Daughter read this aloud with me and we loved it. I'm so glad my daugter was able to read this on her and able to enjoy Laura, Ma, Pa, Mary, and baby Carrie's life in the Big Woods. I see her re-reading this until she's ready for the original series alone.

Renee Graef is one of my favorite artists. This book was the coziest read!

I loved these books as a child. These picture books make it easy for young readers to enjoy the stories.

Something so cozy and nostalgic about the little house books!

In this children’s picture book, adapted from the Little House books, Laura and her family live through the winter in the big woods. She and her older sister help their mother gather their garden harvest, bake, churn butter, and do other house chores. During the day her father hunts and at night entertains the family with his fiddle. This story is a nice introduction to a pioneer way of life. In my school district, second graders learn about our city’s pioneer history, and visit historical log cabins from this time period in the spring. This book would be a great addition to the curriculum for this unit. Laura and her sister find many ways to keep busy, playing with homemade paper dolls, drawing frost circles on the windows, and listening to stories. Students could compare and contrast modern life with Laura’s life. They could make paper dolls with time period clothing and with modern clothing.

Winter Days in the Big Woods- My first Little House Books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder is a walk down memory lane for anyone that grew up on the Little House book series, which I enjoyed that I saved the books which I passed on to my daughter. The pictures were adapted from the original Little House series which shows the reader the vast countyside where the Ingalls family lives in Wisconsin.
The book is a tribute to a time when we preserved the homestead. It lends itself to an easy understanding of a weekly schedule of the chores that it took to thrive in the remote town. In 2021 in a urban city, one probably does not understand the hard work it took to "wash, iron, mend, churn, clean, and bake" before one rests on Sunday. The log cabin shows the reader how a family of five could live simply but happily and enjoys the small things in life, like etching a picture in the frost on the window or making paper dolls. You can also feel the love this family has for one another as the author describes the pure joy of hearing her Pa come home and spending quality time together listening to Pa play his fiddle. It makes the reader want to be warm and cozy with them in their little house in the big woods.

These "first" books are absolutely wonderful! The illustrations are very nice and so eye catching for non readers. I LOVED them, am so glad I found them now I won't have to wait until my 2 year old granddaughter is older to share with her the wonderfully sweet stories of Laura and History back in pioneer days! LOVED THIS BOOK...

Notes:
All the books in this series are beautiful.
Great intro to pioneer life, but may not connect to preschoolers with no frame of reference.
Son read them after he first learned to read.
Excerpted from Wilder's actual books.

I didn’t know they made My First Little House books; they didn’t have these out when I was a kid. I was just browsing through the library’s books and wanting a throwback to my childhood, and to learn about life at this time. I didn’t know they had bridged the gap between the original chapter books and younger kids, so I wasn’t expecting this to be basically a picture book with a few sentences on every other page. I don’t think I remembered that they lived in Wisconsin. I would have thought it was another state.

It was interesting that Pa went hunting every day to stock up on meat for the winter. Ma and the girls picked potatoes, carrots, beets, turnips, cabbages, onions, peppers and pumpkins. I wouldn’t have expected them to have all of those kinds of vegetables.

I liked learning that they used a thimble on their fingers to draw pictures in the frost on the windows. I was surprised that each day had its own task. Monday was for washing, Tuesday: ironing, Wednesday: mending, Thursday: church, Friday: cleaning, Saturday: baking, and resting on Sunday.

They churned cream to make butter. Ma would give them little pieces of dough to make a little loaf of bread, and bits of cookie dough to make cookies. Sometimes after the work was done for the day, Ma would make paper dolls for the girls. She’d cut colored paper and draw faces on with a pencil, and cut out dresses and cats and ribbons so they could dress them.

I had never heard Pa’s saying about Laura: “Where’s my little half-pint of sweet sider half drunk up?” I only knew that he called her half pint, not the whole saying.

He would play the fiddle and sing songs, and tell them stories with them sitting on his knees.

It was a short story, just the basics, which I guess is ok for little kids, but I expected more and was disappointed how it ended with saying the cabin was warm and cozy, despite it being cold outside. I wanted even more from life back then and was hoping to learn about more customs and traditions.

A charming story about a young pioneer girl and her family. The story weaves the tale of life in the woods of Wisconsin and the daily routines of a little girl and her family. The story covers everything from Pa and Ma's daily work, such as hunting, planting, sowing and gathering crops, churning butter and other subtleties. The little girls and their parents seem happy and cozy with their life. The realistic pictures paint a picture of what life back then would really be like. A straighforward, poignant book with a heartwarming message about a happy, content family that made the best of the simple things.

Before we read this story, we usually think about the things the kids like to do in the winter, both indoors and out, then we read to find out what the Wilder children did.

It was really fun reading this book to my Kindergarten class. We talked a lot about things that were the same and different from how we live in 2013. I loved the originals when I was little, and these were perfect for my class. I am going to find more on Amazon for sure! Excited!!!