Laura’s Album: A Remembrance Scrapbook of Laura Ingalls Wilder – Kids’ Book Club July

If your kids have read the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, they will love Laura’s Album, compiled by William Anderson. This “remembrance scrapbook” includes photos of her family, records, letters, and other memorabilia that Laura kept. Laura Ingalls Wilder was an incredible family historian. She preserved countless records and special items from her past.

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In the prologue to Laura’s Album, William Anderson shares that his belief that “seeing these bits and pieces from [Laura’s] life  can enhance our appreciation of the Little House stories and the woman who wrote them, and help us connect with our own pasts.”

Laura’s Album certainly does this! Anderson also wrote, “Readers – often introduced to [The Little House Books] by their parents, who first read them when they themselves were children – pass these books on to their children, and families are inspired by the Little House stories to remember and share their own pasts.

This is certainly true! My mother was given the entire set of Little House books by her aunt. When I was young, my mother introduced the books to me. I loved them. They were probably the first historical novels I had ever read, a genre which I now consider my favorite. Reading historical novels and other historical works has inspired me to learn about my own past and preserve the stories of my own family.

If you have ancestors who farmed and/or lived on the Western Frontier in the late 1800s, you will find a wealth of opportunities to teach your kids about the lives of your ancestors with the Little House Books and Laura’s Album.

This page shows an early piece of Laura’s needlework. Another page in the book shows a quilt that Mary started when she was five years old. Children will be fascinated to learn about the skills that frontier women taught their daughters.

The end of Laura’s Album includes mementos about Laura’s life as a writer and the awards she was given. This page shows a letter to her editor about an article in The Horn Book Magazine that paid tribute to Laura and her work.

Children can learn valuable American history lessons through the Little House books and valuable family history lessons from Laura’s Album. They will be inspired to keep important family documents and heirlooms that tell the story of their family. Viewing the attractive way each page is laid out will also inspire young scrapbookers.

Project Idea: Start a Scrapbook

1. Help your child gather photos and mementos from their lives – movie ticket stub, awards from school, letters, notes, cards
2. Take pictures of each item and use computer software to create scrapbook pages that you can print OR teach your child how to paste items onto a scrapbook page with acid free glue
3. Compile the scrapbook pages into a binder with plastic page protectors OR print the pages with a book making service like Shutterfly or Blurb.
4. Continue to add pages to the scrapbook!

 

Share your thoughts on our monthly book club books at our Family Locket Book club at GoodReads.

 

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Additional Resources:

Simple Summer Scrapbooks Kids Can Make by Valerie at Inner Child Fun

Teaching With Documents: Little House in the Census – Almanzo and Laura Ingalls Wilder – This lesson plan is a great way to introduce census records to young genealogists.

Little House on the Prairie Unit Study by Deb at living Montessori Now – This post has a list of links for activities and lesson plans about the Little House books.

The Cottonwood Tree – An educational resource aimed at exploring the life, era and literature of Laura Ingalls Wilder.