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Longfellow’s “Decoration Day”

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What we now call Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day after the custom of decorating the graves of soldiers who had fought in the Civil War. The name has changed, but the honorable custom continues.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1882 poem “Decoration Day” shows us why Longfellow was the most popular poet of nineteenth-century America. Why not share it with your homeschool students on this Decoration Day weekend.

Decoration Day

Sleep, comrades, sleep and rest
On this Field of the Grounded Arms,
Where foes no more molest,
Nor sentry’s shot alarms!

Ye have slept on the ground before,
And started to your feet
At the cannon’s sudden roar,
Or the drum’s redoubling beat.

But in this camp of Death
No sound your slumber breaks;
Here is no fevered breath,
No wound that bleeds and aches.

All is repose and peace,
Untrampled lies the sod;
The shouts of battle cease,
It is the Truce of God!

Rest, comrades, rest and sleep!
The thoughts of men shall be
As sentinels to keep
Your rest from danger free.

Your silent tents of green
We deck with fragrant flowers
Yours has the suffering been,
The memory shall be ours.

❡ Little lessons: Longfellow’s “Decoration Day” is not only a beautiful poem, it’s also a fine example you can use to teach your students about extended metaphors in literature. The poem draws an imaginative comparison between soldiers sleeping on their battlefield campgrounds at night, and the rows of graves in the burial ground covered by “tents” of green grass. See how many specific comparisons or contrasts you and your students can identify (the contrast between the trampled ground of the battlefield and the untrampled ground of the burying field; the comparison between the sentinel guards on the battlefield and all of us as guardians of memory on the burying field; and so on).

[Decoration Day at Arlington National Cemetery]
Grave of General Frank. M. Andrews (1884–1943), United States Army Air Corps, Arlington National Cemetery. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

What literary or historical discoveries have you made in your homeschool lately?

Memorial Day 2018

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Today is Memorial Day in the United States, the day we remember the nation’s war dead. We’ll let some students from one of the most selective colleges in the country — the United States Military Academy at West Point — help us in our remembrance:

❡ Little lessons: Can your homeschool students find West Point, New York, on a map and explain its significance? Although the name “West Point” is now a shorthand name for our national military academy, “West Point” proper actually refers to the high point of land that projects into the Hudson River just a few miles north (upstream) from New York City. The point forces the Hudson to make a sharp bend, and artillery placed there can easily control all traffic on the river. West Point was first fortified during the American Revolution, and it has been occupied by the United States Army ever since. The Hudson River–Lake Champlain–Richelieu River corridor between New York City and Montreal (on the St. Lawrence River) was one of the most contested military transportation routes on the North American continent for almost 200 years. Plate 44 in your River Houses atlas (riverhouses.org/books) will show you the location of West Point and let you and your students get a sense of its geographical importance.

What other holidays or anniversaries will you be marking in your homeschool in the weeks ahead?

Homeschool Graduation: “Set me free to find my calling”

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Many homeschoolers treat the Memorial Day weekend as the end of the school year, and perhaps as the occasion to hold a family graduation ceremony. The beautiful song “Homeward Bound” by American composer Marta Keen has in recent years become a staple of high school choirs around the country — and many other vocal groups as well. The speaker in the song is a young person asking permission to leave home, and promising to return. “Homeward Bound” may be just the accompaniment you need for your own homeschool graduation.

Here’s a fine video performance by the Brigham Young University ensemble Vocal Point, accompanied by the All-American Boys Chorus:

Or perhaps you’d prefer the all-female Ballard High School Treble Choir from Seattle:

Or, if you’d like more of a Classical rendition, try this resonant recording from the great Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, produced by Deutsche Grammophon:

Or maybe best of all — and an inspiration for any very young singers you may have in your homeschool — here’s a 2015 performance by the Texas Children’s Choir in San Antonio:

Maybe someday we’ll have a River Houses homeschool choir and a version of our very own. 😊

Sunday States: North Dakota, Serbia, Singapore, 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:

  • 🇺🇸
    [Seal of North Dakota]
    Seal of North Dakota
    NORTH DAKOTA (the 39th state, 2 November 1889) — The Peace Garden State. Capital: Bismarck. North Dakota can be found on page 582 in your almanac and on plates 39 and 142 in your atlas. Name origin: “Sioux word ‘Dakota’, meaning ‘friend’ or ‘ally’” (almanac page 423). State bird: Western Meadowlark. Website: www.nd.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 collection of primary source materials for teachers available from the Library of Congress. And the helpful 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:

  • 🇷🇸 SERBIA — in southeastern Europe. Population: 7,111,024. Capital: Belgrade. Website (in Serbian, Croatian, and English): www.srbija.gov.rs.
  • 🇸🇨 SEYCHELLES — in the Indian Ocean. Population: 93,920. Capital: Victoria. Website (in English): www.egov.sc.
  • 🇸🇱 SIERRA LEONE — in West Africa. Population: 6,163,195. Capital: Freetown. Website (in English): www.statehouse.gov.sl.
  • 🇸🇬 SINGAPORE — in Southeast Asia. Population: 5,888,926. Capital: Singapore (city). Website (in English): www.gov.sg.

These all appear in your current almanac, atlas, and history encyclopedia as well. For example, you’ll find the main entries for the African nation of Sierra Leone on almanac page 832, atlas plates 97 and 139, and history encyclopedia page 561, 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 27 May 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!

🇺🇸 OUR STATE-OF-THE-WEEK is North Dakota, and our COUNTRIES are Serbia 🇷🇸, the Seychelles 🇸🇨, Sierra Leone 🇸🇱, and Singapore 🇸🇬. (Our separate Sunday States & Countries post will be up shortly.)

❡ Little lessons: “Did you know that the island nation of the Seychelles (in the Indian Ocean) has a population of fewer than 100,000 people?” You can find a facts-and-figures outline of the Seychelles on page 831 in your River Houses almanac and on plate 139 in your atlas, with a map of the country (look close!) on atlas plate 95 (riverhouses.org/books).

🌔 THE MOON at the beginning of this week is waxing gibbous (and full on the 29th). 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).

🗓 TODAY (Sunday, 27 May) — Today is the 147th day of 2018; there are 218 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). ⬩ It’s the Memorial Day weekend! Many homeschoolers consider this to be the unofficial end of the school year and hold their homeschool graduations this weekend, so we’ll have some fine graduation music coming right up! ⬩ Today is also the birthday of the American poet and songwriter Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910), author of the great patriotic “Battle Hymn of the Republic” (“Mine eyes have seen the glory”).

MONDAY (28 May) — Today is Memorial Day in the United States, the day on which we commemorate the nation’s war dead. ⬩ Today is also the birthday of the Swiss-American naturalist and paleontologist Louis Agassiz (1807–1873), “the father of the Ice Age.”

TUESDAY (29 May) — On this day in 1453, the city of Constantinople fell to the Ottoman armies of Sultan Mehmed II after a 53-day siege, bringing to an end the ancient Byzantine Empire that had survived for more than a thousand years. ⬩ On this day in 1953, mountaineers Edmund Hillary and Tenzig Norgay became the first climbers ever to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

WEDNESDAY (30 May) — The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., was dedicated on this day in the year 1922. ⬩ Today is also the birthday of the great voice actor Mel Blanc (1908–1989), “the man of a thousand voices,” who gave us Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Marvin the Martian, Pepé Le Pew, Speedy Gonzales, Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner, and even the Tasmanian Devil. 😊

THURSDAY (31 May) — Today is the birthday of the great American poet Walt Whitman (1819–1892), who contained multitudes. ⬩ On this day in 1889, a dam burst on the Little Conemaugh River upstream from Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The Johnstown Flood destroyed more than four square miles of the town and killed more than 2000 people.

FRIDAY (1 June) — Happy June! On this first day of the month we’ll take look at the astronomical events you and your homeschool students should watch for in the weeks ahead. ⬩ Today is the birthday of the great English poet of the sea John Masefield (1878–1967), author of the finest thing Herman Melville never said.

SATURDAY (2 June) — Saturday is the birthday of poet and novelist Thomas Hardy (1840–1928), whose works have been loved and loathed by high school English students for generations. ⬩ Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II was crowned on this day in 1953, making her now the longest-reigning monarch in British history and the longest-serving female head of state in world history.

🥂 YOUR WEEKLY TOAST: “To the oak: may our thoughts be as luxuriant as its boughs and our hearts as sound as its trunk.”

❡ Toasts are a fun tradition for your family table. We offer one each week — 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: Sierra Leone is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the Rokel River, the largest river in Sierra Leone, which flows southwest through the capital city of Freetown. You can chart its course in your River Houses atlas (riverhouses.org/books), and you can read much more about it in the comprehensive Rokel River entry in Wikipedia or perhaps on your next visit to your local library.

[Rokel River]
The Rokel River in Sierra Leone. (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 Songs: Let Us Rejoice!

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There is probably no popular song in history that has been translated into more languages around the world than the ancient Latin students’ song “Gaudeamus Igitur” (“Let Us Rejoice”). If you’re planning a homeschool graduation of sorts this Memorial Day weekend, maybe you’d like to introduce it to your students so they can join in fellowship with hundreds of thousands of other students who have sung it for centuries.

“Gaudeamus Igitur” is a student song — it’s decidedly irreverent, and a bit rowdy (when done right). It originated in the universities of the Middle Ages and is often sung today at graduation festivals, alumni events, and on other celebratory occasions. It praises youth, your school, your teachers, the local girls (it’s a medieval drinking song, after all), and the many generations of students who have gone before, in keeping with the ancient carpe-diem theme: “Let’s celebrate today, for tomorrow we may die.”

Here’s a properly sprightly version from the University of Illinois Varsity Men’s Glee Club:

A hundred different verses have been added over the ages — and you can come up with your own! — but the opening lines have always been:

Gaudeamus igitur,
Iuvenes dum sumus.
Gaudeamus igitur,
Iuvenes dum sumus.
Post iucundam iuventutem,
Post molestam senectutem,
Nos habebit humus —
Nos habebit humus.

The free English translation I’ve always liked is this one from J.H. Finley:

Jubilation now abound
For companions near us!
Jubilation now resound
For our youth to cheer us!
After youth, the bold, the airy,
Age advances cautionary.
Quiet then will hold us,
Quiet earth will enfold us.

Few songs, as noted above, are as international as this one. If your travels someday take you to Bulgaria, for example, you’ll feel right at home at tryouts for the New Bulgarian University Choir:

Or perhaps you’ll someday be called upon to attend a graduation ceremony in Jakarta at the Universitas Indonesia (a lot of “age advances cautionary” in this one):

And wherever you travel, you’ll be sure to be a hit if you learn the doo-wop version of “Gaudeamus Igitur”:

Vivat Academia! (Long live our school!) Vivant Professores! (Long live our teachers!) That’s you, mom and dad, and your little homeschool academy on this springtime graduation weekend. 😊

Nature Notes: American Rivers!

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Each house within the River Houses network (as it develops over time) will be named for a local river — Red River House, Otter Creek House, Catacunemaug House, Merrimack River House, and so on. You can learn a lot about the rivers near you with some of the the amazing resources available from the U.S. National Weather Service. For example, is there river flooding taking place anywhere in the country right now? Look and see:

If you visit the AHPS page you’ll find an interactive map that will let you zoom in on any region of the country. The dots represent the location of gauging stations: monitoring instruments that track water levels and flow. The colors represent low water, normal levels, and rivers at flood stage.

[Rivers map]
Status of American rivers from the NWS’s Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service. (Image: National Weather Service.)

If you’re in northern Texas, for example, you can zoom in on the Canadian River near Amarillo, and from the gauging station data you can see that the Canadian River is still at normal levels (as of today) but has risen about 2.5 feet in the past 24 hours due to rain.

[Canadian River gauging station]
Gauging station data, Canadian River, Amarillo Texas, 25 May 2018. (Image: National Weather Service.)

Why not explore the other river links on the National Weather Service website and see what you can discover about the rivers near you.

What nature notes have you taken in your homeschool lately? 😊

Monday Museum: The Red Cross Museum

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The American Red Cross was established on this day in 1881 by Civil War nurse Clara Barton (1821–1912). If you ever make a homeschool trip to Washington you can visit the Red Cross Museum for a free guided tour (by reservation). Or if you prefer, you and your students can explore some of their online exhibits right from the comfort of your home:

Clara Barton is a name every American student should know:

Clarissa Harlowe Barton, known as Clara, is one of the most honored women in American history. Barton risked her life to bring supplies and support to soldiers in the field during the Civil War. She founded the American Red Cross in 1881, at age 60, and led it for the next 23 years. Her understanding of the ways she could provide help to people in distress guided her throughout her life. By the force of her personal example, she opened paths to the new field of volunteer service. Her intense devotion to serving others resulted in enough achievements to fill several ordinary lifetimes. (redcross.org)

[Clara Barton]
Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, ca. 1870. (Image: redcross.org.)

What museums or historical sites have you visited with your homeschool students lately? 😊

Sunday States: Colorado, San Marino, Senegal, 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:

  • 🇺🇸
    [Seal of Colorado]
    Seal of Colorado
    COLORADO (the 38th state, 1 August 1876) — The Centennial State. Capital: Denver. Colorado can be found on page 567 in your almanac and on plates 38 and 142 in your atlas. Name origin: “From Spanish for ‘red,’ first applied to Colorado River” (almanac page 423). State bird: Lark Bunting. Website: www.colorado.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 collection of primary source materials for teachers available from the Library of Congress. And the helpful 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:

These all appear in your current almanac, atlas, and history encyclopedia as well. For example, you’ll find the main entries for Senegal on almanac page 830, atlas plates 97 and 139, and history encyclopedia page 560, 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 20 May 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!

🇺🇸 OUR STATE-OF-THE-WEEK is Colorado, and our COUNTRIES are San Marino 🇸🇲, São Tomé and Principe 🇸🇹, Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦, and Senegal 🇸🇳. (Our separate Sunday States & Countries post will be up shortly.)

❡ Little lessons: “Did you know that the African nation of Senegal completely surrounds the tiny nation of Gambia, which occupies two strips of land on either side of the Gambia River in the middle of Senegal?” You can find a facts-and-figures outline of Senegal on page 830 in your River Houses almanac and on plate 139 in your atlas, with a map of the country on atlas plate 97 (riverhouses.org/books).

🌒 THE MOON at the beginning of this week is a waxing crescent — 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).

🗓 TODAY (Sunday, 20 May) — Today is the 140th day of 2018; there are 225 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). ⬩ Shakespeare’s sonnets were first published on this day in London in 1609, possibly without his permission. ⬩ Today is also the birthday of the great philosopher of liberty John Stuart Mill (1806–1873).

Monday (21 May) — Monday is Museums & Monuments Day at the River Houses. The American Red Cross was established on this day in 1881 by Clara Barton, so we’ll stop in at the American Red Cross Museum in Washington, D.C. ⬩ Today also the birthday of the great German artist Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528).

Tuesday (22 May) — Join us for Tuesday Tea at the Library and some notes on books, libraries, and history. This week we’ll remember the inventor of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, born on this day in 1859. ⬩ Today is also the birthday of the famous American impressionist painter Mary Cassatt (1844–1926).

Wednesday (23 May) — Wednesday is Wonderful Words Day at the River Houses, and since this week is the anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare’s sonnets, we’ll read a sonnet! ⬩ Today is also the birthday of the great Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), who devised the system of species nomenclature that is still in use today in the biological sciences by all of us members of Homo sapiens.

Thursday (24 May) — On this day in 1844, Samuel F.B. Morse sent the message “What hath God wrought” from the U.S. Capitol building to his assistant in Baltimore, thirty-five miles away, instantly, thereby inaugurating the first commercial telegraph line between two U.S. cities.

Friday (25 May) — Our regular Friday Field Notes will take a look at what’s available from the National Weather Service’s “Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service,” its giant real-time database of American rivers. ⬩ Today is also the birthday of the great American poet, essayist, and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882). ⬩ And on this day in 1977, the first Star Wars movie was released! 🚀

Saturday (26 May) — It’s National Paper Airplane Day! That’s surely something to be celebrated in every homeschool. 😊

🥂 YOUR WEEKLY TOAST: “May the contemplation of the majesty of the ocean dignify our minds.”

❡ Toasts are a fun tradition for your family table. We offer one each week — 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: Senegal is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the Saloum River, which flows west through Senegal and empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The Saloum River Delta National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You can chart the Saloum River’s course in your River Houses atlas (riverhouses.org/books), and you can read more about it in the Saloum River entry in Wikipedia or on your next visit to your local library.

[Saloum River, Senegal]
Saloum River, Senegal, West Africa. (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? 😊