Happy homeschool birthday wishes to the great classical composer Franz Schubert, born on this day in 1798. (With an added note on the educational importance of name-dropping.)
Archives for January 2019
🖋 🚀 REMEMBERING CHALLENGER
“And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.”
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 27 January 2019
Great homeschool teaching ideas for the week ahead. This week: Groundhog Day, Franklin Roosevelt, Jackie Robinson, the Turkwel River, a toast to old friends, and more.
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Alabama, Jordan, Kiribati, and More
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Alabama, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, and Kiribati.
🖋 🌹 WONDERFUL WORDS: Happy Birthday to Robbie Burns (1759–1796)
“Till all the seas gang dry, my dear, / And the rocks melt wi’ the sun; / I will love thee still, my dear, / While the sands of life shall run.” (Happy birthday to Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland, born on this day in 1759.)
🏞 HOMESCHOOL NATURE NOTES: Real Live River Otters
As every naturalist knows, if you don’t look, you won’t see. And if you do look, you may just see our River Houses mascot in the flesh: a real live North American River Otter.
🖋 🇮🇪 READING ALOUD: In Memory of W.B. Yeats
“Earth, receive an honoured guest; / William Yeats is laid to rest: / Let the Irish vessel lie / Emptied of its poetry.” (Our homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Auden, for Yeats, who died eighty years ago this week.)
✝️ RIGHTEOUSNESS Like a Mighty Stream: Remembering Martin Luther King Jr.
Why not pay a virtual homeschool visit to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta on this Martin Luther King holiday.
🌕 RESEARCH PROJECTS for Homeschool Students – January 2019
Our January 2019 full-moon report on the real scientific and scholarly projects, investigations, transcriptions, analyses, and computations that your students can work on in your little home academy.
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 20 January 2019
Great homeschool teaching ideas for the week ahead. This week: an eclipse, Martin Luther King, Robbie Burns, the Po River, a toast to wealth, and more.
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Illinois, Israel, Japan, and More
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Illinois, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, and Japan.
🖋 🌙 WONDERFUL WORDS: “The stellar gauge of earthly show”
“Is such the stellar gauge of earthly show, / Nation at war with nation, brains that teem, / Heroes, and women fairer than the skies?” (An extra homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Thomas Hardy, for this week’s lunar eclipse.)
☀️ 🌏 🌕 LUNAR ECLIPSE Sunday Night and Monday Morning (20–21 January 2019)
Don’t miss the homeschool astronomical event of the season: a total lunar eclipse on the night of 20–21 January 2019.
🐦 NATURE NOTES: The Great Backyard Bird Count is Coming!
Start making plans for the annual Great Backyard Bird Count, coming on 15–18 February. It’s an ideal homeschool science and nature event!
📜 ON EXHIBIT: Tolkien – Maker of Middle-Earth
Discover the history of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Middle-Earth” through a major museum exhibition coming up this month.
🖋 🎵 WONDERFUL WORDS and Music!): Lift Every Voice and Sing
“Let our rejoicing rise / High as the listening skies, / Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.” (Our homeschool poem-of-the-week, from James Weldon Johnson, for Martin Luther King’s birthday.)
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 13 January 2019
Great homeschool teaching ideas for the week ahead. This week: Cowpens, Queen Elizabeth I, a lunar eclipse, the River Shannon, a toast to living, and more.
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Mississippi, Indonesia, Ireland, and More
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Mississippi, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, and Ireland.
🌕 HOMESCHOOL ASTRONOMY: The Moon’s Far Side (and a Lunar Eclipse)
Visiting the far side of the moon with the Chinese Chang’e 4 lunar lander (and Horace the River Otter).
🖋 ⛸ WONDERFUL WORDS: A Winter Poem for Homeschool Dads
“In the warming house, children lace their skates, / bending, choked, over their thick jackets. / A Franklin stove keeps the place so cozy / it’s hard to imagine why anyone would leave.” (Our homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Gail Mazur, for all homeschool fathers.)
📚 LIBRARY TUESDAY: The 116th Congress at the Library of Congress
If your homeschool students want to learn about the operations of the U.S. Congress, there’s no better place to look than on the website of the Library of Congress itself.
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 6 January 2019
Great homeschool teaching ideas for the week ahead. This week: Cinderella, crossing the Rubicon, the Galilean moons, the Choluteca River, a toast to liberty, and more.
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Indiana, Honduras, India, and More
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Indiana, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, and India.
🎵 🎭 HAPPY TWELFTH NIGHT!
“Long long ago the world begun, / With a hey, ho, the wind and the rain. / But that’s all one, our play is done, / And we’ll strive to please you every day.” (Shakespeare helps us bring the Christmas Season to an end.)
🎵 🎄 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: A Partridge in a 🍐 🌳
One of the deepest purposes of a liberal education is to enable people to get jokes.
🐦 NATURE NOTES: A Free Beginner’s eBird Course Online
This free online introduction from Cornell University will help you and your homeschool students get started with bird study in your local area.
🔭 🌜 WATCHERS OF THE SKIES – January 2019 Lunar Eclipse Edition
A homeschooling review of the northern hemisphere night sky for January 2019, with special notes on the upcoming lunar eclipse!
