In this book Laura Ingalls gets her first teaching job, at the age of fifteen, in a school twelve miles away from home.  Since it is winter time she will not be able to live at home while she is teaching.  She wants to work to help pay for her sister Mary’s tuition at the college for the blind, but the place she is boarding while teaching is unpleasant and she is very homesick.  The time spent in another family’s home makes Laura appreciate her Pa, Ma, and sisters even more.  Laura begins to look forward to hearing Almanzo Wilder’s sleigh bells ringing as he arrives to pick her up from school on Fridays and take her home so she can spend time with her family.  While Laura was not teaching she was spending time with family and friends, studying, taking singing lessons, and going for rides in Almanzo’s new buggy.  It is in this book Laura’s friendship with Almanzo blossoms into love.

I am so excited that the girls have loved this series as much as I did as a kid.  It has been a lot of fun reading through these books (and others) with them.  They look forward everyday to reading the next chapter.  Thankful for some time to spend enjoying the simple things in life with my girls.