I am wondering if any of you have read the Little House Series to your boys. I have a 6 yr old and I thought about doing it for a summer read. But just not sure if they wil enjoy it because it is about girls. My husband suggested the boxcar series – please give me your thoughts and ideas.
My 6yos LOVED LOVED these books! We were reading them at night which was a bad thing for a tired momma because he did not want me to stop! There is so much excitement in them that I don’t think he ever commented on the “girl” part. We haven’t read all of them, just the ones where Laura was younger but they were a huge hit.
My son, almost 9, is reading through them independently as literature right now and LOVES them. They are not just for girls. Farmer Boy was especially enjoyed by him, as it is about Almanzo’s young life. It is an excellent read aloud. By the way, in case it matters, my boy is a knight playing, gun slingin’, tree climbing kind when he’s not reading.
amyjane, I have only read (so far) the first Little House books to my 6 year old son, but he LOVED them! I was surprised by his interest. He remembered the stories and “narrated” them back to me. The Little House books are full of adventure…I bet your son will enjoy them too!
…6 – loved Little House in the Big Woods. …4 & 7 – loved Farmer Boy. …4 & 7 – were very excited to see “Little House on the Prarie” arrive in the mail recently.
🙂
Lots of adventure. Lots of hearing “Pa” tell his children his adventures, so really they are relatable to any child, I would think. Also a lot of “how to” information in them that, my younger son coudln’t follow so he found boring, but my older son finds fascinating. How to melt lead and make riffle bullets, how to cure meat, how to make maple syrup, etc.
My boys hated Little House (we stopped after the first one). They were 9 and 6 at the time. Too bad for them that I’ll be reading the whole series to them this year anyway.
We are on a 17 day trip right now. We have listened to all of Little House in the Big Woods and half of Little House on the Prairie. (We still have 5 days so it will be finished too and we may even start Farmer Boy.) We read all of The Boxcar Children #1 and my 6 yo ds was begging for the next ones. I had to find a bookstore. (I have heard though to only go up through #19 in the Boxcar Children series.) He loves them! Hope yours does too!
My 19yo enjoyed The Boxcar Children. I haven’t read one to my youngers yet. Gertrude Chandler Warner only wrote the first 19 and the other “slew” were not, so yes, I don’t recommend those as highly.
I have 5 boys from 11 to 3 and they LOVED then, we couldn’t take enough car trips to get through them fast enough. Then when we were done my 8 yr old went back and read the books himself. These are great books, don’t let the girls scare you and besides like my boys said … Laura’s like a “Tom Boy”. Misty
I have used these books with my boys and they loved them. We have also read the Secret Garden and my 8 year old couldn’t wait to plant a garden this year. As a writer I feel that it is important to expose our children to all type of writing with the exception of explicit/horror type. I would suggest getting on from your local library if that is possible and then read the whole thing to them. Let them decide if they like it or not.
My DH read the entire Little House series to my boys when they were that age and they loved them!! Dad did too! They gleaned much from the time period, about living off the land, etc. They also enjoyed the Boxcar children but can’t quite compare to Little House since Boxcar are mysteries. You can’t go wrong with either! ENJOY! ~ Heather