The Little House Books

I like to read chapter books to my girls. When it works out, we all pile in my bed and I read a chapter or two before bed time. Last year we read The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, and all 3 Heidi books. (What? You say you had no idea there were 3 Heidi books? Well yes, there are AND if you were a total geek like me, you would know that and you would own them .....Oh help me! I am SUCH a NERD!)

This year, Audrey's teacher read Little House in the Big Woods to the class around Christmas time. Audrey loved it. I loved those books as a kid. I have all of them and I read them over and over and over. So we have started reading them. I re-read Little House in the Big Woods so Amy could hear it and now we are about half way through Little House on the Prairie. Reading these as an adult, I am starting to think of things I never thought of before.

* How was Baby Carrie conceived? In the book they describe the sleeping arrangements as Pa and Ma in the big bed and Mary and Laura in a trundle next to them. The houses are described as being basically one big room. Mary and Laura are close in age but there seems to be maybe a 3 or 4 year gap between Laura and Carrie. They were all sleeping in one room and presumably not a very big room........ Ewwwww..........

* How did Pa and Ma meet? In Little House in the Big Woods they are living in a log cabin in the middle of some big woods in Wisconsin. It's full day wagon drive to Pa's parents' house. But it says Ma was from a city in New York. How did she meet Pa? It's not like they met at college. What brought the two together and what made a girl who was living in the city want to move to the middle of nowhere Wisconsin? And there is no mention of ever visiting with her side of the family. Maybe Caroline was the strong willed daughter who ran off to parts unknown with the boy she loved from the "wrong side of the tracks"?????

* When they leave the big woods and head out to the prairie, how the heck does Pa know where he is? There's no map, no gas stations along the way, no GPS. How does he know they have reached the place he wants to settle? How does he know the nearest city is Independence? How does he know he is choosing free land to settle on and not building his house in someone else's "back 40"?

Yes, I know, I am a nerd and I have no life but seriously - aren't you wondering now too?