A National Network of Local Homeschool Societies
We have two mascots here at the River Houses: Horace the River Otter and Cheryl the Kingfisher. Cheryl hasn’t taken form yet, but Horace has, and he’s proving to be an adventurous otter indeed.
You’ll be seeing more of Horace as time goes by, but for now, please accept these Happy Halloween greetings from Horace and all his friends at the River Houses:
![[Horace and his Halloween pumpkin]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/horace-pumpkin-halloween-1024x685.jpg)
What spooky Halloween plans do you have for your homeschool this week? 😊
Here’s an outstanding new research opportunity for homeschool students from the Library of Congress.
If you have a history-minded homescholar in your family, take a look at this excellent site:
The Library of Congress is inviting volunteer researchers (that means you and your homeschool students) to help transcribe important historical manuscripts, documents, and records so they will be more accessible in digital form. Interested in the pioneering nurse Clara Barton? Or maybe Mary Church Terrell and the founding of the NAACP? Or perhaps letters written to Abraham Lincoln.
Original scanned documents on these subjects are now available, and your task is to read and transcribe what they say. This is a great opportunity for homeschoolers to develop valuable academic skills, while at the same time making a real contribution to historical research (in the spirit of our River Houses Lunar Society). Take a look, pick a project, and before you know it your little home academy will become a research powerhouse. 🔍 ✒️ 📖
What treasures have you discovered in 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 — there may be more than you realize — and the WorldCat catalog itself (worldcat.org) will help you locate the nearest copy of almost any book in the world. 😊
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:
❡ 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 each week. 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 your little lesson is done. 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 primary source materials for teachers available from the Library of Congress. And anything you and your students want to know about state flags, seals, mottos, birds, and much more, can be found at the helpful State Symbols USA website.
This week’s countries, with their official websites, are:
These countries all appear in your current almanac, atlas, and history encyclopedia as well (riverhouses.org/books). The almanac, for example, has profiles of all the nations of the world on pages 745–852; the endpapers of the atlas are index maps that will show you where each of the individual national and regional maps can be found; the history encyclopedia includes individual national histories on pages 489–599; and you can find additional illustrations, flags, and other mentions through the indexes in each of these volumes.
What geographical discoveries have you made in your homeschool lately? 😊
❡ 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.
❡ Plan an imaginary vacation: Here’s a fun exercise for your students. Take one of the countries that we list each week and write out a family travel plan. How would you get there? How much will it cost? Where will you stay? Will you have to exchange your currency? How do you say hello the local language? What cities and attractions and landmarks will you visit? What foods will you eat? How will you get around (car, train, boat, mule)? Make a simple worksheet with blank spaces for the answers, have your students do the research, and start planning your world tour. ✈️ 😊
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! Print your own River Houses calendar for the whole year at riverhouses.org/calendars.
🇺🇸 OUR STATE-OF-THE-WEEK is New Hampshire, and our COUNTRIES are the Central African Republic 🇨🇫, Chad 🇹🇩, Chile 🇨🇱, and China 🇨🇳. (Our separate Sunday States & Countries post will be up shortly.)
🌖 THE MOON at the beginning of this week is gibbous and waning — an increasingly good time for stargazing. Track the moon’s phases each month at timeanddate.com, and dial up this week’s constellations with your River Houses star atlas (riverhouses.org/books).
🗓 TODAY (Sunday, 28 October) — Today is the 301st day of 2018; there are 64 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). ⬩ The great Dutch Renaissance philosopher Erasmus of Rotterdam was born on this day in 1466. ⬩ On this day in 1886, President Grover Cleveland dedicated the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. ⬩ And today is the birthday of American medical researcher Jonas Salk (1914–1995), developer of the polio vaccine.
MONDAY (29 October) — On this day (or night) in 1964, three men broke into the American Museum of Natural History in New York and executed the largest jewel theft in American history, netting more than $400,000 worth of gems. The thieves were soon caught and most of the gems were recovered, including the Star of India, one of the world’s largest sapphires, which had been hidden in a bus station locker in Miami.
TUESDAY (30 October) — Today is the birthday of the American modernist poet Ezra Pound (1885–1972). ⬩ On this day in 1938, Orson Welles broadcast his famous radio version of H.G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds,” leading many people across the country to believe that a Martian invasion of the earth had begun. 👽
WEDNESDAY (31 October) — Happy Halloween! 🎃 The Protestant Reformation began on this day in 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany. ⬩ Today is the birthday of the great English poet John Keats (1795–1821). ⬩ And it’s also the birthday of Juliette Gordon Low (1860–1927), founder of the Girl Scouts of America.
THURSDAY (1 November) — Our homeschool poem-of-the-week for the first week of November (1–7) is Robert Frost’s “A Leaf-Treader,” for late fall. Print your own River Houses poetry calendar at riverhouses.org/calendars and follow along with us throughout the year. ⬩ William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest was first performed on this day in 1611. ⬩ And today is the birthday of the German geophysicist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener (1880–1930), who developed the theory of continental drift.
FRIDAY (2 November) — Today is the birthday of the American frontiersman and folk-hero Daniel Boone (1734–1820). ⬩ And since this is the first Friday of the month, we’ll post our regular monthly preview today of some of the astronomical events you and your homeschool students can be on the lookout for over the next few weeks.
SATURDAY (3 November) — Today is the birthday of the great Italian artist and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini (1500–1571). ⬩ And on this day in 1534, the English Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy, declaring King Henry VIII (rather than the pope) to be the head of the English church.
SUNDAY (4 November) — Today is the birthday of “Oklahoma’s favorite son,” the American actor and humorist Will Rogers (1879–1935).
🥂 YOUR WEEKLY TOAST: “May the liberties of the people be immortal.”
❡ 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 set of toasts are mostly taken from an old anthology called The Pic-Nic, a Collection of Recitations, and Comic Songs, Toasts, Sentiments, &c. (London, 1816). What will you toast this week?
🌎 EVERYTHING FLOWS: China is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the mighty Yangtze, the third longest river in the world. You can chart its course in your River Houses atlas (riverhouses.org/books), and you can read more about it in the Yangtze River entry in Wikipedia or perhaps on your next visit to your local library.
![[Yangtze River, China]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Dusk_on_the_Yangtze_River.jpg)
❡ 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 your homeschool this week? 😊
It was below freezing last night, with wind-chills in the 20s expected today. There’s still a lot of color in the trees but brisk winds are beginning to take it down and bare branches are showing through on the hills.
October’s growing thin, and the prospect of winter sometimes makes us uneasy: will the house be warm enough, will the darkness drag us down, will we be sick again this winter, will we make it all the way to spring?
The great Maine folksinger and songwriter Gordon Bok offers us some reassurance as the seasons begin to change and the cold closes in around us with this lyrical translation of a true astronomical observation:
Read along with your students, or sing along, as Bok provides us with our homeschool poem-of-the-week for the last week of October:
Turning Toward the Morning
When the deer has bedded down
And the bear has gone to ground,
And the northern goose has wandered off
To warmer bay and sound,
It’s so easy in the cold to feel
The darkness of the year
And the heart is growing lonely
For the morning.Oh, my Joanie, don’t you know
That the stars are swinging slow,
And the seas are rolling easy
As they did so long ago?
And if I had a thing to give you,
I would tell you one more time
That the world is always turning
Toward the morning.Now October’s growing thin
And November’s coming home;
You’ll be thinking of the season
And the sad things that you’ve seen,
And you hear that old wind walking,
Hear him singing high and thin,
You could swear he’s out there singing
Of your sorrow. (Chorus)When the darkness falls around you
And the north wind comes to blow,
And you hear him call your name out
As he walks the brittle snow:
That old wind don’t mean you trouble,
He don’t care or even know,
He’s just walking down the darkness
Toward the morning. (Chorus)It’s a pity we don’t know
What the little flowers know.
They can’t face the cold November,
They can’t take the wind and snow:
They put their glories all behind them,
Bow their heads and let it go,
But you know they’ll be there shining
In the morning. (Chorus)Now, my Joanie, don’t you know
That the days are rolling slow,
And the winter’s walking easy,
As he did so long ago?
And if that wind should come and ask you,
“Why’s my Joanie weeping so?”
Won’t you tell him that you’re weeping
For the morning? (Chorus)
You can find more of Gordon Bok’s words and music at his website gordonbok.com, and also at his publisher’s website, Timberhead Music (timberheadmusic.com).
What wonderful words have you found and what literary discoveries have you made in your homeschool this week? 😊
❡ The world is always turning toward the morning: If a special phrase or a line or two happens to strike you in one of our weekly poems, just copy it onto your homeschool bulletin board for a few days and invite your students to speak it aloud a few times — that’s all it takes to begin a new poetical friendship and learn a few lovely words that will stay with you for life. 😊
❡ Here, said the year: This post is one of our regular homeschool poems-of-the-week. Print your own River Houses poetry calendar for the whole year at riverhouses.org/calendars and follow along with us as we visit forty-eight of our favorite friends.
We always recommend bird study as a great homeschool science activity — it’s suitable for all ages and for all seasons of the year, and it can be made as elementary or as advanced as you wish. But what if birds don’t catch your student’s interest, or what if you’re stuck inside from bad weather or illness, or what if you want to travel farther afield than your own local neighborhood? Let online research come to your rescue!
There are a number of fascinating natural history research projects available to homeschool students online. These are real projects, sponsored by university researchers, science museums, and related organizations, and your participation advances scientific and scholarly knowledge. The big clearinghouse for such projects is Zooniverse.org. Here are five natural history projects that struck me as interesting — browse around the Zooniverse site and see what others may also be available:
Take a look at these projects or any of the other nature-related Zooniverse projects that are now running, and make your little home academy into a research powerhouse today. 😊
What natural discoveries have you made in your homeschool lately? 😊
October 25th is the anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. That clash between the French army and the soldiers of King Henry V of England would be little remembered today had not Shakespeare immortalized it in one of the most famous speeches in all of English literature, a speech every homescholar should know. It’s called the St. Crispin’s Day Speech because October 25th happens to be, on the church calendar, the feast day of two saints, the brothers Crispin and Crispinian. In 1415, King Henry rallied his men against “fearful odds” by declaring that the feast day of Saints Crispin and Crispinian would never again pass, “from this day to the ending of the world, but we in it shall be rememberèd.”
Here in the River Houses we fulfill King Henry’s prophecy every year — and you and your students can too, joining a tradition that is now more than six centuries old. Here’s a fine young man demonstrating one way to do it:
And for reference, here’s another famous version:
So on this St. Crispin’s Day 2018, the 603rd anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, break out your homeschool copy of Henry V, turn to Act IV, Scene iii, and read along:
WESTMORLAND. O that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work to-day!KING. What’s he that wishes so?
My cousin, Westmorland? No, my fair cousin;
If we are mark’d to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God’s peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmorland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man’s company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call’d the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say “To-morrow is Saint Crispian.”
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say “These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.”
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words —
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester —
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb’red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be rememberèd —
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
What literary discoveries have you made in your homeschool this week? 😊
❡ They call it Agincourt: Where was this memorable speech first spoken in its original form? Why not send your students to your family atlas (riverhouses.org/books) to find out! There’s a trick to this search, however: you have to know that our modern atlas uses the modern French spelling Azincourt for the location. Once you know that, just turn to index page 9 to find the name, and that entry will point you to atlas plate 63, section H10. Incroyable! 😊
Tonight is the night of the full moon, and that means it’s time for a report from the Lunar Society of the River Houses. The Lunar Society is one of our big and wonderful plans to encourage homeschoolers to participate in real online research projects and share their results with other homeschool families. You can read more about the idea right here on this new page:
These monthly reports, I hope, will one day evolve into something like an open forum where homeschool families participating in online research can share their achievements over the past month. As an example, here’s my own personal report for the month on the two main projects I participate in, eBird and SETI@Home:
On the eBird site (eBird.org), sponsored by Cornell University, I’ve been tracking the birds in a small riverside park near me (ebird.org/hotspot/L6926932) and over the past month I’ve found six new species there: White-throated Sparrow, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Purple Finch, and Pine Siskin. That brings the park total to 73. These aren’t rare species in the region, but they haven’t been recorded before in this small local park, and my cumulative list illustrates how many birds you can find even in your own neighborhood and what their regional migratory patterns look like.
The SETI@Home project (setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu), sponsored by the University of California, uses idle time on your computer to perform complex calculations on radio telescope data, looking for extraterrestrial signals. (Really!) I’ve been participating in this project with my computers for a long time and I recently created a River Houses team page for future use (setiathome.berkeley.edu/team_display.php?teamid=208851). There isn’t much there at this point, and it’s not especially well designed from the point of view of a beginning student, but it’s a starting point from which to grow. Once your computer is signed up to participate, you can print a “certificate of computation” that shows how much data you’ve analyzed — just the thing for your homeschool bulletin board. 😊
I recently joined another computer-based project called MilkyWay@Home (milkyway.cs.rpi.edu), sponsored by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, that studies the structure and history of our galaxy. Just getting started there, so no results are available yet.
The Internet provides exceptional opportunities for homeschool students to participate in real research projects like these in a variety of scientific and scholarly fields, something that would have been impossible only a few years ago. Pay a visit to our Lunar Society page (riverhouses.org/lunar-society) to see many more projects your family can participate in, and make your little home academy into a research powerhouse today. 🔬
What scientific discoveries have you made in your homeschool this month? 😊
Raise a glass around your homeschool dinner table this evening and offer this toast: “Tomorrow is Saint Crispin’s.”
“Then shall our names, familiar in their mouths as household words — Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester — be in their flowing cups freshly rememb’red.”
We love libraries in the River Houses, and we hope you and your homescholars do as well! This week is one of our homeschool Shakespeare weeks because this Thursday (25 October) is the anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the central event in Shakespeare’s play Henry V. If you’re studying Shakespeare in your homeschool, you should certainly explore the teaching materials available online from the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., one of the world’s leading centers for Shakespeare research:
The Folger is located on Capitol Hill, right next to the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court — a place of high honor indeed — and you can visit and tour the library the next time you make a homeschool trip to the nation’s capital.
At the Folger’s website you’ll find the full texts of all the plays and sonnets, lesson plans for many of them (with more on the way), and helpful summaries of each plot — including Henry V for this anniversary week:
“Henry V begins at the English court, where the young king is persuaded that he has a claim to the throne of France. When the French dauphin, or heir apparent, insults him by sending him tennis balls, Henry launches his military expedition to France.
“Before departing, Henry learns that three of his nobles have betrayed him, and he orders their execution. Meanwhile, his old tavern companions grieve over Sir John Falstaff’s death, and then leave for France.
“Henry and his army lay siege to the French town of Harfleur, which surrenders. The Princess of France, Katherine, starts to learn English, but the French nobles are sure of success against Henry. Instead, Henry’s forces win a great victory at Agincourt.
“After a brief return to England, Henry comes back to France to claim his rights and to set up his marriage to Princess Katherine. The play’s epilogue points out that Henry will die young and that England will as a result lose most of his French territories.” (Folger Shakespeare Library)
Bookmark the Folger Library’s website (folger.edu) and return to it often whenever you’re planning a homeschool lesson on the Bard.
What treasures have you discovered in your library lately? 😊
❡ Explore more: Your River Houses history encyclopedia (riverhouses.org/books) has a beautifully illustrated overview of the Elizabethan period, within which Shakespeare lived and worked, on pages 260–261. It’s just the background you need to do a wonderful homeschool history lesson.
❡ 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 — there may be more than you realize — and the WorldCat catalog itself (worldcat.org) will help you locate the nearest copy of almost any book in the world. 😊
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:
![[South Carolina Quarter]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/south-carolina-state-quarter-150x148.png)
❡ 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 each week. 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 your little lesson is done. 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 primary source materials for teachers available from the Library of Congress. And anything you and your students want to know about state flags, seals, mottos, birds, and much more, can be found at the helpful State Symbols USA website.
This week’s countries, with their official websites, are:
These countries all appear in your current almanac, atlas, and history encyclopedia as well (riverhouses.org/books). The almanac, for example, has profiles of all the nations of the world on pages 745–852; the endpapers of the atlas are index maps that will show you where each of the individual national and regional maps can be found; the history encyclopedia includes individual national histories on pages 489–599; and you can find additional illustrations, flags, and other mentions through the indexes in each of these volumes.
What geographical discoveries have you made in your homeschool lately? 😊
❡ 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.
❡ Plan an imaginary vacation: Here’s a fun exercise for your students. Take one of the countries that we list each week and write out a family travel plan. How would you get there? How much will it cost? Where will you stay? Will you have to exchange your currency? How do you say hello the local language? What cities and attractions and landmarks will you visit? What foods will you eat? How will you get around (car, train, boat, mule)? Make a simple worksheet with blank spaces for the answers, have your students do the research, and start planning your world tour. ✈️ 😊
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! Print your own River Houses calendar for the whole year at riverhouses.org/calendars.
🇺🇸 OUR STATE-OF-THE-WEEK is South Carolina, and our COUNTRIES are Cabo Verde 🇨🇻, Cambodia 🇰🇭, Cameroon 🇨🇲, and Canada 🇨🇦. (Our separate Sunday States & Countries post will be up shortly.)
🌔 THE MOON at the beginning of this week is gibbous and waxing, on its way to becoming full on the 24th. Track the moon’s phases each month at timeanddate.com, and dial up this week’s constellations with your River Houses star atlas (riverhouses.org/books).
🗓 TODAY (Sunday, 21 October) — Today is the 294 day of 2018; there are 71 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 the birthday of the great English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834). ⬩ And since we talked a lot about apples this past week, it’s only fitting to note that today is celebrated as Apple Day in the United Kingdom. 🍎
MONDAY (22 October) — Today is the birthday of the great Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt (1811–1886). ⬩ On this day in 1836, Sam Houston (1793–1863) was inaugurated as the first president of the Republic of Texas. ⬩ And on this day in 1879, Thomas Edison tested his design for first practical and long-lasting incandescent light bulb.
TUESDAY (23 October) — On this day in 1739, England declared war on Spain in the conflict memorably known as the War of Jenkins’ Ear. ⬩ Today is the birthday of the popular naturalist and children’s author Neltje Blanchan (1865–1918). ⬩ And sometime between 6:02 a.m. and 6:02 p.m. today, chemistry students will want offer a toast in honor of International Mole Day (6.02 × 1023).
WEDNESDAY (24 October) — One of the most famous buildings in the world, Chartres Cathedral, was consecrated on this day in the year 1260. ⬩ Today is the birthday of the pioneering Dutch microscopist Antonie von Leeuwenhoek (1632–1732). ⬩ On this day in 1861, the first North American transcontinental telegraph line was completed. ⬩ Since the moon is full today, we’ll have a report from the River Houses Lunar Society. ⬩ And: to-morrow is Saint Crispin’s.
THURSDAY (25 October) — On this day in the year 285 (or perhaps 286), the early Christian saints Crispin and Crispinian, patrons of cobblers and leather workers, were executed in Rome by the emperor Diocletian. ⬩ And on this day in 1415, the feast day of Saints Crispin and Crispinian, Henry V of England, outnumbered, defeated the armies of France in the Battle of Agincourt. And Crispin–Crispian shall ne’er go by, from this day unto the ending of the world, but they in it shall be rememberèd.
FRIDAY (26 October) — The Erie Canal connecting New York City to the Great Lakes opened on this day in 1825. ⬩ And today is the birthday of the great American gospel singer Mahalia Jackson (1911–1972).
SATURDAY (27 October) — On this day in the year 312, the armies of rival Roman emperors Constantine and Maxentius fought one another in the Battle of Milvian Bridge north of Rome. Tradition says that Constantine secured victory after having a vision of the Christian Cross the night before, leading to his conversion and the eventual adoption of Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire. ⬩ Today is also the birthday of the great Welsh poet and playwright Dylan Thomas (1914–1953).
SUNDAY (28 October) — The great Dutch Renaissance philosopher Erasmus of Rotterdam was born on this day in 1466. ⬩ On this day in 1886, President Grover Cleveland dedicated the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. ⬩ And today is the birthday of American medical researcher Jonas Salk (1914–1995), developer of the polio vaccine.
🥂 YOUR WEEKLY TOAST is one of the most famous toasts in history, to be offered each year on the 25th of October: “To-morrow is Saint Crispin’s.”
❡ 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 set of toasts are mostly taken from an old anthology called The Pic-Nic, a Collection of Recitations, and Comic Songs, Toasts, Sentiments, &c. (London, 1816). What will you toast this week?
🌎 EVERYTHING FLOWS: Canada is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the the great Mackenzie River, the longest river system in Canada and the second longest in North America (after the Mississippi). You can chart its course in your River Houses atlas (riverhouses.org/books), and you can read more about it in the Mackenzie River entry in Wikipedia or perhaps on your next visit to your local library.
![[Mackenzie River]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Mackenzie_from-east.jpg)
❡ 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 your homeschool this week? 😊
Our Poem-of-the-Week this week (the third week of October) was Robert Frost’s “After Apple-Picking.” But in apple season it’s hard to resist sharing another classic: William Barnes’ much-loved Dorset poem “My Orchard in Linden Lea” (1859). Barnes originally wrote the poem in Dorset dialect; it’s usually presented today in a slightly modernized form:
My Orchard in Linden Lea
Within the woodlands, flow’ry gladed,
By the oak tree’s mossy moot,
The shining grass-blades, timber-shaded,
Now do quiver under foot,
And birds do whistle overhead,
And water’s bubbling in its bed,
And there for me the apple tree
Do lean down low in Linden Lea.When leaves that lately were a-springing
Now do fade within the copse,
And painted birds do hush their singing
Up upon the timber tops,
And brown-leav’d fruit’s a-turning red
In cloudless sunshine overhead,
With fruit for me the apple tree
Do lean down low in Linden Lea.Let other folk make money faster
In the air of dark-roomed towns —
I don’t dread a peevish master,
Though no man may heed my frowns.
I be free to go abroad
Or take again my homeward road
To where for me the apple tree
Do lean down low in Linden Lea.
Under the title “Linden Lea,” Barnes’ poem was beautifully set to music by the great English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958), and it has been much favored by classically-trained singers. Here’s a magnificent version by baritone Thomas Allen:
But it’s not just classical singers who have loved the song: choral settings of “Linden Lea” have become staples of school and college choirs around the world. Here’s a fine version from the Diocesan Boys’ School Choir of Hong Kong:
Someday, perhaps, we’ll have a River Houses Homeschool Choir. If we do, I hope “Linden Lea” will be part of our regular repertoire. 😊
What musical and literary discoveries have you made in your homeschool this week? 😊
❡ Explore more: The Poetry Foundation’s website (poetryfoundation.org) includes biographies and examples of the work of many important poets (including William Barnes) that are suitable for high school students and homeschool teachers.
Friday is Natural History Day in the River Houses. If you’re a thoroughly modern homeschooler who is permanently attached to your phone, why not use it to connect yourself and your students back to the natural world with Cornell University’s free MERLIN app for bird identification:
We love books in the River Houses, and we think your homeschool library should certainly have a standard bird guide (riverhouses.org/books). But there will always be times when you’re out and about without your books and birds happen to cross your path (or you theirs). At those times, MERLIN may be just what you need:
“Answer five simple questions about a bird you are trying to identify” in your local homeschool area, “and Merlin will come up with a list of possible matches. Merlin offers quick identification help for all levels of bird watchers to learn about North America and Europe’s common and rare birds.”
What natural discoveries have you made, with or without technological assistance, in your homeschool this week? 😊
❡ Homeschool birds: We think bird study is one of the best subjects you can take up in a homeschool environment. It’s suitable for all ages, it can be made as simple or as complex as you wish, and birds can be found just about anywhere at any season of the year. Why not track your own homeschool bird observations on the free eBird website (eBird.org), also sponsored by Cornell University. It’s a great way to learn more about what’s in your local area and about how bird populations change from season to season. 🦉
The geese are flying and the woodchucks are preparing their winter burrows — it’s harvest season, so our poem-of-the-week for this third week of October is a dreamy story of orchard-labor from Robert Frost:
My long two-pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there’s a barrel that I didn’t fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn’t pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and disappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it’s like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.
This poem is full of wonderful descriptive images — if you take your homescholars to a pick-your-own apple orchard this month they’ll understand them all. 🍎 And after an hour or two of farm labor, perhaps they’ll be ready for a nap — like, or not like, the woodchuck’s long winter nap.
![[Apple picking]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/apple-picking.jpg)
There isn’t as much formal structure in this poem as there is in many of Frost’s verses, but there is quite a bit of rhyme and it often follows regular patterns (ABBA in the first four lines). The poem has a dream-like quality perhaps, matching its theme. How often is our daytime work the subject of our dreams? Do we sometimes get so much of a desired thing that it wears us out? (“Be careful what you wish for.”) Do animals dream? Even in their months-long winter hibernation? Every open-ended question you ask will exercise and expand the young minds in your charge.
What wonderful words have you discovered in your homeschool this week? 😊
❡ I am overtired / Of the great harvest I myself desired: If a special line or turn of phrase happens to strike you in one of our poems-of-the-week, just copy it onto your homeschool bulletin board for a few days and invite your students to speak it aloud a few times — that’s all it takes to begin a new poetical friendship and learn a few lovely words that will stay with you for life. 😊
❡ Explore more: The website of the Poetry Foundation (poetryfoundation.org) includes biographies and examples of the work of many important poets (including Robert Frost) that are suitable for high school students and homeschool teachers.
❡ Here, said the year: This post is one of our regular homeschool poems-of-the-week. Print your own River Houses poetry calendar for the whole year at riverhouses.org/calendars and follow along with us as we visit forty-eight of our favorite friends.
