math so I’m not set on them needing any extra work but there are some great activities that we can definitely incorporate into our daily lesson plans. The site also has several different games and online activities for the kiddos but I haven’t had a chance to really check them out yet. Be sure to check the ‘Parents’ tab and the ‘Teachers’ tab for the different activities.
I just purchased a few of the ‘Fact Checker’ books as well to go along with these and I will buy a few at a time as we read through the series… there are more books than I had previously thought but you can never have too many books, right?
These would also be great to use for summer reading to keep the kiddos from getting bored!
These are divided into weekly work as we like to use Loop Scheduling in our home. We simply work on a little bit and then move on to the next subject area. We have four days of ‘school’ and then the fifth day is used to finish up projects that we have been working, for independent study, or fun activities and field trips. Have fun on your Little House on the Prairie Academic Adventures!
These are divided into weekly work as we like to use Loop Scheduling in our home. We simply work on a little bit and then move on to the next subject area. We have four days of ‘school’ and then the fifth day is used to finish up projects that we have been working, for independent study, or fun activities and field trips. Have fun on your Little House on the Prairie Academic Adventures!
Here are our Lesson Plans For Language Arts
These lessons were made to go along with ‘On The Banks Of Plum Creek‘ 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!
You may find it easier to buy a Workbook for your children to work through as you go along with the rest of the study.
Answer Key Password: momsrock
Mornings:
We start every morning off with our prayers and the Pledge of Allegiance. Below is a picture of the prayers that we say and a video of the Pledge of Allegiance.
Not the prettiest example but that’s what we’ve been using for the past few years.
Don’t have a flag? Grab one HERE and print it out to put up somewhere… you could even let the kids make a flag to proudly display. Amazon also has some little ones like this one HERE and HERE.
After this, we have our calendar time also where we go over such things as the Days of the Week, the months, and some basic math.
This one came from Lakeshore Learning.
The younger kids will also be watching some of these videos while I work with the older ones:
And we will be trying out some relaxing background music with Google.
Tip: If you want to go to a certain week/chapter or topic 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, 5 & 6
(The Door in the Ground, The House in the Ground, Rushes and Flags, Deep Water, Strange Animal, and Wreath of Roses)
We plan to use this FREE Lapbook to go along with our study.
Reading:
Read Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6
You can read it or let the kids help to read it aloud.
**BE SURE TO SAVE A FEW SAMPLES OF YOUR WORK FOR YOUR PORTFOLIO! TAKE PICTURES OF BIG PROJECTS!
**This post does contain affiliate links to products and/or services that we use. We may earn a teensy weensy small commission (at NO EXTRA cost to you) if a purchase is made through these links. These links help to support our family, our blog, and our homeschooling mission.
**This post may contain affiliate links to some of the products and resources that we have used. These are provided at no extra charge to you and help to support our blog and family if a purchase is made through these links. -Thank you!
These are divided into weekly work as we like to use Loop Scheduling in our home. We simply work on a little bit and then move on to the next subject area. We have four days of ‘school’ and then the fifth day is used to finish up projects that we have been working, for independent study, or fun activities and field trips. Have fun on your Little House on the Prairie Academic Adventures!
Here are our Lesson Plans For Language Arts
These lessons were made to go along with ‘The Little House On The Prairie‘ 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!
You may find it easier to buy a Workbook for your children to work through as you go along with the rest of the study.
Mornings:
We Start every morning off with our prayers and the Pledge of Allegiance. Below is a picture of the prayers that we say and a video of the Pledge of Allegiance.
Not the prettiest example but that’s what we’ve been using for the past few years.
Don’t have a flag? Grab one HEREand print it out to put up somewhere… you could even let the kids make a flag to proudly display. Amazon also has some little ones like this one HERE and HERE.
After this we have our calendar time also where we go over such things as the Days of the Week, the months, and some basic math.
This one came from Lakeshore Learning.
Tip: If you want to go to a certain week/chapter or topic 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
We plan to use this FREE Lapbook to go along with our study.
Reading:
Read Chapters 1, 2 & 3
You can read it or let the kids help to read it aloud.
**Although I try to provide as many FREE resources as possible this post may contain affiliate links alt no extra cost to you. We may earn a small commission, if a purchase is made through these links, which helps to support our blog and our family. Thank you!
NOTE: My kiddos were 5, 6, 9, 11, and 15 at the time we created study unit. Some ideas may need to be changed/adjusted for older kids.
Tip: If you want to go to a certain week/chapter or topic 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.
Introduction:
We have been using the Little House on the Prairie Books for our homeschool this year and my kids are loving it. I have scoured the internet for resources to make our learning experience as fun and exciting as possible. This series of posts is a compilation of different resources we have found and used in our home. Please note that some of these may have been FREE at the time I found them and prices and/or availability may have changed. Feel free to leave your own links in the comments section below.
I also want to take a moment to thank all of these wonderful people who put together so many wonderful resources for all of us to use with our children. I know that many hours, blood, sweat, and tears went into these projects but your work is greatly appreciated!
We will be completing this Lap Book project as we read through this book.
Reading:
We will be reading the noted selection for the week as well as discussing what we have read. I may come up with other questions as well. Kids are curious and I know we will have many questions which may lead to some research in other areas.
We will also be working on reading through a few books, see Kirby’s Kids Grade by Grade Homeschool Reading List , for each different grade level. The older kids will have some independent reading while the younger ones will have a mixture of read alouds, read alongs, and independent reading.
You should keep a record of the books read. You can do this in a notebook or using this printable HERE.
Handwriting:
I did not list handwriting in the weekly work tasks as my kids are using the Spencerian Penmanship for handwriting and will practice this every day.
My kids are loving these new pencil grips we got recently!
Vocabulary:
We will be doing various activities for this area. We will be looking up definitions, matching words, putting the words in alphabetical order, and a variety of other activities.
Writing:
There will be a variety of creative writing ideas as well. I have tried to vary them and offer choices to help encourage writing. We will also be doing various writing assignments in some of other areas as well.
These are just some of the other activities that I am incorporating into the lessons with my kiddos as we are all at different learning levels. I put these in here to keep me organized so I don’t ‘forget’ something.
I will add links to worksheets I find or make as we go through the unit. For a general guideline of skills your child should know by grade level click HERE.
I have pulled a lot of the material from the book for the worksheets listed down below.
Many of the ideas have been pulled from the following resources:
We use Ray’s Arithmetic Books for Lessons (Newer versions available here.) but you can also find free lessons online or simply buy a workbook from your local dollar store.
Note about Ray’s Arithmetic Books: These can be a little confusing at first but the Parent/Teacher guide is so useful! I have found that the books are in order as follows:
1st/2nd grades: Ray’s New Primary Arithmetic
3rd/4th grades: Ray’s New Intellectual Math
5th/6th grades: Ray’s Practical Arithmetic
7th/8th grades: Ray’s Higher Arithmetic
I have used a lot of the examples from the book to create the worksheets you will find listed below. **ANSWER KEY password: momsrock (highlight blank area)
You can also find FREE Lessons with these links:
You can find FREE math lessons at Easy Peasy All-In-One Homeschool and we have used this for a few years and will probably go back to it at some point.
Many of the ideas have been pulled from the following resources:
Which Way Usa Magazines by Highlights (This link is for the whole subscription set but I have provided links on each week for puzzle books that go with the lesson.)
We will also be studying different lessons from Mystery Science which is a site that the kids LOVE! We have found a lot of FREE lessons on this site. (You do need a membership to access all of the site.)
YouTube can be a great resource for educational videos.
We did use the Food & Nutrition Theme Box from Lakeshore Learning for a lot of our food/nutrition lessons. It has some great lesson ideas to incorporate into other areas as well.
We often have some ‘Free Play’ outside whenever the weather allows as well.
Life Skills:
This area 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 and character training. All of these will go together to help raise our children into the responsible and caring citizens of tomorrow.
You can find a FREE printable log for keeping track of memory work here:
Remember: These are the lessons and activities that we used while doing this study but you can do anything your heart desires to make this a great adventure for you and your kids!
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