Prairie Tuesday – Week 2

Our Prairie Tuesday is not over yet, but I thought I’d take a break and give you some details so far.  I am loving the overall “feel” of Prairie Tuesdays.  When I wake up on Tuesdays now, I have a different attitude — a more relaxed feeling because I know the day can just flow.  We are home for the day, in our ”old clothes” doing mostly reading and letter writing and domestic things.  No one can deny that pioneer women worked way harder with their hands than we do now, but I think they had fewer ”worldy” distractions and less mental anguish over things that don’t really matter in the long run.  Things like (insert whatever annoying modern distraction comes to mind.)

We started our day with some morning chores.  I had planned for us to go outside and put some soil over the potatoes, but it was raining, so we did some indoor chores.

Breakfast consisted of a couple of fried eggs.  They came from our pretend chickens.  Yum. 

This would be a good time to tell you about Michaela’s prairie clothes for today.  Last night I made her a very primitive “jumper,” cut from a linen tablecloth purchased at Goodwill for 1.29.  The hem on the tablecloth was beautiful and I knew it would make a lovely little prairie dress.  I did not even use a pattern.  I just cut the front and back, tracing generously around a slip she already had.  I hemmed the neckline and arm openings and then stitched up the sides, using the tablecloth’s hem already in place.  I used buttons to attach the shoulder straps. 

And I have found a very easy way to make a pinafore:  take the dress of your choice (thrifted dresses are good; we had a dress that was very cute, puffed sleeves, etc, but was too tight), cut it down the back center, then trim each side of the back to the size you want and hem.  (It’s pretty to see the long dress peeking out from underneath the pinafore in back.)  Make it shorter if you want as well.  Sew on pretty ties near the top at each side in the back so it can be tied in the back.  Clear as mud?

We retired to the parlor where Michaela worked on her embroidery while I read to her A Letter from a Pioneer. 

We were amazed at the different utensils used to cook with and how cooking was always done using fire or coals.

Real Life Stories and Literary Selections, Book One and Two.

These books contain so many real-life stories, if you ever see a set for a good price, my recommendation would be to purchase them.  They have bits of history in them that you don’t read about so much anymore.

Next week we plan to read a little about Lincoln’s Schooling.

As her reading, Michaela is working on Nancy Hanks of Wilderness Road: A Story of Abraham Lincoln’s Mother (Le Sueur, Meridel. Wilderness Book Series.)

She read some of it aloud to us:  “and I remember her, a wild one, that year runnin’ in the woods, nary afraid of Indians, bright as a penny — could read some too.  It was a riddle how she could read and how much she could remember from the Sunday preachin’.”

Oh, and there’s more!  I love this book!  I’ve read it before and it warmed my heart to think of the woman who gave birth to Abraham Lincoln and how she loved him so and wanted him to be educated and to read.  I believe she was a spirited, sweet woman.

Michaela insisted we switch aprons (pinafores) since she liked mine better and thought hers looked “prettier” on me. 

So far lessons today are:

• Morning chores
• Read from Nancy Hanks of Wilderness Road
• Listen to A Letter From A Pioneer
• Write a letter to your pretend cousins in the west
• Work on sampler
• Visit the following website and learn about clothing and life in the 1800s:  Memorial Hall Museum On Line – Kids Page

That website is a great one, by the way.  There’s much on there to learn and I’m sure I’ll have Michaela visit it several times.

There’s more yet to do.  We’re working on a homemade game.  We’ll be eating by oil lamp tonight and we have some math to do.  I’ll post more later.

Happy Prairie Tuesday,

Lynn