Schooling in 2008 Laura Ingalls Style!

I started to remember what Emily (my youngest) and I had read not long ago in a Little House on the Prairie book. Laura had gone to teach her first school, and they started each day with recitations from their lessons. I couldn’t figure out at first what they exactly meant. I thought how boring to recite so much. My kids would probably shoot me if I made them do it. But I thought I’d do a little research on the subject. I ran across an ebook from Project Gutenberg on recitations by George Herbert Betts. I downloaded it and started reading it immediately. I’m only on part two of the book, but it has changed my mind so far. It really explains the type of recitations they were doing in the late 1800’s – to early 1900’s. Some of it, you already do in school like multiplication fact drills, spelling drills, etc. But, he really goes into detail about how it is so much more than that and how to do it properly and so the student enjoys it.

It appears at the moment God has led me to a missing link to our schoolwork. Who would have thought that God would use a Little House on the Prairie book so quietly to work on our school? So, by Monday I hope to have finished the book and begin putting a little more one-room schoolhouse in my little homeschool. I’ll keep you posted!