Mary Jeffries, dressed as a 19th century school marm, cheerfully greeted children as they came in her front door last week.
She helped girls tie on bonnets and aprons and boys don caps and handkerchiefs as they filed in to sit in rows on her living room floor for the old-fashioned schoolhouse-themed Little House story time.
The weekly event allows children to travel back to the 1860s to learn about the Little House series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Last week Jeffries' students practiced churning butter, identified garden vegetables and learned how children in times past had to make their own toys. They examined Jeffries' collection of antique items and listed to antique instruments played by Jeffries' husband, Ron. Jeffries' home, located on Mount Olive Street, could be more than 100 years old, she said. It provides a perfect setting for the story time.
Jeffries read a chapter of "Little House in the Big Woods," by Wilder, and the class watched clips from season one of the television series "Little House on the Prairie."
"Little House in the Big Woods," is the first of a series of nine Little House books, written by Wilder. The books chronicle the Ingalls family's life and struggles as pioneers during the 1860s to 1880s. Wilder wrote the books between 1932 and 1943, according to the Library of Congress website, www.loc.gov. The weekly television series, "Little House on the Prairie," was broadcast from 1974 to 1983, the website states.
The whole point of Jeffries' story time is to get children to fall in love with reading, she said. She also hopes to pass on her love for the Little House series to the next generation.
"I want them to learn to love to read," she said.
This is the first time Jeffries is doing the story time in her home. She is using a curriculum guide that she wrote.
Jeffries, who holds a masters degree in curriculum development, was a first grade teacher for 27 years before retiring. She frequently uses the Little House series of books in her classroom. She couldn't find a good curriculum guide on the series so she wrote her own in 2005. Her husband Ron drew the illustrations and color pages in the book.
The 310-page book, titled "Little House Social Studies Curriculum Guide," covers all nine of the books in Wilder's series, with lesson plans to complete the entire set in one year, reading 10-15 pages a day.
The guide is aligned to Arkansas Frameworks and is complete with a scoring guide, Jeffries said.
Jeffries fell in love with the Little House books in 1957 when she was a third-grade student at Salina, Kan. Her teacher, Ethel Gaines, was a personal friend of Wilder and took time off from school that year to attend the famous author's funeral, Jeffries recalled.
As an adult Jeffries has continued to be a big fan of the series. She has been the official traveling school marm for the Little House sites for many years. She also has won a Laura Ingalls Wilder look-a-like contest. At five feet tall, Jeffries is the exact same height as Laura, she explained.
Jeffries isn't charging for story time this spring. She plans to hold another story time series next fall and may charge a small fee to cover craft supplies. Story time will continue to be held from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays through May 26. There are one or two openings for children age 5 to 9 to participate. For more information contact Mary Jeffries at 479-549-5461 or [email protected].
General News on 04/16/2014