How to Chop Wood

One of the most meaningful ways to bring history alive in your homeschool is through hands-on learning. In our homeschool, chopping wood and creating a wood store for our Little House on the Prairie unit study became a powerful way to step into pioneer life and experience history beyond the pages of a book. In this post, I will be showing you how to chop wood and create a wood store.

Catch Up! If you haven’t read all about our first week on the prairie, I would encourage you to go and read my Little House in the Big woods post. This covers everything we did from making nightdresses, to prairie cooking and making button strings. It also gives you a good idea of everything we achieved with our own little house on the prairie renovations!

How to Chop Wood and Create a Wood Store for Our Little House on the Prairie Unit Study

The Little House on the Prairie series offers rich opportunities to explore daily life on the American frontier. By recreating real pioneer chores, children gain a deeper understanding of survival, responsibility, and resilience. And these are core themes woven throughout Laura Ingalls Wilder’s stories.

Why Pioneer Chores Matter for this Homeschool Unit Study

Pioneer families depended on wood for nearly everything: heating their homes, cooking meals, and even staying alive through harsh winters. When children participate in chopping wood (safely adapted for their age) and organizing a wood store, history becomes tangible.

This activity naturally integrates:

• History – Understanding frontier life and westward expansion
• Science – Exploring energy, heat, and physical labor
• Math – Measuring, stacking, and estimating wood
• Character development – Responsibility, perseverance, and teamwork

Chopping Wood: A Window Into Pioneer Life

While modern children can turn up a thermostat with the push of a button, pioneers like the Ingalls family relied on daily physical labor. Chopping wood wasn’t optional, it was essential.

How to Chop Wood

Chopping wood was an essential daily task for pioneer families and required strength, care, and practice. First, a sturdy log was placed on a solid chopping block to keep it stable. Using an axe, the wood was struck along its natural cracks or grain to help it split more easily. Pioneers learned to take steady, controlled swings rather than rushing, conserving energy for the long days of work ahead. Once split, the wood was stacked neatly to dry, ensuring it would burn efficiently when needed for cooking and warmth.

Check out week two! Last week we focused on Farmer Boy. This is the second book in the Little House on the Prairie book set. During the week we did lots of prairie cooking (hasty pudding, making a sour dough starter and some prairie bread) and also made some button lamps, a prairie ladder, and some peg hooks. Gary and the little ones did some gardening in our prairie garden and we tried to make some more of our rag rug.

Incorporating Chopping Wood Safely in Your Homeschool

Thomas, 11, chose to learn to sharpen his axe and chop and stack wood for the house.  Last winter we made one of the best financial investments ever in a wood burning stove for our own 250-year-old cottage.  I can’t even begin to tell you how cosy our little home feels in the winter, with a roaring fire.  It warms almost the entire house and particularly the upstairs bedrooms which get so cold over the winter. 

Getting ‘Pa’ involved!

Gary is blessed to work in an industry where logs are readily available and rarely do we need to pay for them.  Thomas has been in charge of cutting the kindling for the fire ever since.  We bought him a small axe for the job and he has enjoyed this new responsibility.  Having always wanted to learn to chop wood with Daddy’s big axe, he thought this would an ideal opportunity to state his case successfully.  He was right and Gary agreed to teach him.  Here he is learning to sharpen his own smaller axe:

At 11 and as a very mature young man, we felt Thomas was ready to learn to chop wood under Gary’s supoervision. After Gary demonstrated how to chop the wood safely, he was away:

In your homeschool, you could adapt this activity safely by:

• Using pre-cut logs or fallen branches
• Demonstrating how pioneers used axes and wedges
• Allowing children to help with splitting kindling using child-safe tools

This sparked meaningful conversations about how different life was without electricity or modern conveniences.

Check out week three! Last week we focused on The Little House on the Prairie. This is the third book in the Little House on the Prairie book set. During the week we did some of prairie cooking (soda biscuits) and also made some curtains, hay sticks and a hammock net. Gary and the little ones did some gardening in our prairie garden and we tried to make some more of our rag rug.

Creating a Wood Store for Your Little House Unit Study

Building a wood store is a fantastic follow-up to chopping wood. Pioneers carefully stacked and stored firewood to keep it dry and accessible throughout winter. Thomas stacked his wood pile outside our little house.

Your homeschool wood store can be:

• A small outdoor stack of logs
• A pretend woodpile made from cardboard or paper towel rolls
• A labeled diagram showing how pioneers organized their wood

Children can take ownership of maintaining the wood store, just as pioneer children did.

Literature Connections to Little House on the Prairie

As you read Little House in the Big Woods or Little House on the Prairie, pause when wood chopping or winter preparation is mentioned. Ask your children to compare their experience to Laura’s.

This strengthens:

• Reading comprehension
• Historical empathy
• Narrative understanding

Hands-On Activities to Extend the Lesson

Here are some engaging, age-flexible ideas to pair with chopping wood and creating a wood store for our Little House on the Prairie unit study:

1. Build a Mini Log Cabin
   Use craft sticks, twigs, or cardboard to build a small cabin.
2. Wood Stack Math Challenge
   Measure wood pieces and calculate how many logs would last a week or month.
3. Pioneer Journal Writing
   Have your child write a journal entry as if they were Laura helping prepare for winter.
4. Science of Heat Experiment
   Compare how different materials retain heat and discuss why wood was so important.
5. Art Extension
   Draw or paint a winter scene featuring a woodpile near a pioneer cabin.

Reflection Questions for Homeschool Discussion

Use these questions during narration time or family discussion:

1. Why was chopping wood so important to pioneer families?
2. How do we stay warm today compared to the Ingalls family?
3. What might happen if a family didn’t store enough wood for winter?
4. How did chores help pioneer children contribute to family survival?
5. What modern conveniences are you most thankful for after this lesson?

How to Chop Wood: Final Thoughts for Homeschool Parents

Unit studies thrive when children can experience history. By incorporating chopping wood and creating a wood store for our Little House on the Prairie unit study, you’re giving your children a memorable, meaningful connection to the past, one they won’t soon forget.

These simple, hands-on lessons help history come alive while building practical skills, curiosity, and gratitude.

 For more activities please do visit my MEGA Little House on the Prairie Unit Study page, which contains all ten weeks of our summer building our own Little House on the Prairie!