Customer Reviews

A Pioneer Sampler: The Daily Life of a Pioneer Family in 1840

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Barbara Greenwood has written a wonderful book that is as much fun for adults to read to children as it is for the children to read themselves. She doesn't just 'tell' about the Robertson's, she 'shows', drawing the reader into their lives...a pleasant place to be. I especially love Granny's story about how she came to America,on a ship, from Scotland.

The book is beautifully illustrated...all the way through...by Heather Collins. The pictures are so well done that, even as an adult, I would like to step into the scene!

There are instructions for simple, fun activities such as growing a potato plant, dyeing fabric using an onion, or making a cardboard jumping jack; pioneer games that will even entertain today's children for hours such as shadow shapes or knucklebones; and recipes that are easy for children.

Reading this book to a child is a great 'stress releaver'...it's like a little escape from the treadmill of life!!!

I've read many books on pioneer life, and this is by far the best one for children. The book is about the Robertsons, a fictional family living in the west. While the family is fictional, the material is all drawn from real life.

The story takes you through a year in their lives, each chapter being its own story. After each chapter, the author provides explanatory material, giving detailed information about events and activities from the story. For example, there is a chapter about the children searching for a bee tree in order to find honey. In the explanatory material following the chapter, the author discusses beekeeping, division of labor among the bees, how the honey is actually made and the importance of honey to the early pioneers.

Unlike most books, we found the explanatory material every bit as captivating as the stories. In addition, the author suggests some activities children can do in order to learn more. Yesterday we conducted an experiment to see how the sap in the maple trees resists freezing because of its high sugar content. Today we made butter.

All in all, an excellent book. Thumbs up from [this family]

I loved this book. I read it before I gave it to my daughter. It is a fictional family, but all the information is true to life. Interspersed with the story of the Robertsons, you can learn how to make your own cheese, dip a candle, or learn to tell the time from the sun.
This book will add to your library, and is a nice complement to Laura Ingalls Wilders books. Homeschooling familys will enjoy it, I know we did.

I love using this book in the classroom because of the way it takes each aspect of everyday pioneer living, and provides a non-fiction type short story along with more information about the job, skill, etc., along with an acitivity for the children to do.

I ordered this to help give me information geared toward children as part of my duties as a museum docent. It was great. I am also a retired teacher and have shared many bits of info with our teachers that come to the museum. The museum has also purchased the book as a resource in our library.

There are times when history books written for the younger set are wonderful sources of information that most 'adult' (or mature) history books do not touch upon. And "A Pioneer Sampler" is one of those books.
It is written in storyform about the daily lives of the Robertson family, pioneers living on a backwoods farm in the 1840's. Throughout this 237 page book we learn, in a fun and interesting way, how this family dealt with the everyday living that a typical family of the time might have lived: their chores, crafts, eating habits, their spare time. Tools used, how to milk a cow, making maple sugar, harvest time, visiting a general store, building a house...so much interesting historical living written in a very simplistic manner.
Interspersed throughout are sidelines of information pertaining to the subject being written. For instance, there is a chapter about a peddler's visit to the family and the families reaction to this traveling salesman. But, at the end of the chapter, there are a few pages thrown in speaking of individual peddler's trades and how they do their crafts.
Most of the chapters are set up in this way, which adds greatly to understanding more fully the chapters.
I would love to see more books in this form for other era's in American history, as this style or history writing can entertain and teach all - kids as well as adults - who have an interest.
Highly recommended.

The Pioneer Sampler

The Pioneer Sampler is a fun and fascinating book. It tells about a pioneer family. Can Nekeek and Willy catch fish by hand? You'll find out. This is a fun book.
I'd give this book a five *...

I am a visual mom. When I explain something to my kids, I usually draw a picture. Even my feeble-art-skill drawings get the point across, and I do love good illustrations.

This book has GOOD (dynamite good) illustrations. There is a story line - a year in the life of a 3-generation pioneer family - and then each page has almost a visual dictionary after the text, showing how maple sugar is produced, for example, or how to load a rifle, or what the traveling shoemaker's kit looked like. Excellent. We got a ton out of this book. My kids are very interested in what the world was like when you had to make everything yourself. There are a few do-it-yourself ideas through the book. This is a good one to OWN, not just get from the library.

Having borrowed this book from our public library I wanted a copy of my own to use as a resource for children's programming at our local historical society. It gives so much information and the illustrations are wonderful.

I read through this book with my 7 year old. It has pages and pages of fascinating information about how the pioneers built, made, or raised almost everything they used. Interspersed with these pages are stories of the Robertson family, following their lives throughout a typical year. I would like to give this book 5 stars, but I was bothered by the way the family treated each other in the stories. The children were often spiteful and rude to each other. Usually this behavior did not contribute to the storyline, and could have been left out or worded differently. For example, in the story about harvesting, the older son considers the water-carrying being done by the younger son to be "baby work." And the younger son responds by sticking his tongue out. "It wasn't much, but it made him feel a little better." It would maintain the same story, but be a much better example if the exchange was more like "Thanks for the water, brother. Some day you can help out with the heavy work." Well worth the read, though.