Five Ways Ma Ingalls Thrived During Crisis
Difficulties are inevitable in life. Children get sick, job losses happen, natural disasters occur, and once in a great while a pandemic occurs that causes a worldwide crisis.
While we can’t avoid difficulty in life, we can minimize the damage to our children by observing how brave people in the past navigated their own difficulties.
I’ve learned a lot about thriving in crisis from reading through the Little House on the Prairie books. The Ingalls family endures several disasters, but as you look more closely, you can find five ways they handled these crises that helped them thrive. (Watch this on my IGTV)
Ma Didn’t Stay Informed- In the time period Ma was living in, there was no option to stay informed. There could have been a famine in Africa, a plague in Europe, and a war in the Middle East and none of it would have impacted her.
Most of us are hyper-aware of all the bad things happening around the world and it can cause us to be stressed beyond what our circumstances indicate.
While I’m a big believer in helping the poor and personally contributing to international aid (we sponsor several Compassion International children, and contribute to other international social causes) in a crisis like the COVID-19, we are better off not having daily details of how bad the worldwide situation is.
A more helpful approach might be to just shut off our phones and love our children and our neighbors. If, as a global community, we all focus on making our homes and neighborhoods safer and healthier, the whole world benefits. If instead, we stream an abundance of news and end up paralyzed with fear as a result, we have helped no one. Shutting down the news, for at least a portion of each day is a good way to proactively care for our families. (This article explains more).
The Ingalls Sang Every Day-It’s nearly impossible to stay anxious when you are singing, so if your family can take some time each day to sing a favorite hymn or folk song, your mood will be instantly lightened. Even just singing La, la, la, can lighten a mood, and my favorite spiritual song for when I’m about to fall apart consists of just a few praise syllables ( Ho, ho, ho, hosanna, Ha, ha, hallelujah, He, he, he, he saved me, and I’ve got the joy of the Lord!).
Check out The Kind Kingdom for an elementary grade European History resource that includes a monthly hymn.
Ma Kept Healthy Rhythms-Each morning Ma and her girls kept up the same routines. They would make the beds, sweep the floors, and attend to any other chores. These healthy rhythms helped keep a sense of stability in the midst of chaos.
When we keep and develop healthy rhythms with our children, it can give them a sense of security and safety as well. (Our $5 Chore and Routine Pack can help you plan healthy rhythms in your home.) Some examples of these healthy rhythms are making beds each morning, having a morning circle time, or taking a daily nature walk. These kinds of daily anchor points help us build peaceful days, even in the worst of situations.
Ma Played Games When Things Grew Tense-When Pa didn’t arrive when expected, and the blizzard was screaming at the windows, Ma put the schoolbooks away and played games with her girls.
She didn’t push them to accomplish mental tasks when the world was falling apart around them. She kept up basic routines but gave them a break from mentally taxing activities. For many homeschoolers, we are already doing interest led studies, and enjoying the freedom of literature and project-based learning, so no adjustments are necessary. However, for those who are feeling the pressure of completing a normal public school load, it might be just too much right now.
Your children will not fall behind in a few weeks or a month, but when stress from a crisis causes us to switch to flight or fight mode, learning can’t happen. Instead, change up the learning by playing games together; jump rope while practicing math facts, take a forward hop for every sight word your child identifies, or pretend you are on an iceberg while reading Shackleton’s Endurance. When we switch to a more engaging mode of learning, or just ditch learning objectives altogether and play a game for the fun of it, we give our children the mental break they need to come back stronger.
Check out Math Games from Right Start- We love their math games for reinforcing math concepts through fun activities.
Our Summer Bundle includes three of our most popular nature guides at a 25% savings when purchased separately. Grab it today for a fun learning experience with your children.They Were Thankful-If you read through the entire Little House series you can see that the Ingalls never had much. They lived in substandard housing, often had only beans or potatoes to eat, and suffered many losses due to natural disasters or circumstances they couldn’t control.
However, they were thankful. They noticed and gave thanks for the little things. The Christmas candy, the glass windows, the tinned peaches at the surveyors house, were all marvels that they took a moment to appreciate and savor.
If we stay present in our own lives, we can find things to be thankful for as well. The soft kisses of our babies, the wildflowers blooming on the roadside, the fact that we found bath tissue at the grocery store, when noticed all become miracles to behold. As we stay present and thankful, we create a home atmosphere that infuses our children with hope, and in this moment, we need to stay hopeful.
Check out our American History resource, The Playful PIoneers, and spend 30 weeks learning about resourcefulness, thankfulness, and creativity through the Little House on the Prairie series. Click to learn more.
