The Butterfly and I have been reading the Little House series for a long time now and I wanted to expand a bit on what she was learning. So first, I bought the Prairie Primer, an amazing, enormous, literature based unit study based on the series.
I keep taking it off the shelf, looking at it, trying to figure out where to start and what to do. And then I put it back on the shelf. I don’t think I’m cut out for a long term intense unit studies like this, but I did decide (to start) that we could carve some soap like Laura did in Little House in the Big Woods.
As Laura Ingalls Wilder said:
“I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.”
It was so simple. I bought a few bars of Ivory Soap, covered the counter tops with newspaper and gave the girls some random tools to work with (pumpkin carving tools left over from last year, butter knives and chopsticks).
They had a blast with this project. We talked all about sculpture while they were carving. The Adventurer explained that it is much harder to carve stone (she has tried this in the past) and wood (she cut herself ). While they worked, I showed them pictures of famous sculptures. They requested the non-nude sculptures.
“Why are statues always naked at the museum?”
Um. Not sure. “They aren’t all nude,” I stated. I decided to change the subject.
“Oh, I like the way you shaped your little cat!”
For some reason, the girls decided that it would be a good idea to put the soap sculptures in the freezer for a while, which led to talk about ice sculptures and how they would like to try that next.
Hmm. Not sure I can pull that one off right now. I smiled and told them I would think about it.
Anyway, this is a fun, quick and easy project to expand your study of Little House in the Big Woods or just for fun. It’s easier than churning butter, and faster than (but not as tasty as) making your own maple sugar candy.
