The Playful Pioneers Volume 1 Review

A large family review of The Playful Pioneers – a homeschool curriculum based on the Little House on the Prairie books.

Why I Chose The Playful Pioneers

In 2018, I was introduced to The Peaceful Press via their lovely preschool curriculum – The Peaceful Preschool. I used it with my younger kids, but even my elementary aged kids liked to join in! You can read my review of The Peaceful Preschool to learn more about the year we spent with that curriculum.

We had such a great time with The Peaceful Preschool, I decided to use 2 of their other curricula – The Kind Kingdom and The Precious People over the next several years. We always started our homeschool day together with these curricula during something we called Morning Time. We have so many good memories using these resources.

Read my review of The Precious People…

I have also used the Christmas Guides and several of the Nature Guides that ended up being transformed into the Nourishing Nature Kindergarten Curriculum. All wonderfully easy to use and fantastic for creating lovely memories with my children!

So…

when considering what curricula to use during our Jubilee Homeschool Year when we would be taking time off from our usual history curriculum – Tapestry of Grace, I knew exactly what I wanted to do – the one curriculum I had not yet used from The Peaceful Press – The Playful Pioneers!

It had been many years since I had read through the Little House on the Prairie books with my children, but I had such lovely memories of sitting in the living room, reading the books in the evening, that I knew I wanted to share these books with my younger set of kids, and The Playful Pioneers was the perfect way to do this!

Watch the review here…

The Playful Pioneers Lesson Plans

If you’ve read my other Peaceful Press reviews or watched my YouTube reviews, this curriculum is laid out in the same grid style of all of the other Peaceful Press resources. I really like this method of lesson plans because it is easy to read, easy to follow, and easy to rearrange!

Each week of The Playful Pioneers is its own section in the Parent Guide. It is a 4 day a week schedule, with Fridays reserved for Field Trips. Each section starts with an overview and supplies list, followed by a week-at-a-glance grid, and finally a day-by-day lesson plan with links and more detailed information.

I always start by looking at the Supplies List to make note of any supplies I need to get. I also use this time to order any books we need for the next week or two from the library. (Our library has a very robust library sharing program, so I can totally rely on them to get in the books I need in a reasonable amount of time.)

NOTE: I always purchase the “spine” books that are used throughout the curriculum. In this case, the Little House on the Prairie set, The Ology, and the Anatomy books from Julia Rothman.

Then, I take a look at the Grid Lesson Plan and decide if anything needs to be moved to a different day. Sometimes I get behind and sometimes I have to put some of the projects included in the lessons on a different day.

And then, I rely on the daily lesson plan pages as I use the curriculum throughout the week.

Books included in The Playful Pioneers

Each day, starts with a reading from The Ology. This book presents doctrine in a way children can grasp.

Then, you read one chapter of a Little House on the Prairie book each day.

NOTE: The curriculum starts with Farmer Boy because it is the first book chronologically. It is about Almanzo’s childhood and he was several years older than Laura and grew up in an entirely different part of the country.

The Little House series are the only “required” books in the curriculum in my opinion, since you could choose not to use The Ology for Bible Time. There are a couple of books suggested each week that usually have something to do with a topic you read about that week – horses, the moon, etc. However, you would not need to read those books or could supplement with a book you find at the local library or in your own personal library. It is up to you how much or how little you do each week.

As mentioned above, I purchased Farm Anatomy and Nature Anatomy. These are fantastic resources, and well worth the money invested! We have used them with several different curricula, and consider them a vital part of our family library.

Projects included in The Playful Pioneers

One of my favorite things about all of the curricula from The Peaceful Press are the projects they include! They are so easy to do with a variety of ages, and don’t require a lot of extra supplies you don’t usually have on hand. And the kids LOVE them!

Here is one of the projects we did with The Playful Pioneers…dying handkerchiefs with natural dyes. I bought white handkerchiefs and used turmeric we already had in the cupboard, but we could have used any fabric that would take dye and any natural dying agent. It was a very easy and rewarding project, and all of my school-aged children participated.

The projects listed in the lesson plans all relate to what you are reading that week, and help to give your children concrete examples of everyday pioneer life. I am not a fan of crafts just to do crafts (because I don’t have the time for that sort of busy work!), so I’m pleased that the projects and crafts included The Playful Pioneers are useful and worthwhile.

Using The Playful Pioneers with a Large Family

First of all, I should stress that The Playful Pioneers is NOT an all-in-one curriculum, meaning it does not include everything you need, namely Phonics and Math.

And while this curriculum is geared toward elementary ages, I am successfully using it with a Kindergartner through an 8th grader.

Now that we have that out of the way, here are a few tips for using The Playful Pioneers with multiple ages…

1. Make The Playful Pioneers part of Morning Time or Afternoon Time.

Years ago, we did anything we would consider “extra” in the afternoon when the little ones were napping. We called it “Special School” or “Tea Time School “and there would often be a snack and a drink to go along with our studies.

Read about our Tea Time School –

Now that everyone in the house is past napping age, we do Morning Time instead and that’s where The Playful Pioneers goes in our homeschool day.

Read about our current Morning Time here –

2. Have kids do additional school work before or after The Playful Pioneers.

Since we use the curriculum during Morning Time, I send all my kids off to do their individual school work lessons afterward. The two little girls stay at the table where I help them through their Phonics, Math, and Handwriting. The older boys (ages 10, 12, and 14) go off to their spaces to work on things like Math, Literature, Computer Programming, Piano, and the like.

Read about this year’s curriculum choices!

As I mentioned earlier, The Playful Pioneers is not a curriculum that includes everything everyone needs. And especially if you are using this with a large family, you will not want to neglect other subjects. But, it is easy to put them in a different time slot in your homeschool day either before or after The Playful Pioneers and still get the benefit of this lovely curriculum.

3. Older kids like the projects and the read-alouds too!

Lest you think older kids don’t like to be read to and won’t like projects found in a “little kid” curriculum, let me share a couple of stories…

As I was reading from Little House on the Prairie the other day, my 18 year old (who graduated last year!) peeked her head around the corner and slowly slid down in a chair to listen. She was mesmerized, and I’m sure she was remembering when she was little and I read these books to her and the siblings closer to her age.

Older kids like being read to, and you can find books that all ages will enjoy – with the Little House on the Prairie books being at the top of that list!

And as for the projects, they are not “little kid” projects. They can be made to fit all ages! When we painted the “Full Moon” like Juan Bosco, everyone did their best work and they were all beautiful! The recipes are fun for everyone to make (and eat!), and anything that is too young can easily be left out or only done with the youngest kids (however, you’ll be surprised how many of the “older” kids will want to join in – or even supervise!).

At this time, we are only 12 weeks into The Playful Pioneers, but having a great time! I truly believe your family will enjoy it as much as we have!

Are you planning to use The Playful Pioneers this school year?
Get Music in Our Homeschool’s

Songs from Pa & Laura

to supplement your lessons!