My daughter and I are going to start reading these together tonight. Anyone have any fun ideas for lessons to go along with them?

If you want a full blown unit study that goes in depth there is a book "Prairie Primer" by Margie Gray which is 334 pages long and states it is for grades 3-6.  Maybe you can get it here on PBS or buy it used? ISBN 0965251136 Since I have book resources on hand I have not seached the web to see what sites may have for free. HTH.

I just checked out Inside Laura's Little House from my library. It has lots of info and ideas. Here's a link to it http://www.paperbackswap.com/book/details/9780060278274-Inside+Lauras+Little+House+The+Little+House+on+the+Prairie+Treasury+Little+House

 ETA: Here are some free online unit studies:

http://home.att.net/~cattonn/pioneer.html   (we made butter in a jar and the kids loved it, loved making it and eating it - just remember to add salt) And if you want to get fancy you can make a miniature butter churn with a jar and a few dowel rods) This link gives the general idea but uses a coffee can and tinker toys. http://www.practicalkitchen.com/kids/making_butter.shtml

http://www.geocities.com/~perkinshome/littlehouse.html - this site seems popular too

http://lara5.tripod.com/TrueLightAcademy/LittleHouse.html - this mom is well organized

Have fun with it and let us know what you end up doing. I love sharing ideas!

We used to have a book called My Little House Crafts Book:  18 Projects from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House Stories (ISBN 0064462048), but unfortunately I've passed it on to a friend.  However, here are some pioneer/old-fashioned crafts we've done in the past:

• make butter (see thezookeeper's post above--I've found that if I add a clean marble to the jar before shaking, it acts like the paddle in the butter churn.)
• dip candles (You can melt old candles for the wax, or buy beeswax.  Tie your wick string to a stick.  Take turns dipping your wick string into a coffee can of melted wax and cooling your growing candle in coffee can of water.)
• punch tin (I bought a roll of tin that was thicker than aluminum foil but not as thick as a tin can.  If you use a tin can, file the rough edges where you opened it first for safety--and here's a tip to keep it from collapsing when you're hammering holes in the can:  fill the can with water and freeze it.  The ice will keep the can solid while you hammer.  You can keep it from rolling around by placing in on some piled-up towels.)
• play old-fashioned games (We've played tug-of-war, wheelbarrow races, eat a donut on a string with no hands, sack races--you can use old pillow cases, etc.)
• make old-fashioned toys (We've made ball-in-cup games--tie one end of a piece of string to a big bead or button and thread the other end through a hole in the bottom of a dixie cup; then try to catch the bead in the cup.  We've also made the "game of graces"--which is a hoop covered with ribbons that players toss back and forth with a pair of dowels.)

If your library doesn't have Little House craft books, it may have Kirsten American Girl craft books.  Those will work, too!

thanks for the ideas.

wow Christine, that book looks great but it is $34 used on Amazon. ack! I will look through everyone's links. thanks

Those are fun ideas

I have the Little House cookbook (I got it on here) and it is a great addition to reading the books too.  Tells how to make the different foods mentioned in the books.  If there is a period recreation farm near where you live, that is usually great too for seeing how things were done!  I know we have one nearby that has a real penny candy general store, an old fashioned one-room schoolhouse and a playhouse with period toys for kids to play in, and it is a working farm so you can see how they spun wool, did chores, planted crops, etc.

We made a log cabin out of twig branches.

When we used Prairie Primer, there was a Yahoo group that was always sharing wonderful ideas. Perhaps you could join and check out the archives and files for ideas. You can always switch to "No Mail" if it gets too busy.