Little House on the Prairie

 

We hope you enjoyed your Mother’s Day celebrations last month and have fun plans for Father’s Day. As we honor and celebrate the special parents in our lives, we’d like to take a moment to reflect on the many lessons that Ma and Pa Ingalls taught us about life. Full of perseverance and courage, they were firm but also loving and caring.

This year more families are choosing to spend “summer vacation” at home. With no set schedule, it’s easy to fall into a rut that involves a LOT of screen time. To forestall summer boredom, help your family plan a Little House on the Prairie-themed summer camp! We’ve got a daily itinerary of things to do, eat, and learn that will keep your kids interested and help them avoid the summer brain drain.

We had the pleasure of interviewing Eric Caron, a talented model maker who is also a fan of “Little House on the Prairie,” to learn more about his replicas of the different houses and buildings shown throughout the TV series. He began making these models 35 years ago and had to rely on short glimpses of the set while watching each episode on NBC. A lot has changed since then but his love for Little House has remained.

Sometimes there’s simply nothing better than delicious, homemade ice cream like the one Almanzo Wilder enjoyed in Farmer Boy. In Almanzo’s day, summer was the traditional time to make ice cream and folks had to work hard for their sweets since there were no power-driven refrigerators or churns available. As you look forward to the summer ahead, we think you’ll find this modern ice cream recipe adaptation less tiring and definitely worth the effort!

The “Little House on the Prairie” TV show wouldn’t have been the same without Melissa Gilbert and Dean Butler. The two made quite the pair as they played the roles of Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder. They even share the same birthday month in real life! Melissa Gilbert celebrated her birthday on May 8th and Dean Butler on May 20th. Learn more about their lives then and now in these exclusive articles about Melissa Gilbert and Dean Butler.

Last month we also celebrated the birthday of Grace Ingalls, born on May 23, 1877.  Did you know that she was born ten years after her sister Laura? And in the TV series, she was played by twins Wendi and Brenda Turnbaugh who were just infants when they were cast on the show. As we celebrate her birthday this month, take a moment to learn about the real Grace Ingalls and what her life was like.

Our Recommended Reading articles have been popular resources for readers interested in learning more about Laura Ingalls Wilder’s world.  This month, we are spotlighting the book, The Beautiful Snow: The Ingalls Family, The Railroads, and the Hard Winter of 1880-81. The Long Winter is one of the most memorable novels in Wilder's Little House series. It beautifully details the dramatic events of The Hard Winter of 1880-81, a harrowing time with months of never-ending blizzards leading to railroad blockades that cut off many communities. Lively and rewarding, The Beautiful Snow is a new look at this challenging time in Laura’s life.

We are pleased to highlight and celebrate inspiring organizations that preserve the legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder, seek to improve living conditions for people and promote good stewardship of our planet. Today we celebrate the work of Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization.  Donors, staff, and volunteers all play an important role in working to connect people with food to end hunger in the United States.