The River Houses Homeschool Network

🏡 WELCOME! (Pinned Post)

1 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

First time visitor? We post a wide range of easy-to-use educational ideas and “little lessons” that will enrich your homeschooling schedule all through the year. Please subscribe to our free homeschool newsletter! (It’s just one message a week with no spam.)

There’s a wealth of wonderful material here on our website — everything from homeschool astronomy to books and libraries to language and literature to geography, natural history, homeschool calendars, and more. The materials we’re developing are going to become the foundation for a new type of homeschool network made up of friendly local groups called “Houses” (just like in Harry Potter). Make yourself at home! 😊

🇺🇸 🕊 HOMESCHOOL HISTORY: Memorial Day

23 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

“Rest, comrades, rest and sleep! / The thoughts of men shall be / As sentinels to keep / Your rest from danger free.” (Little homeschool lessons in literature, history, geography, and music, for the Memorial Day weekend.)

🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Bulbuls, Starlings, Waxwings, and Allies

23 May 2025 by Horace the Otter 🦦

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 Bulbuls, Starlings, Waxwings, Silky-Flycatchers, Olive Warblers, and Accentors.

🖋 🎓 GRADUATION SEASON: “Set me free to find my calling”

22 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

“Bind me not to the pasture, chain me not to the plow, / Set me free to find my calling and I’ll return to you somehow.” (Our promising late May poem-of-the-week, from Marta Keen, for homeschool graduation season and the coming summer.)

🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Mesa Verde National Park

21 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

For America’s 250th anniversary, discover the history and landscape of the United States with your homeschool students. This week: Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado.

📏 ⏱ 🌡 HAPPY WORLD METROLOGY DAY!

20 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

On this day in 1875, the meter was adopted as an international standard of measurement. That makes today World Metrology Day! Why not invite your students to take a few scientific measurements in your homeschool this week.

🔎 HOMESCHOOL RESEARCH & NEWS – May 2025

20 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

Our May 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 three items this month, on homeschooling trends in the United States; homeschool parents in Indonesia; and philosophical arguments against homeschooling.

🇨🇦 HOMESCHOOL MUSIC & HISTORY: “To find the hand of Franklin”

19 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

To understand a complex and beautiful piece of art or music, your students must first learn a great deal about the world — names, places, people, and events that may seem at first to be unrelated.

🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 18 May 2025

18 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: American philosophers, maritime mysteries, graduation poems, inimitable investigators, Swedish naturalists, desert rivers, a toast to blissful days, and more!

🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Colorado, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, and More

18 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Colorado, Samoa, San Marino, São Tomé & Príncipe, and Saudi Arabia. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!

🖋 🌟 WONDERFUL WORDS: Hymn to the North Star

17 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

“A beauteous type of that unchanging good, / That bright eternal beacon, by whose ray / The voyager of time should shape his heedful way.” (An extra astronomical homeschool poem-of-the-week, from William Cullen Bryant, for Polaris, our Great Star for the month of May.)

🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Mockingbirds, Catbirds, and Thrashers

16 May 2025 by Horace the Otter 🦦

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 loquacious Mockingbirds, Catbirds, and Thrashers.

🖋 🍃 WONDERFUL WORDS: Robert Frost’s “Birches”

15 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

“One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.” (Our youthful homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Robert Frost, for springtime play and growing up.)

🚀 HOMESCHOOL ASTRONOMY: Skylab, America’s First Space Station

14 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

Do you have a future astronaut in your homeschool? Then why not take a few minutes this week to learn about Skylab, America’s first space station, launched on this day in 1973.

🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Scotts Bluff National Monument

14 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

For America’s 250th anniversary, discover the history and landscape of the United States with your homeschool students. This week: Scotts Bluff National Monument in Nebraska.

📚 🦉 HOMESCHOOL LIBRARY LESSONS: The Macaulay Library of Natural History

13 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

Invite your homeschool naturalists to explore the sights and sounds of birds all over the world through the online collections of the Macaulay Library at Cornell University.

🌕 HOMESCHOOL CITIZEN-SCIENCE PROJECTS for May

12 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

Our May 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!

🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 11 May 2025

11 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: Mother’s Days, space stations, horse races, dendrological poems, student projects, ancient instruments, Rwandan rivers, a toast to every mom, and more!

🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Nebraska, Rwanda, Saint Vincent, and More

11 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Nebraska, Rwanda, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent & the Grenadines. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!

🚂 AMERICAN ICON: The Golden Spike of 1869

10 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

Teach a little homeschool history lesson today on the anniversary of the completion of the North American transcontinental railroad in 1869.

🌟 STAR BRIGHT: Polaris and Ursa Minor for May

10 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

Make the acquaintance of the pole star Polaris in the constellation Ursa Minor this month, one of the most important stars in the northern hemisphere sky, and make it your homeschool friend and sky-mark for life.

🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Thrushes

9 May 2025 by Horace the Otter 🦦

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 melodious Thrushes.

🖋 🪺 WONDERFUL WORDS: Anne Bradstreet for Mother’s Day

8 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

“Great was my pain when I you bred, / Great was my care when I you fed. / Long did I keep you soft and warm / And with my wings kept off all harm.” (Our ornithological homeschool poem-of-the-week, from the early American poet Anne Bradstreet, for Mother’s Day, the second Sunday in May.)

🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Great Basin National Park

7 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

For America’s 250th anniversary, discover the history and landscape of the United States with your homeschool students. This week: Great Basin National Park in Nevada.

📚 LEARNING THE LIBRARY: The Artistic 700s

6 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

Explore your local library and the whole universe of knowledge with our homeschool tour of the Dewey Decimal System. This month: the Artistic 700s.

🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 4 May 2025

4 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: Migrating birds, golden spikes, American explorers, tall buildings, fallen forts, marvelous musicians, Romanian rivers, a toast to the early bird, and more!

🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Nevada, Portugal, Russia, and More

4 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Nevada, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, and Russia. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!

📸 PHOTO CHALLENGE for May: “Flowers” and “Flags”

3 May 2025 by Bob O'Hara

Calling all homeschool photographers! The Wikimedia Commons Photo Challenge is a great way for enthusiastic homeschool photography students to develop their skills and gain some recognition for their work. This month’s themes are “Flowers” and “Flags.” Take a look!