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Arts & Music: Happy Birthday Bach!

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Take a few homeschool minutes today to introduce your students to a tiny masterpiece by one of the world’s great composers, Johann Sebastian Bach, born on this day in 1685.

Saturday is Arts & Music Day at the River Houses, and in honor of the birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), why not play his famous four-minute “Little Fugue” this week as background music in your little homeschool academy.

Here is the piece performed by Jonathan Scott in what might be called its natural habitat: the organ loft of a church. (Much of Bach’s music was church music written for the pipe organ, “the king of instruments.”) The video does a good job of showing the complex operation of the organ, which requires the the performer to exercise not only both hands, but both feet as well:

And here’s the same piece, Bach’s “Little Fugue,” but arranged in a very different way for a saxophone quartet by Staff Sergeant David Parks of the United States Army Field Band (www.armyfieldband.com):

If either of those performances catch your students’ attention, there’s a whole universe of Bach available online β€” more than enough to convert today’s little homeschool lesson into a week-long music festival of your own devising.

What artistic discoveries have you made in your homeschool lately?

❑ Explore more: You can find several lists of noted musical composers and performers on pages 214–222 in your recommended world almanac (riverhouses.org/books). Why not use those lists to make up an impromptu homeschool research project: have your students copy out separate lists of composers from different centuries, or from different countries, and find examples of their music online. Can you get a sense for how musical styles changed from century to century? Are there distinct national styles that you can recognize?

Nature Notes: The Spring Bird Migration Season

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The spring bird migration season is underway in much of North America, and this is a good time to introduce your homeschool students to the patterns of bird migration and behavior that can be seen in your backyard and across the continent. One resource you should bookmark for your students to explore this migration season is the BirdCast website sponsored by Cornell University:

BirdCast is like a weather forecasting site, except the weather being reported is the daily (and nightly) migration of North American birds. (Did you know most small birds migrate at night?) The BirdCast website offers daily forecasts of bird migration, along with scientific discussions (ideal for high-school age students) about the influence of winds and weather on migration, the seasonal patterns exhibited by different species, and more:

Since 2012, the BirdCast team has been working toward automatically predicting and analyzing bird migration across the continental US. Our original, lofty goal was to provide these sorts of predictions and analyses for radar, eBird, and acoustic data, fully integrated, for the most complete representation of the largely unseen spectacle of billions of nocturnally migrating birds moving through the United States. Well, today [27 March 2018], the team made a great leap forward β€” we unveil automated forecast maps and live migration maps, taking advantage of more than two decades worth of radar data to produce these exciting new products. Welcome to the future of migration monitoring, please explore the new visuals and tune in frequently for discussion about movements! (birdcast.info)

BirdCast’s daily maps outline where migration is going to be heaviest, and so where you are more likely to see new spring arrivals on any given day.

[Bird migration forecast map]
Bird migration forecast for the night of 28 March 2018. (Image: birdcast.info.)

You can study the forecast maps as an educational tool, and also use them to support your own homeschool field trips. (“This weekend looks especially good for migrants β€” let’s take a trip to the local lake tomorrow and see if we can find any new arrivals.”) Bookmark BirdCast.info and share it with your students as the migration season progresses.

What nature notes have you taken in your homeschool lately?

❑ Books in the running brooks: Our recommended River Houses reference library (riverhouses.org/books) includes an excellent bird guide that would serve your homeschool well. Many other similar guides are also available β€” find one that is a good fit for your family and take it with you on all your outings, whether far afield or just to the backyard.

Wonderful Words: β€œA Brook in the City”

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It’s Wonderful Words Wednesday at the River Houses, and since Monday was Robert Frost’s birthday, we’re going to make this into a Robert Frost week!

Robert Frost (1874–1963) is an excellent poet to read with young people because his writing is often simple and accessible on the surface (and so easy for beginners), while remaining complex and philosophical underneath (and so rewarding for more advanced readers).

Why not read this little gem to your students this week β€” or have them read it to you β€” and discuss its structure and ideas. It’s about a farm that was taken over by urban development: the once-isolated farmhouse is now surrounded by new construction, and the brook that was once beside it is now buried in a pipe. But is it really gone? (Could there be a brook like this near you?)

A Brook in the City

Robert Frost

The farmhouse lingers, though averse to square
With the new city street it has to wear
A number in. But what about the brook
That held the house as in an elbow-crook?
I ask as one who knew the brook, its strength
And impulse, having dipped a finger length
And made it leap my knuckle, having tossed
A flower to try its currents where they crossed.
The meadow grass could be cemented down
From growing under pavements of a town;
The apple trees be sent to hearth-stone flame.
Is water wood to serve a brook the same?
How else dispose of an immortal force
No longer needed? Staunch it at its source
With cinder loads dumped down? The brook was thrown
Deep in a sewer dungeon under stone
In fetid darkness still to live and run β€”
And all for nothing it had ever done
Except forget to go in fear perhaps.
No one would know except for ancient maps
That such a brook ran water. But I wonder
If from its being kept forever under,
The thoughts may not have risen that so keep
This new-built city from both work and sleep.

❑ Count and map: When you introduce your students to a new poem, especially one in a traditional form, don’t start with abstract meaning or symbolism; the first thing to do is just count the syllables and map the rhyme scheme. How many syllables in each line in this poem? Ten throughout β€” a perfect pattern. What about the rhyme scheme? Each pair of lines rhymes β€” they are couplets β€” so we would describe the rhyme scheme as AABBCCDD, etc. Uncovering these structural details teaches your students that a poem of this kind is not the result of some sort of spontaneous imaginative outburst on the part of the poet; it is instead an intricately crafted piece of literary labor.

What wonderful words have you found and what literary discoveries have you made in your homeschool lately?

❑ Explore more: The American Literature website (americanliterature.com) includes biographies and examples of the work of many major poets, including Robert Frost, suitable for homeschool students and teachers.

Library Tuesday: Jerome and His Latin Bible

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Suppose you had put together a book that people were still using and copying a thousand years later. That would be quite an achievement! So it was for Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus and his Latin translation of the Bible, the “Vulgate” or common translation.

Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus is better known today as Jerome, the Anglicized version of Hieronymus, and as Saint Jerome in several different Christian denominations. Tuesday is our regular Books & Libraries Day at the River Houses, and tradition says that this Tuesday (27 March) is Jerome’s birthday, so why not spend a few homeschool minutes introducing your students to one of the most influential texts in Western history, Jerome’s Vulgate Bible.

Jerome was a fourth-century scholar of Classical (Greek and Latin) literature who converted to Christianity and took up the study of the original Hebrew and Greek texts of the Old and New Testaments. As Christianity spread through the Roman empire, Jerome’s Latin translation of the Hebrew and Greek originals became the standard version of the Bible used in most Western churches for more than a thousand years.

Jerome’s Vulgate Bible was copied and read for centuries before the invention of the printing press, and it was the underlying Latin text used for many of the most beautiful illuminated manuscripts produced during the Middle Ages, such as the Codex Amiatinus (“the Amiata Book” from the Amiata monastery in Italy), the oldest complete copy of Jerome’s Vulgate translation. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, you and your students can browse priceless volumes like this online today in your own homeschool:

“The Codex Amiatinus is the earliest surviving manuscript of the complete Bible in the Latin Vulgate. It is considered the most accurate copy of Saint Jerome’s original translation and was used in the revision of the Vulgate by Pope Sixtus V in 1585–90. Preserved in the Medicea Laurenziana Library in Florence, it is one of the world’s most important manuscripts.” (wdl.org)

[Codex Amiatinus]
The opening lines of Genesis from Jerome’s Vulgate (common Latin) translation of the Bible, as seen in the seventh-century Codex Amiatinus. (Image: World Digital Library.)

Do you have Latin students in your homeschool? See if they can make out the opening lines of the Codex Amiatinus, written in red (rubricated): “In principio creavit d[eu]s caelum et terram” (“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”). Follow the link to the full text above and see how far, with a little practice, they can get.

Your local library may not have rare medieval manuscripts on its shelves, but it has plenty of treasures nonetheless. What bibliographic discoveries have you made lately in your homeschool? 😊

❑ Looking in the lexicon: There’s some wonderful vocabulary for your students to investigate in today’s post: manuscript, codex, denomination, Vulgate, illuminate, rubricate, Anglicize. Let your recommended River Houses dictionary (riverhouses.org/books) be your guide! 😊

The Norman Borlaug Heritage Foundation

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Yesterday (25 March) was the birthday of the most important person in history that you may never have heard of: Dr. Norman Borlaug, born 25 March 1914 in the little town of Cresco, Iowa. Borlaug was an American agronomist who developed important new strains of wheat and helped distribute them to impoverished regions of the world in what has been called the “Green Revolution” of the mid-twentieth century. By some estimates, Borlaug’s work saved a billion people from starvation. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in 1970.

This is our weekly museums post for the River Houses, and we invite you to pay a virtual homeschool visit this week to the Norman Borlaug Heritage Foundation (and museum) in Cresco, Iowa:

The Borlaug Foundation has restored some of the original farm buildings in which Borlaug first worked, and has also developed an excellent set of free educational resources for children, including a short curriculum and an activity book β€” just the thing to download for your homeschool:

Take a few homeschool minutes this week to introduce your students to Norman Borlaug, one of history’s greatest humanitarians.

[Borlaug Medal]
Congressional Gold Medal awarded to Norman Borlaug in 2006. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

What museum or historical monument have you visited with your homeschool students lately?

Happy Birthday to Robert Frost (1874–1963)

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Happy Birthday to the great American poet Robert Frost, born on this day in San Francisco in 1874.

The Pasture

I’m going out to clean the pasture spring;
I’ll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
I sha’n’t be gone long. β€” You come too.

I’m going out to fetch the little calf
That’s standing by the mother. It’s so young,
It totters when she licks it with her tongue.
I sha’n’t be gone long. β€” You come too.

❑ Explore more: The Simple English Wikipedia article on Robert Frost (simple.wikipedia.org) is a fine account to read your homescholars today β€” or to ask them to read to you!

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

Sunday States: Wisconsin, Mongolia, Mozambique, and More

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Tour the United States and travel the countries of the world each week with the River Houses. Our Sunday States & Countries posts will point the way.

Many homeschoolers like to review the U.S. states and the nations of the world each year, and your River Houses reference library (riverhouses.org/books) includes a current world almanac, a world atlas, and a history encyclopedia that make these reviews fun and easy. We go through the states in the traditional order of admission to the Union (almanac page 422), so this week’s state is:

  • πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ
    [Seal of Wisconsin]
    Seal of Wisconsin
    WISCONSIN (the 30th state, 29 May 1848) β€” The Badger State. Capital: Madison. Wisconsin can be found on page 591 in your almanac and on plates 41 and 142 in your atlas. Name origin: “Indian name, spelled Ouisconsin or Mesconsing by early chroniclers, believed to mean ‘grassy place’ in Chippewa. Congress made it Wisconsin” (almanac page 423). State bird: American Robin. Website: www.wisconsin.gov.

❑ Little lessons: You can teach a hundred little lessons with the state-of-the-week, using your reference library (riverhouses.org/books) as a starting point. Find the location of the state capital in your atlas. Look up the state bird in your bird guide. 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 the famous state residents listed in your almanac either online or at your local library. The possibilities are endless and they can be easily adapted to each student’s age and interests. Pick a simple pattern to follow for a few minutes each week, and by the end of the year, without even realizing it, your students will have absorbed a world of new geographical and historical information.

❑ Explore more: If you’re planning a comprehensive study of one or more of the U.S. states, be sure to investigate the excellent collection of primary source materials for teachers available from the Library of Congress (loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/states). And the delightful State Symbols USA site (statesymbolsusa.org) has everything you and your students will want to know about flags, seals, mottos, state birds, and much more.

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

  • πŸ‡²πŸ‡³ MONGOLIA, in Central Asia. Population: 3,068,243. Capital: Ulaanbaatar. Website (in Mongolian and English): www.president.mn.
  • πŸ‡²πŸ‡ͺ MONTENEGRO, in southeastern Europe. Population: 642,550. Capital: Podgorica. Website: www.gov.me.
  • πŸ‡²πŸ‡¦ MOROCCO, on the north coast of Africa. Population: 33,986,665. Capital: Rabat. Website (in Arabic and several other languages): www.maroc.ma.
  • πŸ‡²πŸ‡Ώ MOZAMBIQUE, on the southeast coast of Africa. Population: 26,573,706. Capital: Maputo. Website (in Portuguese): www.portaldogoverno.gov.mz.

These all appear in your current almanac, atlas, and history encyclopedia as well. For example, you’ll find the main entries for Mongolia on almanac page 806, atlas plates 88 and 136, and history encyclopedia page 589, 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 form or another, thus offering older students a good opportunity to practice their critical reading and thinking skills.

What geographical discoveries have you made in your homeschool lately?

Quick Freshes for Homeschool Families – Week of 25 March 2018

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Quick Freshes are our regular Sunday notes on the homeschool week ahead. Pick one or two (or more) of the items below each week and use them to enrich your homeschooling schedule!

πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ OUR STATE-OF-THE-WEEK is Wisconsin, and our COUNTRIES are Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, and Mozambique. (Our separate Sunday States & Countries post will be up shortly.)

❑ Little lessons: “Did you know that the vast empire assembled by the twelfth-century Mongolian warlord Genghis Khan extended from Iran in the west all the way to the Sea of Japan in the east?” You can find a helpful homeschool review of this important period in the history of Asia on pages 164–165 in your River Houses history encyclopedia (riverhouses.org/books).

πŸŒ” THE MOON at the beginning of this week is gibbous and waxing, heading toward full on the last day of the month. Track the moon’s phases each month at timeanddate.com/moon/phases, and dial up this week’s constellations with your River Houses star atlas (riverhouses.org/books).

πŸ—“ TODAY (Sunday, 25 March) β€” Today is the 84th day of 2018; there are 281 days remaining in the year. Learn more about different kinds of modern and historical calendars on pages 351–357 in your River Houses almanac (riverhouses.org/books). ⬩ Today is also the birthday of the American agronomist Norman Ernest Borlaug (1914–2009), who saved more human beings from starvation than any person in history.

Monday (26 March) β€” Monday is Museums & Monuments Day at the River Houses. In honor of Norman Borlaug’s birthday week, we’re going to pay a virtual visit to the Norman Borlaug Heritage Foundation in Cresco, Iowa. ⬩ Monday is also the birthday of two famous poets, the Englishman A.E. Housman (1859–1936) and the American Robert Frost (1874–1963) ⬩ On this day in 1812 a Boston political cartoonist coined the word “Gerrymander” by merging future Vice President Elbridge Gerry with a salamander.

Tuesday (27 March) β€” Join us for Tuesday Tea at the Library and some notes on books, libraries, and history. Since today is the birthday of the early Christian saint and scholar Jerome (A.D. 347–420), we’re going to spend a few homeschool minutes learning about his Latin translation of the Bible β€” the Vulgate or common translation β€” which served as the standard text of scripture throughout much of Christendom for more than a thousand years.

Wednesday (28 March) β€” Today is the birthday of the Czech scholar and educator John Amos Comenius (1592–1670), who is often credited with having written the first picture book for children, Orbis Pictus (1658).

Thursday (29 March) β€” On this day in 1867, the territory of Alaska was purchased from Russia for $7.2 million (about two cents an acre) at the initiative of Secretary of State William H. Seward. The purchase was widely ridiculed as “Seward’s Folly.”

Friday (30 March) β€” Our regular Friday Field & Nature Notes will take a look at the ongoing spring migration. ⬩ Today also is the birthday of the famous Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890).

Saturday (31 March) β€” Saturday is Arts & Music Day at the River Houses, so we will spend some time with two of the world’s great composers, both born on this day: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) and Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809).

πŸ₯‚ YOUR WEEKLY TOAST: “May our love be ever young and our charity ever vigorous.”

❑ Toasts are a fun tradition for your family table. We offer one each week β€” you can take it up, or make up one of your own (“To North American dinosaurs!”), or invite a different person to come up with one for each meal (“To variety in toasting!”). Our current examples are adapted from two old collections: Marchant’s “Toasts and sentiments” (1888) and the anonymous Social and Convivial Toast-Master (1841). What will you toast this week?

🌎 EVERYTHING FLOWS: Mongolia is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the Orkhon River, which rises in Mongolia’s Khangai Mountains and flows northward to the Russian border. You can chart its course in your River Houses atlas (riverhouses.org/books), and you can read much more about it in the comprehensive Orkhon River entry in Wikipedia or on your next visit to your local library.

[Orkhon River, Mongolia]
The Orkhon River in Mongolia. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

❑ Let the river run: Why not do a homeschool study of world rivers over the course of the year? Take the one we select each week (above), or start with the river lists in your almanac (pages 691–692), and make it a project to look them all up in your atlas, or in a handy encyclopedia either online or on a weekly visit to your local library. A whole world of geographical learning awaits you.

What do you have planned for the homeschool week ahead?

Saturday Arts: Introducing William Morris (1834–1896)

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William Morris (1834–1896) was one of the most gifted and prolific artists of the Victorian period in British history, and on this anniversary of his birth, why not spend a few homeschool minutes introducing your students to his beautiful designs.

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has an extensive collection of Morris productions β€” it’s a perfect place to visit with your artistically or historically inclined students:

Morris was a polymath who wrote novels and poetry, designed textiles and stained glass windows, and established a press that produced some of the most beautiful books of the nineteenth century. His designs for fabrics, carpets, and wallpaper continue to be popular more than a century after his death.

One of the 19th century’s most famous names, William Morris is still renowned today as the designer of patterns such as ‘Willow Bough’ and ‘Strawberry Thief’. But his wallpapers and textiles are only part of the story. Through developing many other products and working on interiors schemes (including one for the V&A’s own cafΓ©), Morris also mastered many other areas of design – as well as finding time to be a social activist and celebrated author. (vam.ac.uk)

“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful,” Morris wrote. That’s a worthy aspiration for us all. And if you want something in your house that is both educationally useful and beautiful, what could be better than a William Morris coloring book!

[Morris wallpaper]
The beautiful Acanthus wallpaper designs of William Morris. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

What artistic discoveries have you made in your homeschool lately?

❑ Explore more: For a brief homeschool overview of the Victorian period in British history, to which William Morris belongs, turn to pages 348–349 in your recommended River Houses history encyclopedia (riverhouses.org/books).

Nature Notes: Start Your eBird List Today!

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We love natural history at the River Houses, and one of the simplest and most educational ways to introduce your homeschool students to natural history is by keeping a simple bird list for your backyard or local area. Spring is on its way, so this is the perfect time to start.

The eBird service sponsored by Cornell University is a great place to keep track of all your bird sightings. I use eBird, and you and your students should sign up and give it a try:

eBird allows you to specify a location (your backyard, for example, or a local natural area), and then add regular lists of birds seen at that location. To build up an effective list (the most useful for educational purposes) you should set aside a small block of time β€” 15 minutes or 30 minutes, say β€” and count all the birds you see during that time. It may be only five birds, or it may be fifty, but by keeping a total count for a specific period of time every week, eBird can automatically build up a profile of your location, showing when different species arrive, when they depart, and how frequent they are. That’s a valuable picture of the natural world that your students can learn from.

Here’s a small local park I’m watching β€” if you come back to this page week after week you’ll see the annual picture begin to develop as more and more species arrive this spring:

If you and your students get really ambitious you can even add pictures and sounds to your eBird records.

[Mimus polyglottos]
Northern Mockingbird at Riverfront Park, Fitchburg, Mass. (Image: eBird database.)

What nature notes have you taken in your homeschool lately?

❑ Books in the running brooks: Our recommended River Houses reference library (riverhouses.org/books) includes an excellent bird guide that would serve your homeschool well. Many other similar guides are also available β€” find one that is a good fit for your family and take it with you on all your outings, whether far afield or just to the backyard.

Library Tuesday: Anne Bradstreet on Motherhood

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Tuesday is Books & Libraries Day at the River Houses. Today is the first day of spring, and it’s also the birthday of the early American poet Anne Bradstreet (1612–1672). Why not remember her to your homeschool students this week, and share with them a few of Bradstreet’s lines on motherhood.

Anne Bradstreet’s first book of poems was The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, and it was published in London in 1650. The New York Historical Society’s library has a copy of the rare first edition, and you can read about it, and about Anne Bradstreet’s life, in this post by one of the library’s rare book catalogers:

(Actually, the full title, in good seventeenth-century style, is: The Tenth Muse Lately sprung up in America. Or Several Poems, compiled with great variety of Wit and Learning, full of delight. Wherein especially is contained a complete discourse and description of the Four Elements, Constitutions, Ages of Man, Seasons of the Year. Together with an Exact Epitomie of the Four Monarchies, viz., The Assyrian, Persian, Grecian, Roman. Also a Dialogue between Old England and New, concerning the late troubles. With divers other pleasant and serious Poems. By a Gentlewoman in those parts. See if your students can take one of their own modern books and fill out its title in this classic, expansive style.)

[Bradstreet title page]
Anne Bradstreet’s “Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America” (1650). (Image: New-York Historical Society.)

Anne Bradstreet was not only a poet, she was also a wife and a mother, and one of her best known poems goes through all of her eight children and her wishes for them. It’s a perfect verse for all homeschool mothers to remember her by on this, her 406th birthday:

In Reference to her Children, 23 June 1659

Anne Bradstreet

I had eight birds hatcht in one nest,
Four Cocks were there, and Hens the rest.
I nurst them up with pain and care,
No cost nor labour did I spare
Till at the last they felt their wing,
Mounted the Trees and learned to sing.

Chief of the Brood then took his flight
To Regions far and left me quite.
My mournful chirps I after send
Till he return, or I do end.
Leave not thy nest, thy Dame and Sire,
Fly back and sing amidst this Quire.

My second bird did take her flight
And with her mate flew out of sight.
Southward they both their course did bend,
And Seasons twain they there did spend,
Till after blown by Southern gales
They Norward steer’d with filled sails.
A prettier bird was no where seen,
Along the Beach, among the treen.

I have a third of colour white
On whom I plac’d no small delight,
Coupled with mate loving and true,
Hath also bid her Dame adieu.
And where Aurora first appears,
She now hath percht to spend her years.

One to the Academy flew
To chat among that learned crew.
Ambition moves still in his breast
That he might chant above the rest,
Striving for more than to do well,
That nightingales he might excell.

My fifth, whose down is yet scarce gone,
Is ’mongst the shrubs and bushes flown
And as his wings increase in strength
On higher boughs he’ll perch at length.

My other three still with me nest
Until they’re grown, then as the rest,
Or here or there, they’ll take their flight,
As is ordain’d, so shall they light.

If birds could weep, then would my tears
Let others know what are my fears
Lest this my brood some harm should catch
And be surpris’d for want of watch
Whilst pecking corn and void of care
They fall un’wares in Fowler’s snare;
Or whilst on trees they sit and sing
Some untoward boy at them do fling,
Or whilst allur’d with bell and glass
The net be spread and caught, alas;
Or lest by Lime-twigs they be foil’d;
Or by some greedy hawks be spoil’d.
O would, my young, ye saw my breast
And knew what thoughts there sadly rest.
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.

. . . . .

When each of you shall in your nest
Among your young ones take your rest,
In chirping languages oft them tell
You had a Dame that lov’d you well,
That did what could be done for young
And nurst you up till you were strong
And ’fore she once would let you fly
She shew’d you joy and misery,
Taught what was good, and what was ill,
What would save life, and what would kill.
Thus gone, amongst you I may live,
And dead, yet speak and counsel give.
Farewell, my birds, farewell, adieu,
I happy am, if well with you.

What literary and educational discoveries have you made at your library lately?

❑ Books in the running brooks: The sidebar on the River Houses website (riverhouses.org) has links to several important online library collections that we like to explore. The WorldCat Library Finder (worldcat.org/libraries) will help you find all the libraries in your local area β€” there may be more than you realize β€” and the WorldCat catalog itself (worldcat.org) will help you locate the nearest copy of almost any book in the world. 😊

Spring is Here!

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Today is the March equinox β€” we call it the vernal or spring equinox in the northern hemisphere, but in the southern hemisphere it’s the autumnal or fall equinox.

❑ Little lessons: “β€˜Vernal’ and ‘autumnal’ are beautiful words. Let’s look them up in our dictionary (riverhouses.org/books).”

Whenever you’re investigating things calendrical, there’s no better place to go for a simple homeschool summary than timeanddate.com:

The two solstices, in December and June, occur at the points in the earth’s annual orbit when the planet’s axis is tilted most directly away from the sun, and most directly toward the sun, respectively. The two equinoxes, in March and September, occur when the earth’s axis is “sideways” to the sun (so to speak), making the intervals of daylight and darkness equal (or very nearly so).

The two equinoxes (March and September) and the two solstices (June and December). (Image: timeanddate.com.)

What calendrical events and astronomical transitions will you be marking in your homeschool this season? 😊

Monday Museum: The John Deere Tractor Museum

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Monday is Museums & Monuments Day at the River Houses: spend a few homeschool minutes exploring a notable cultural or historical site and broaden your homeschool horizons. Learn a new name or a new date, find a new location on a map, chat with your students about a fact or an idea of interest, and your little lesson is done.

This week’s state-of-the-week is Iowa, so we’re going to pay a virtual visit to the John Deere Tractor and Engine Museum in Waterloo, Iowa. (Because every little kid loves tractors!) Here’s the museum’s website, with visitor information and beautiful images:

And here’s a video introduction to the museum that provides some historical background on John Deere’s famous tractors and on the company’s manufacturing heritage in Iowa:

The Deere Tractor and Engine Museum is in fact quite new. The story of its opening in 2014 is told in this fine report from the Cedar Rapids Gazette:

John Deere Tractor & Engine Museum opens in Waterloo

WATERLOO – Iowans who bleed gold and green will want to plan a trip to Waterloo’s newest museum dedicated to the history of the John Deere tractor. It opened Tuesday next to the company’s Waterloo Works facility….

The museum is split into several galleries. The first gallery, ‘Working the Land,’ features exhibits that detail what agriculture was like before the Industrial Revolution. One interactive exhibit simulates how difficult it is to hold a walking plow steady. Another allows visitors to compare their own strength to that of a horse.

‘We wanted to show how we have used technology to make work easier,’ said Josh Waddle, museum curator.

The other galleries deal specifically with the history of John Deere’s tractor lines, how a tractor is made, the dealers who have sold John Deere tractors over the years and the employees who have worked at the Waterloo Works plant. Several of the museum’s docents, who wear black shirts, are retired employees who can share their expertise and experiences with visitors….

John Deere has been in Waterloo since 1918, when it purchased the Waterloo Gas Engine Co. for $2.25 million (or $35 million in today’s dollars.) The original check involved in that purchase is on display at the museum. Other exhibits detail how the company survived the Depression and World War II, as well as how its Waterloo employees reinvented the tractor in the late 1950s. (thegazette.com)

What museum or historical monument have you visited with your homeschool students lately? 😊

Sunday States: Iowa, Mexico, Monaco, and More

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Tour the United States and travel the countries of the world each week with the River Houses. Our Sunday States & Countries posts will point the way.

Many homeschoolers like to review the U.S. states and the nations of the world each year, and your recommended River Houses reference library (riverhouses.org/books) includes a current world almanac, a world atlas, and a history encyclopedia that make these reviews fun and easy. We go through the states in the traditional order of admission to the Union (almanac page 422), so this week’s state is:

  • πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ
    [Seal of Iowa]
    Seal of Iowa
    IOWA (the 29th state, 28 December 1846) β€” The Hawkeye State. Capital: Des Moines. Iowa can be found on page 572 in your almanac and on plates 39 and 142 in your atlas. Name origin: “Indian word variously translated ‘here I rest’ or ‘beautiful land.’ Named for the Iowa River, which was named for the Iowa Indians” (almanac page 423). State bird: American Goldfinch. Website: www.iowa.gov.

❑ Little lessons: You can teach a hundred little lessons with the state-of-the-week, using your reference library (riverhouses.org/books) as a starting point. Find the location of the state capital in your atlas. Look up the state bird in your bird guide. 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 the famous state residents listed in your almanac either online or at your local library. The possibilities are endless and they can be easily adapted to each student’s age and interests. Pick a simple pattern to follow for a few minutes each week, and by the end of the year, without even realizing it, your students will have absorbed a world of new geographical and historical information.

❑ Explore more: If you’re planning a comprehensive unit study of one or more of the U.S. states, be sure to investigate the excellent collection of primary source materials for teachers available from the Library of Congress (loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/states). And the delightful State Symbols USA site (statesymbolsusa.org) has everything you and your students will want to know about flags, seals, mottos, state birds, and much more.

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

  • πŸ‡²πŸ‡½ MEXICO, in southern North America. Population: 124,574,795. Capital: Mexico City. Website (in Spanish): www.gob.mx.
  • πŸ‡«πŸ‡² MICRONESIA, in the western Pacific Ocean. Population: 104,196. Capital: Palikir. Website (in English and Japanese): micronesia.fm.
  • πŸ‡²πŸ‡© MOLDOVA, in Eastern Europe. Population: 3,474,121. Capital: ChiΘ™inΔƒu. Website (in Romanian, English, and Russian): www.moldova.md.
  • πŸ‡²πŸ‡¨ MONACO, on the Mediterranean coast of France. Population: 30,645. Capital: Monaco. Website (in French and English): www.gouv.mc.

These all appear in your current almanac, atlas, and history encyclopedia as well. For example, you’ll find the main entries for Mexico on almanac page 804, atlas plates 47 and 136, and history encyclopedia page 500, 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 form or another, thus offering older students a good opportunity to practice their critical reading and thinking skills.

What geographical discoveries have you made in your homeschool lately?

Quick Freshes for Homeschool Families – Week of 18 March 2018

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Quick Freshes are our regular Sunday notes on the homeschool week ahead. Pick one or two (or more!) of the items below each week and use them to enrich your homeschooling schedule!

πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ OUR STATE-OF-THE-WEEK is Iowa, and our COUNTRIES are Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, and Monaco. (Our separate Sunday States & Countries post will be up shortly.)

❑ Little lessons: “Did you know that the tiny European nation of Monaco β€” a complete independent country β€” has an area of less than one square mile?” You can find a facts-and-figures outline of Monaco on page 806 in your River Houses almanac and on plate 136 in your atlas, with a map of the country (look close!) on atlas plate 63 (riverhouses.org/books).

πŸŒ’ THE MOON at the beginning of this week is a waxing crescent β€” a good time for stargazing! Track the moon’s phases each month at timeanddate.com/moon/phases, and dial up this week’s constellations with your River Houses star atlas (riverhouses.org/books).

πŸ—“ TODAY (Sunday, 18 March) β€” Today is the 77th day of 2018; there are 288 days remaining in the year. Learn more about different kinds of modern and historical calendars on pages 351–357 in your River Houses almanac (riverhouses.org/books). ⬩ Today is also the birthday of Wilfred Owen (1893–1918), one of the great poets of the First World War. ⬩ On this day in 1965, cosmonaut Alexey Leonov became the first man to walk in space.

Monday (19 March) β€” Monday is Museums & Monuments Day at the River Houses. Since Iowa is our state-of-the-week (and tomorrow is the first day of spring), we’re going to pay a virtual visit to the John Deere Tractor and Engine Museum in Waterloo, Iowa.

Tuesday (20 March) β€” It’s the first day of SPRING! ⬩ Today is also the birthday of the Colonial American poet Anne Bradstreet (1612–1672), “the Tenth Muse, lately sprung up in America.”

Wednesday (21 March) β€” Wednesday is Wonderful Words Day at the River Houses. This Wednesday, spend a few homeschool minutes with us reading a verse or two for the beginning of spring.

Thursday (22 March) β€” Today is the birthday of Randolph Caldecott (1846–1886), the English artist famous for his illustrations of children’s books, and for whom the annual Caldecott Medal was later named.

Friday (23 March) β€” Our regular Friday Field & Nature Notes will take a look at the ongoing spring bird migration season. (Did we mention it’s really spring?) ⬩ On this day in 1775, on the eve of the American Revolution, Patrick Henry delivered his famous “Give me liberty, or give me death!” speech at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia.

Saturday (24 March) β€” Saturday is Arts & Music Day at the River Houses. Spend a few homeschool minutes this week introducing your students to the beautiful work of the multi-talented nineteenth-century artist, textile designer, typographer, and poet William Morris, born on this day in 1834.

πŸ₯‚ YOUR WEEKLY TOAST: “To Sir John Barleycorn, may the time soon come when each farmer may have him for a lodger.” (A toast for spring!)

❑ Toasts are a fun tradition for your family table. We offer one each week β€” you can take it up, or make up one of your own (“To North American dinosaurs!”), or invite a different person to come up with one for each meal (“To variety in toasting!”). Our current examples are adapted from two old collections: Marchant’s “Toasts and sentiments” (1888) and the anonymous Social and Convivial Toast-Master (1841). What will you toast this week?

🌎 EVERYTHING FLOWS: Mexico is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the Rio Grande, which rises in the U.S. state of Colorado but then flows south and forms part of the border between Mexico and the United States. You can chart its course in your River Houses atlas (riverhouses.org/books), and you can read much more about it in the comprehensive Rio Grande entry in Wikipedia or on your next visit to your local library.

[Rio Grande]
“The Rio Grande at Big Bend National Park, on the Mexico–U.S. border.” (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

❑ Let the river run: Why not do a homeschool study of world rivers over the course of the year? Take the one we select each week (above), or start with the river lists in your almanac (pages 691–692), and make it a project to look them all up in your atlas, or in a handy encyclopedia either online or on a weekly visit to your local library. A whole world of geographical learning awaits you.

What do you have planned for the homeschool week ahead? 😊