• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The River Houses

A National Network of Local Homeschool Societies

  • Subscribe!
  • Home
  • Topics β–Ύ
    • Arts & Music
    • Astronomy
    • Books & Libraries
    • Collections & Collecting
    • Friday Bird Families
    • Great Stars
    • Holidays & Anniversaries
    • Language & Literature
    • Lunar Society Bulletins
    • Maps & Geography
    • Museums & Monuments
    • Natural History
    • Poems-of-the-Week
    • Quick Freshes
    • Research & News
    • States & Countries
    • Terms & Calendars
    • Weekly World Heritage
  • Homeschool Calendars
  • Six Books
  • TWOC β–Ύ
    • The Lunar Society of the River Houses
  • About the River Houses β–Ύ
    • Our Mascots
You are here: Home > Homeschool Terms & Calendars > This Post

πŸ—“ β˜”οΈ 🌸 HAPPY HOMESCHOOL APRIL from the River Houses!

1 April 2020 by Bob O'Hara

Click to: riverhouses.org/2020-april

Happy April to all our readers and friends! Here are some things to look for in the homeschool month ahead. πŸ”

Third-century Roman mosaic from Tunisia. (Image: Ad Meskens/Wikimedia Commons.)
April with 30 days is the middle month of Leo Term, our spring term in the River Houses. Leo Term runs from March through May. Visit our main calendar page (riverhouses.org/calendars) and print out some of our simple educational calendars and planners β€” they’ll help you create a light and easy structure for your homeschool year. πŸ—“

The month of April (Latin Mensis Aprilis) was the second month of the year in the earliest Roman calendars, which treated the beginning of spring in March as the beginning of the new year. The origin of the month’s name is disputed, and it may be lost forever in the mists of time. Some have connected it to the Latin verb aperire (to open), while others associate it with variant name-forms of the goddess Aphrodite, but there is no sure consensus. Just as the Romans renamed their original fifth month Julius (July, after Julius Caesar) and their original sixth month Augustus (August, after Augustus Caesar), so did they briefly rename April Neronius after the emperor Nero β€” but following Nero’s disastrous reign and subsequent suicide, that short-lived change was reversed. You can learn more about different kinds of modern and historical calendars on pages 350–356 in your River Houses almanac (riverhouses.org/books). πŸ“š

Frostiana:

“You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You’re one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you’re two months back in the middle of March.
“

Our Sunday states-of-the-week for April will be Minnesota, Oregon, Kansas, and West Virginia, and our countries will run from Nepal to Poland. Print your own River Houses States & Countries Calendar and tour the United States and the whole world with us from Delaware to Hawaii and Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ 🌎

We’ll be visiting World Heritage Sites in Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Pakistan, and Paraguay this month β€” our River Houses World Heritage Calendar will point the way. πŸ—Ί

We’ll have homeschool poems this month from Geoffrey Chaucer (for April showers), Delmore Schwartz (for April days), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (for Paul Revere), Ralph Waldo Emerson (for the embattled farmers), and A.E. Housman (for the loveliest of trees). Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar and join us as we visit with forty-eight of our favorite friends over the course of the year. βœ’οΈ

Our Friday Bird Families this month will include the Larks, the Swallows, the Chickadees and Titmice, the Penduline Tits and Verdins, the Long-tailed Tits and Bushtits, the Nuthatches, the Creepers, the Wrens, the Gnatcatchers, the Dippers, and the Kinglets. Print your own copy of our River Houses Calendar of American Birds, get out your copy of our recommended homeschool bird guide (riverhouses.org/books), and follow the flyways with us. πŸ¦…

Our monthly Great Star for April is Regulus (alpha Leonis), which we’ll be writing about next week. Print your own River Houses Star Calendar and join us as we visit twelve high lights of the northern hemisphere night sky and make them friends for life. 🌟

Our Dewey Decimal class for April is the Technological 600s β€” follow along with us (on the first Tuesday of each month) and help your students learn the whole library over the course of the year! πŸ“š

And watch for our monthly Wikimedia Commons Photo Challenge post β€” it’s a great opportunity for all homeschool photographers. πŸ“Έ

Also coming up this month:

⬩ 1 April (W): Annual Swiss Spaghetti Harvest 🍝
⬩ 7 April (Tu): Lunar Society Report πŸŒ•
⬩ 15 April (W): Leonardo da Vinci’s Birthday, 1452 🎨
⬩ 19 April (Su): Lexington & Concord, 1775 βš”οΈ
⬩ 23 April (Th): William Shakespeare’s Birthday (more or less), 1564 🎭
⬩ 24 April (F): National Arbor Day 🌳

And remember that while you’re sleeping, or awake, or indoors, or out, “spring advances up the United States at the average rate of about fifteen miles a day. It ascends mountainsides at the rate of about a hundred feet a day. It sweeps ahead like a flood of water, racing down the long valleys, creeping up hillsides in a rising tide. Most of us, like the man who lives on the bank of a river and watches the stream flow by, see only one phase of the movement of spring. Each year the season advances toward us out of the south, sweeps around us, goes flooding away to the north.” 🌸

What calendrical events will you be marking in your homeschool this April? 😊

❑ Thirty days hath September: This is one of our regular Homeschool Terms & Calendars posts (riverhouses.org/topics/calendars). Print your own River Houses Calendars (riverhouses.org/calendars) to follow along with us throughout the year, and add your name to our mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) to get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox every week. πŸ—ž

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Related Posts:

  • 🌟 STAR BRIGHT: Regulus for April (And a New Star Calendar)🌟 STAR BRIGHT: Regulus for April (And a New Star Calendar)
  • πŸ—“ 😎 β˜€οΈ HAPPY HOMESCHOOL AUGUST from the River Houses!πŸ—“ 😎 β˜€οΈ HAPPY HOMESCHOOL AUGUST from the River Houses!
  • πŸ—“ QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 28 April 2019πŸ—“ QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 28 April 2019
  • πŸ—“ πŸŽ… πŸŽ„ HAPPY HOMESCHOOL DECEMBER from the River Houses!πŸ—“ πŸŽ… πŸŽ„ HAPPY HOMESCHOOL DECEMBER from the River Houses!

Filed Under: Homeschool Terms & Calendars

Reader Interactions

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe to Our Newsletter!

It’s free! Your name and email address are never shared with any third parties.

CHECK YOUR INBOX (or spam folder) to confirm your subscription. Thank you! 😊

Search the River Houses

Recent Posts

  • πŸ—“ QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 7 March 2021
  • 🌎 πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ SUNDAY STATES: Florida, Malawi, Mali, and More
  • πŸ”­ WATCHERS OF THE SKIES – March 2021
  • πŸ¦… FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Tyrant Flycatchers and Becards
  • πŸ“Έ PHOTO CHALLENGE – March 2021: β€œNeedlework” and β€œElectricity Production”
  • 🌍 πŸ‡±πŸ‡Ί WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: The Old City of Luxembourg
  • πŸ“š LEARNING THE LIBRARY: The Scientific 500s
  • πŸ–‹ πŸ” WONDERFUL WORDS: Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
  • πŸ—“ 🌱 🐰 HAPPY HOMESCHOOL MARCH from the River Houses!
  • πŸ—“ 🦁 LEO TERM 2021 and the Homeschool Year
  • πŸ“– πŸŽ‰ WONDERFUL WORDS: Happy Dord Day!
  • πŸ—“ QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 28 February 2021
  • 🌎 πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ SUNDAY STATES: Michigan, Liechtenstein, Madagascar, and More
  • πŸŒ• RESEARCH PROJECTS for Homeschool Students – February 2021
  • 🦜 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Parrots

Post Calendar

March 2021
S M T W T F S
« Feb    
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  

Post Categories

  • 🎡 Homeschool Arts & Music
  • πŸ”­ Homeschool Astronomy
  • πŸ“š Homeschool Books & Libraries
  • πŸ’° Homeschool Collections & Collecting
  • πŸ“… Homeschool Holidays & Anniversaries
  • πŸ“– Homeschool Language & Literature
  • πŸŒ• Lunar Society Bulletins
  • πŸ—Ί Homeschool Maps & Geography
  • πŸ› Homeschool Museums & Monuments
  • 🏞 Homeschool Natural History
  • πŸ—“ Quick Freshes for Homeschool Families
  • πŸ”Ž Homeschool Research & News
  • 🌎 πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ Homeschool States & Countries
  • πŸ—“ Homeschool Terms & Calendars

Astronomy

  • Amazing Space (Space Telescope Education)
  • American Meteor Society
    • – Fireball Reporting System
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day
  • Homeschool Astronomy (Sky & Telescope)
  • NASA
    • – Educator Resources
    • – Our Solar System
    • – Spot the Station
  • The Planets Today
    • – Light-Distance to the Planets
  • The Sky This Week (USNO)
  • Space Weather
  • Time and Date
    • – Eclipses
    • – Meteor Showers
    • – Moon Phases
    • – Seasons
  • Tonight’s Sky (hubblesite.com)

Books & Libraries

  • Baldwin Library of Children’s Literature
  • Biodiversity Heritage Library
  • Classic Children’s Books (read.gov)
  • Folger Shakespeare Library
    • – Educator Resources
    • – Shakespeare’s Plays Online
  • HathiTrust Digital Library
  • In Our Time (BBC Podcasts)
  • New York Public Library Digital Collections
  • Project Gutenberg
  • US Library of Congress
    • – Children’s Book Selections
    • – Educator Resources
    • – LC Blogs
    • – LC Digital Collections
    • – Minerva’s Kaleidoscope
  • US National Archives
    • – Educator Resources
    • – Founders Online
    • – K–5 Resources
    • – Teaching With Documents
  • Vatican Library Digital Collections
  • WorldCat Library Catalog
    • – WorldCat Library Finder
  • World Digital Library

Museums, Parks, & Monuments

  • British Museum Collections Online
  • Google Arts & Culture Collections
  • Smithsonian Institution
    • – Educator Resources
    • – Smithsonian Museums
    • – Smithsonian Open Access
  • Timeline of Art History
  • US National Park Service
    • – Educator Resources
    • – National Memorials
    • – National Monuments
    • – National Parks
    • – Wild & Scenic Rivers Program
  • US National Wildlife Refuges
    • – Educator Resources
  • US State Parks

Natural History

  • All About Birds (Cornell University)
    • – Bird Identification Guide
    • – eBird Online
  • Biodiversity Heritage Library
  • BirdCast Daily Migration Maps
  • Time and Date
    • – Seasons
  • UC Museum of Paleontology
    • – Educator Resources
  • US Fish & Wildlife Service
    • – Conservation Curriculum
  • US Geological Survey
    • – Educator Resources
    • – Latest Earthquakes
  • US National Weather Service
    • – Educator Resources
    • – Nationwide River Conditions
  • Wild & Scenic Rivers Program

Maps & Geography

  • Mapquest World Maps
  • Printable Outline Maps (d-maps.com)
  • USGS Topographic Maps
  • World Factbook (cia.gov)
  • World Heritage Sites (UNESCO)
    • – Educator Resources
  • Zoom Earth

Civics & Social Science

  • 1776 Unites
  • Bill of Rights Institute
  • Constitution Center
  • C-Span Classroom
  • Economics Education from FEE
  • iCivics.org
  • Learn Liberty
  • MyMoney.gov
    • – Educator Resources
  • Online Library of Liberty
  • US Founding Documents
  • US Government Portal
    • – The Congress
    • – The Supreme Court
    • – The White House
  • US Mint
    • – Coin Activities for Kids
    • – Educator Resources
  • US Postal Museum
    • – Activities for Kids
    • – Explore the Collections
    • – Stamps Teach (from APS)

Post Archives

  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • April 2017
Sign up for our free newsletter and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox every week!

All original content Β© 2017–2021 by The River Houses Β· The River Houses and the River Houses emblem are Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off.