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Archives for September 2017

The Great Swan of the Heavens

by Bob O'Hara

If you check your North American bird guide (pages 22–23) you’ll see that there are three species of swans in North America: the native Tundra Swan and Trumpeter Swan, mostly in the West, and the introduced Mute Swan, mostly in the East. (A fourth species, the Eurasian Whooper Swan, is an occasional visitor to western Alaska.) That’s a fun fact to know.

But there’s an even bigger swan that you can see “migrating” every night at this time of year — the constellation Cygnus, the great swan of the heavens that appears directly overhead on fall evenings, passing to the west overnight and disappearing over the horizon.

[Cygnus the heavenly swan]
The heavenly swan — the constellation Cygnus, with neck and wings outstretched (and with lines added, of course) — flying toward the western horizon. (Image: Bob King.)

Cygnus is one of my favorite constellations. It’s simple and easy to recognize, and you can clearly see it as a flying swan, with long outstretched neck, short tail, and spread wings. If you’re in a dark sky location you’ll see that the Milky Way passes right along the swan’s length and does indeed give it a whitish appearance.

The River Houses reference library includes a handy set of sky maps and a planisphere that will show you the location of Cygnus and its most prominent stars. The description of Cygnus appears on page 12:

Cygnus is a beautiful, easily recognized constellation in the form of a giant cross; it is sometimes called the Northern Cross. Deneb, a brilliant white star of magnitude 1.3 (18th of the 20 brightest stars), marks the top of the cross. There are many bright stars in Cygnus; it lies directly in the Galactic Plane and [therefore to the eye appears] embedded in the Milky Way. Sweep this entire area with binoculars and note the many stars and clusters.

Spend a little time out after dark this week with your students and locate the great swan as it makes its nightly migratory flight. Once you learn to spot it, you’ll have a new autumnal friend for life.

What astronomical observations have you made in your homeschool this week? 😊

Sunday States: Georgia, Bahrain, Belarus, and More

by Bob O'Hara

Tour the United States and travel the countries of the world each week with the River Houses.

Many homeschoolers like to review the U.S. states and the nations of the world each year, and the River Houses reference library includes a world almanac, a world atlas, and a history encyclopedia that make these reviews fun and easy. We are going through the states in the traditional order of admission to the Union (almanac page 453), so this week’s state is:

  • [Seal of Georgia]
    Seal of Georgia
    Georgia (2 January 1788) — The Peach State. Georgia appears on pages 569 in your almanac, and on plate 42 in your atlas. “Named by colonial administrator James Oglethorpe for King George II of England in 1732” (almanac page 455).

❡ What can you do with the state of the week? A thousand things, with your reference library as a starting point. Find the state bird with your almanac and look it up in your bird guide. Trace the state’s outline with your atlas. Read the almanac’s one-paragraph history aloud each week. Using each state’s official website (above), find and copy the preamble to that state’s constitution into a commonplace book over the course of the year. Practice math skills by graphing each state’s population and area. Look up famous state residents online or at the library — the possibilities are endless and they can be easily adjusted according to a student’s age and interests.

This week’s countries, with links to their official websites, are:

  • Bahrain (Arabic and English), in the Middle East.
  • Bangladesh (Bangla and English), in South Asia.
  • Barbados (English), in the West Indies.
  • Belarus (English, Russian, and Belarusian), in Eastern Europe.

These all appear in your almanac, atlas, and history encyclopedia as well. For example, you’ll find the main entries for Bangladesh on almanac page 752, atlas plate 85, and history encyclopedia pages 584–585, with illustrations, flags, and other mentions available through the indexes in each volume.

What geographical discoveries have you made in your homeschool this week? 😊

❡ Read and think critically: Note that the country links above go to official websites, which are not always in English and which may well be propagandistic in one form or another, thus offering older students a good opportunity to practice their critical reading and thinking skills.

“Our summer made her light escape”

by Bob O'Hara

On this day of the autumnal equinox, as summer departs, Emily Dickinson provides us with a read-aloud poem of the week.

As imperceptibly as Grief
The Summer lapsed away —
Too imperceptible at last
To seem like Perfidy —

A Quietness distilled
As Twilight long begun,
Or Nature spending with herself
Sequestered Afternoon —

The Dusk drew earlier in —
The Morning foreign shone —
A courteous, yet harrowing Grace,
As Guest, that would be gone —

And thus, without a Wing
Or service of a Keel
Our Summer made her light escape
Into the Beautiful.

If your students are learning how to read poetry — and poetry requires a special kind of reading, different from prose reading — tell them not to read too quickly or expect everything to be clear on the first pass through. Think of getting to know a poem as being like getting to know a person: some things are apparent on the surface, but there are new things to discover over time with repeated engagement.

[Emily Dickinson Homestead]
Emily Dickinson Homestead, Amherst, Massachusetts. (Image: Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism.)

For traditionally styled poems like this one, the first and simplest thing to do as you make the poem’s acquaintance is to forget about meaning and just count syllables. As imperceptibly as Grief — eight. The Summer lapsed away — six. Too imperceptible at last — eight. To seem like Perfidy — six. 8-6-8-6. The other three stanzas are a shortened version of this: 6-6-8-6.

“Eights-and-sixes” are among the most common hymn meters in the Protestant tradition, and Emily Dickinson learned her very precise prosody from the church hymns she grew up with. Compare the first stanza above with this familiar verse:

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.

A perfect match. Whenever you encounter Emily Dickinson in your reading — and I hope that will be often — start by counting syllables, and you’ll gain a new appreciation for the details of her craft.

What literary discoveries have you made in your homeschool this week? 😊

❡ Is today really the autumnal equinox? That depends on your hemisphere. In the northern hemisphere, yes, it’s the autumnal (fall) equinox. But in the southern hemisphere, today is the vernal (spring) equinox. To avoid confusion, astronomers often just call it the September equinox, which it is in both hemispheres.

Sunday States: New Jersey, Australia, the Bahamas, and More

by Bob O'Hara

Tour the United States and travel the countries of the world each week with the River Houses.

Many homeschoolers like to review the U.S. states and the nations of the world each year, and the recommended River Houses reference library includes a world almanac, a world atlas, and a history encyclopedia that make these reviews fun and easy. We review the states in the traditional order of admission to the Union (almanac page 453), so this week’s state is:

  • [Seal of New Jersey]
    Seal of New Jersey
    New Jersey (18 December 1787) — The Garden State. New Jersey appears on page 580 in your almanac, and on plate 43 in your atlas. “The Duke of York, in 1664, gave a patent to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret for Nova Caesaria, or New Jersey, after England’s Isle of Jersey” (almanac page 455).

❡ What can you do with the state of the week? A thousand things, with your reference library as a starting point. Look up the state bird in your bird guide or trace the state’s outline with your atlas. Read the almanac’s one-paragraph history aloud each week. Using each state’s official website (above), find and copy the preamble to that state’s constitution into a commonplace book over the course of the year. Practice math skills by graphing each state’s population and area. Look up famous state residents online or at your local library — the possibilities are endless and they can be easily adjusted according to a student’s age and interests.

This week’s countries, with links to their official websites, are:

  • Australia (English), in the southwest Pacific.
  • Austria (English and German), in Europe.
  • Azerbaijan (English, Russian, and Azerbaijani), in southwest Asia.
  • The Bahamas (English), in the western Atlantic Ocean between Florida and Cuba.

These all appear in your almanac, atlas, and history encyclopedia as well. For example, you’ll find the main entries for the tiny island nation of the Bahamas on almanac page 751, atlas plates 42 and 49, and history encyclopedia page 504, with illustrations, flags, and other mentions available through the indexes in each volume.

What geographical discoveries have you made in your homeschool this week? 😊

❡ Read and think critically: Note that the country links above go to official websites, which are not always in English, and which may well be propagandistic in one form or another (thus offering older students a good opportunity to practice their critical reading and thinking skills).

We the People

by Bob O'Hara

Today, September 17th, is Constitution Day, marking the anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia. The U.S. National Archives has an excellent set of teaching resources about the Constitution — just the thing to explore on this anniversary day.

What historical holidays or national anniversaries are you marking in your homeschool this week? 😊

Cassini’s End, and a Saturnian Poem

by Bob O'Hara

Watchers of the Skies: One of the greatest voyages in human history will come to an end today — the voyage of the Cassini spacecraft to the planet Saturn. Cassini will enter Saturn’s atmosphere in a planned final descent, taking pictures and gathering data all along the way. Cassini was launched twenty years ago, in 1997, and for two decades it has been faithfully transmitting to Earth vast quantities of scientific information about the solar system, and taking spectacular images.

[Saturn back-lit by the sun.]
Cassini in the shadow of Saturn, looking toward the sun. (Image: NASA/JPL.)

Homeschooling families couldn’t spend a better hour this week than one devoted to exploring NASA’s comprehensive Cassini website and learning about the mission, its discoveries, and the great ringed planet.

❡ You can review the planets and the solar system as a whole with your River Houses reference library by turning to the beautiful atlas plate 125 or to pages 374–380 in your almanac.

Poem of the Week: The American poet Kenneth Rexroth (1905–1982) once wrote about a hiking trip into the mountains around San Francisco, and about young hiker who is perhaps like one of your students — and who, perhaps, in our imagination, became a Cassini scientist.

On What Planet

Kenneth Rexroth

Uniformly over the whole countryside
The warm air flows imperceptibly seaward;
The autumn haze drifts in deep bands
Over the pale water;
White egrets stand in the blue marshes;
Tamalpais, Diablo, St. Helena
Float in the air.
Climbing on the cliffs of Hunter’s Hill
We look out over fifty miles of sinuous
Interpenetration of mountains and sea.

Leading up a twisted chimney,
Just as my eyes rise to the level
Of a small cave, two white owls
Fly out, silent, close to my face.
They hover, confused in the sunlight,
And disappear into the recesses of the cliff.

All day I have been watching a new climber,
A young girl with ash blond hair
And gentle confident eyes.
She climbs slowly, precisely,
With unwasted grace.
While I am coiling the ropes,
Watching the spectacular sunset,
She turns to me and says, quietly,
“It must be very beautiful, the sunset,
On Saturn, with the rings and all the moons.”

What astronomico-literary discoveries have you made in your homeschool this week? 😊

Anniversaries and Other September News

by Bob O'Hara

Remembering 9/11: Many homeschoolers this week will be looking for ways to remember and teach about the attacks of September 11, 2001. One simple and moving memorial was the singing of the U.S. National Anthem by the congregation of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London just three days later, on September 14th:

St. Paul’s is one of the world’s most famous churches, designed by Sir Christopher Wren after the great London fire of 1666 that destroyed much of the city. It survived the London bombings during World War II and has played an important role in the life of the English people for more than three centuries.

For a Poem of the Week we will take “The Star-Spangled Banner,” written (as a poem) by Francis Scott Key in 1814 during another attack on the United States. You’ll find its history on page 517 in your almanac, and on the website of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History.

The Star-Spangled Banner

Francis Scott Key

O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

[Firefighters raising the American flag after the 9/11 attacks]
New York firefighters raise the star-spangled banner in the ruins of the World Trade Center on the afternoon of September 11, 2001. (Image: Thomas E. Franklin.)

States and Countries: Many homeschoolers like to review the U.S. states and the nations of the world regularly, and since there are 50 states and 196 nations, it’s easy to cover them all over the course of a year with one state and four countries per week. The recommended River Houses reference library includes a world almanac, a world atlas, and a history encyclopedia that make these reviews fun and easy. We’re following the traditional order of admission to the Union (almanac page 453), so this week’s state is:

  • [Seal of Pennsylvania]
    Seal of Pennsylvania
    Pennsylvania (12 December 1787) — The Keystone State. Pennsylvania appears on pages 584–585 in your almanac, and on plate 43 in your atlas (where you can see its tiny shared border with Delaware, from last week). “William Penn, Quaker, who was made full proprietor of area by King Charles II in 1681, suggested ‘Sylvania,’ or ‘woodland,’ for this tract. The king’s government owed 16,000 pounds to Penn’s father, Adm. William Penn, and the land was granted as partial settlement. Charles II added ‘Penn’ to ‘Sylvania,’ against the modest proprietor’s desires, in honor of the admiral” (almanac page 455).

And this week’s countries, with links to their official websites, are:

  • Angola (English and Portuguese), in southwestern Africa.
  • Antigua and Barbuda (English), in the eastern Caribbean.
  • Argentina (Spanish only), in southern South America.
  • Armenia (Armenian, English, and Russian), in southwestern Asia.

These all appear in your almanac, atlas, and history encyclopedia as well. For example, you’ll find the main entries for the tiny island nation of Antigua and Barbuda on almanac page 748, atlas plate 49 (where you can also practice reading insets on a map), and history encyclopedia pages 504–505, with illustrations, flags, and other mentions available through the indexes in each volume.

❡ Read and think critically: The country links above go to official websites, which are not always in English and which may well be propagandistic in one way or another, thus offering older students a good opportunity to practice their critical reading and thinking skills.

Monthly Monument: We will have a number of regular monthly features that you’re welcome to take up if they fit with your homeschooling schedule. If you’re remembering 9/11 and reviewing the state of Pennsylvania this week, why not also pay a virtual visit to the National Park Service’s Flight 93 National Memorial in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

[Flight 93 National Memorial]
Flight 93 National Memorial, Pennsylvania. (Image: National Park Service.)

What do you have planned for your homeschool this month? 😊

The Week of the Corn Moon

by Bob O'Hara

Quick Freshes: Welcome to the first, developmental year of the River Houses! Over the coming months we will be establishing a simple pattern and style of posting to support the educational life of our members. We will emphasize regular weekly, monthly, and annual events that can be easily incorporated into your homeschooling schedule. Pick one or two that appeal to you each week, and make them part of your family homeschooling tradition.

[WorldCat logo]Do you have a regular day each week to visit your local library? Establishing a regular library day can be a good way to meet other local homeschoolers, and it’s a pattern we will be encouraging in the River Houses. Want to find all the libraries (of all kinds — public, private, school, college, and university) in your local area? Try searching the WorldCat library-finder by town, city, state, or zipcode — there may be more nearby than you realize!

States and Countries: Many homeschoolers like to review the U.S. states and the nations of the world regularly, and since there are 50 states and 196 nations, it’s easy to cover them over the course of a year with one state and four countries per week. We’re going to follow the states in the traditional order of admission to the Union, so the school year begins with:

  • [Seal of Delaware]
    Seal of Delaware
    Delaware (7 December 1787) — The First State, the Diamond State. “Named for Lord De La Warr, early governor of Virginia; first applied to river, then to Indian tribe (Lenni-Lenape)” (almanac page 455).

This week’s countries, with links to their official websites, are:

  • Afghanistan (English, Farsi, and Pashto) in south-central Asia.
  • Albania (English and Albanian) in southeastern Europe.
  • Algeria (French and Arabic only) in northern Africa.
  • Andorra (Catalan only), one of the world’s tiniest countries, nestled in the mountains along the border between France and Spain in western Europe.

The recommended River Houses reference library includes a world almanac, a world atlas, and a history encyclopedia that make these reviews fun and easy. For example, you’ll find the main entries for Delaware on almanac page 568 and atlas plate 43, and the main entries for Andorra on almanac page 747, atlas plate 65, and history encyclopedia page 525, with illustrations, flags, and other mentions available through the indexes in each volume.

❡ Read and think critically: The country links above go to official websites, which are not always in English and which may well be propagandistic in one way or another, thus offering older students a good opportunity to practice their critical reading and thinking skills.

Watchers of the Skies: Common Nighthawks have been moving south every evening over the Nashua River valley the past few days. September is a big month for bird migration in much of North America — why not start a bird list for your backyard, neighborhood, or town? Cornell University’s Laboratory of Ornithology offers a preview of what birds are moving south during the first week of September.

[Ripening corn at the Old Manse, Concord]
Corn ripening in the garden of the Old Manse beside the Concord River in Massachusetts. (Image: RJO.)

The first full moon of the month of September is traditionally called the Corn Moon — don’t miss it rising on the night of Tuesday, September 5th. What else is up in the night sky this week? Follow events on Space.com, and with the help of this monthly review from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California:

Poem of the Week: For the grownups at the beginning of the school year, when the calendar says it’s still summer, but there’s something in the air:

Song at the Beginning of Autumn

Elizabeth Jennings

Now watch this autumn that arrives
In smells. All looks like summer still;
Colours are quite unchanged, the air
On green and white serenely thrives.
Heavy the trees with growth and full
The fields. Flowers flourish everywhere.

Proust who collected time within
A child’s cake would understand
The ambiguity of this —
Summer still raging while a thin
Column of smoke stirs from the land
Proving that autumn gropes for us.

But every season is a kind
Of rich nostalgia. We give names —
Autumn and summer, winter, spring —
As though to unfasten from the mind
Our moods and give them outward forms.
We want the certain, solid thing.

But I am carried back against
My will into a childhood where
Autumn is bonfires, marbles, smoke;
I lean against my window fenced
From evocations in the air.
When I said autumn, autumn broke.

What do you have planned for your homeschool this week? 😊

Let the River Run!

by Bob O'Hara

Welcome to the first, developmental year of the River Houses!

Let all the dreamers wake the nation.

Let The River Run

Carly Simon

We’re coming to the edge,
Running on the water.

Let the river run,
Let all the dreamers
Wake the nation.
Come, the New Jerusalem.

Silver cities rise,
The morning lights
The streets that meet them,
And sirens call them on
With a song.

It’s asking for the taking.
Trembling, shaking.
Oh, my heart is aching.

We’re coming to the edge,
Running on the water,
Coming through the fog,
Your sons and daughters.

Let the river run,
Let all the dreamers
Wake the nation.
Come, the New Jerusalem.

Silver cities rise,
The morning lights
The streets that meet them,
And sirens call them on
With a song.

We’re coming to the edge,
Running on the water.