Little Town on the Prairie I
By chapter three of By the Shores of Silver Lake, Ma, Mary, Laura, Carrie, and Grace are heading west on a new adventure. They travel by train from Walnut Grove, Minnesota, to join Pa by the shores of Silver Lake, where…
Category Favorite Books
Traveling to the Birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder
In our little house in Urbana, the children and I began traveling with Pa and Ma, Mary, Laura, Carrie, and later Grace from one little house to another as we began reading the Little House series. Back then, we traveled in our…
Melba’s Best Teachers
A cherished memory of homeschooling our children is sitting on our old couch in our sorta-finished basement den in Urbana, Illinois, reading aloud from the Little House books. I love those books for many reasons but one is the lessons I…
Parenting Lessons from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Part 2
If Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is any indication, author Roald Dahl understood children — and parents, too. The story of the book begins with a contest in which five children, including Charlie, win a tour of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. The tour…
Parenting Lessons from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Part 1
Several weeks ago we had a four-generation outing to the play, Willie Wonka at the Cumberland County Playhouse in nearby Crossville, Tennessee. Our party included my mama, our daughter and her husband, their two- and four-year-old children, our son-in-law’s parents,…
Kinsmen Reunion
In my collection of Little Golden Books is The Christmas Story, told by Jane Werner and illustrated by one of my favorite illustrators, Eloise Wilkin. To me, Miss Wilkin created the most beautiful pictures of children in any of the Little…