Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: Spooky days, gunpowder plots, deciduous poems, religious reformations, drifting continents, African rivers, a toast to Hallowe’en, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: New Hampshire, Chad, China, and More
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: New Hampshire, the Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, and China. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
🌕 HOMESCHOOL “CITIZEN SCIENCE” PROJECTS for October
Our October full-moon report on the many “citizen science” projects around the world that you and your students can participate in from the comfort of your little home academy. Pick one and get started today!
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Limpkins, Rails, Gallinules, Coots, and Cranes
Come along on our homeschool tour of North American birds and pick up some great science and natural history lessons along the way. This week: the Limpkins, Rails, Gallinules, Coots, and Cranes.
👻 HOMESCHOOL SPOOKYDAYS: Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore”
Light a candle, turn out the lights, and let Edgar Allan Poe entertain you and your homeschool students this Halloween.
👑 “FROM THIS DAY to the ending of the world”
“This day is call’d the feast of Crispian.” (Celebrate some Shakespearean history in your home academy on this St. Crispin’s Day.)
🌍 🇨🇻 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: Cidade Velha in Cabo Verde
Pay a homeschool visit to a World Heritage Site from one of our countries-of-the-week and learn some great history and geography along the way. This week: Cidade Velha, the historic center of Ribeira Grande in Cabo Verde.
⚔️ “THIS STORY shall the good man teach his son“
“He that shall live this day and see old age, will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, and say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispin’s.'” (A homeschool toast to offer from this day to the ending of the world.)
⚗️ HOMESCHOOL SCIENCE: Happy National Mole Day!
Homeschool science students from coast to coast will want to be sure to celebrate National Mole Day today (10/23) from 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m. All hail the Count of Quaregna and Cerreto!
🖋 🌅 WONDERFUL WORDS (and Music!): Turning Toward the Morning
“If I had a thing to give you, / I would tell you one more time / That the world is always turning / Toward the morning.” (Our reassuring homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Gordon Bok, for late October.)
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 22 October 2023
Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: Crispin’s Days, momentous visions, star sapphires, American singers, Welsh poets, aquatic birds, Cape Verdean rivers, a toast to Agincourt, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: South Carolina, Cabo Verde, Canada, & More
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: South Carolina, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, and Canada. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
📱 🦉 HOMESCHOOL NATURE NOTES: Identifying Birds with MERLIN
If you’re a thoroughly modern homeschooler who is never without your smartphone, why not try using the free MERLIN app to identify your local birds!
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Swifts and Hummingbirds
Come along on our homeschool tour of North American birds and pick up some great science and natural history lessons along the way. This week: the Swifts and Hummingbirds, aerial acrobats all.
🇺🇸 🇫🇷 HOMESCHOOL HISTORY & GEOGRAPHY: Yorktown 1781
Invite your homeschool students to remember the British surrender at Yorktown, Virginia, on this day in 1781.
🌍 🇧🇬 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: The Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak in Bulgaria
Pay a homeschool visit to a World Heritage Site from one of our countries-of-the-week and learn some great history and geography along the way. This week: the Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak in Bulgaria.
🔎 HOMESCHOOL RESEARCH & NEWS – October 2023
Our October roundup of some recent academic research and news about home education in the United States and around the world, with links to sources. We have five items this month, on outdoor education and homeschooling; curriculum analysis; physical activity; digital technologies in homeschooling; and homeschool parental support.
🗓 🦢 HAPPY CROSS-QUARTER DAY of Cygnus Term
We divide the homeschool year into four three-month terms, and the midpoint of each term (following old calendrical tradition) is called the “cross-quarter day.” Today, October 16th, is the cross-quarter day of Cygnus Term, our fall term in the River Houses. How are things going in your homeschool?
🖋 🍏 🍎 WONDERFUL WORDS: After Apple-Picking
“I am overtired / Of the great harvest I myself desired.” (Our dreamy homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Robert Frost, for apple season.)
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 15 October 2023
Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: Nautical novels, splendid surrenders, pomological poems, ancient tombs, ingenious inventors, tiny birds, African rivers, a toast to peace, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Maryland, Brunei, Burundi, and More
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Maryland, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, and Burundi. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
🏹 🧵 HOMESCHOOL HISTORY: 1066 and All That
Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Hastings in 1066: the beginning of the Norman Conquest of England. Why not use this occasion to introduce your homeschool students to one of the most famous objects that has survived from the Middle Ages: the Bayeux Tapestry.
🌟 STAR BRIGHT: Alpheratz and Andromeda for October
Make the acquaintance of the young double star Alpheratz in the constellation Andromeda this month — one of the brightest stars in the northern hemisphere sky — and make it your homeschool friend for life.
🌐 HOMESCHOOL GEOGRAPHY: The Prime Meridian
On this day in 1884, the north-south line running through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England, was established as our planet’s Prime Meridian: the line of 0º longitude.
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Cuckoos, Roadrunners, Anis, and Goatsuckers
Come along on our homeschool tour of North American birds and pick up some great science and natural history lessons along the way. This week: the Cuckoos, Roadrunners, Anis, and Goatsuckers. (All birds with funny names!)
🎵 🍎 WONDERFUL WORDS (and Music!): My Orchard in Linden Lea
“I be free to go abroad / Or take again my homeward road / To where for me the apple tree / Do lean down low in Linden Lea.” (A bonus homeschool poem-of-the-week, from William Barnes and Ralph Vaughan Williams, for apple season and Vaughan Williams’ birthday.)
🌎 🇧🇴 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: The Historic City of Sucre in Bolivia
Pay a homeschool visit to a World Heritage Site from one of our countries-of-the-week and learn some great history and geography along the way. This week: the Historic City of Sucre in Bolivia.