Happy December to all our readers and friends! Here are some things to look for in the homeschool month ahead. 🔍
December with 31 days is the first month of Orion Term, our winter term in the River Houses. Orion Term runs from December through February. Visit our main calendar page (riverhouses.org/calendars) and print out some of our simple educational calendars and planners — they’ll help you create a light and easy structure for your homeschool year. 🗓
December is Holiday Music Month in the River Houses! Watch for a rich assortment of seasonal sounds (and little educational lessons) to delight both young and old all through the month. 🎵
The month of December is so named because it was the tenth month (Latin decem, “ten”) of the ancient Roman calendar, which considered the spring equinox in March to be the beginning of the year. (That’s why the previous months were September, “Seventh,” October, “Eighth,” and November, “Ninth.”) You can learn more about different kinds of modern and historical calendars on pages 350–356 in your River Houses almanac (riverhouses.org/books). 📚
December predictions (from 1661):
“Strange stuffs will be well sold,
Strange tales well told,
Strange sights much sought,
Strange things much bought.“
December is the month of the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere — the astronomical beginning of winter — which falls this year on Monday the 21st. (In the southern hemisphere the 21st will be the summer solstice — the astronomical beginning of summer.) The winter solstice is the “shortest day” of the year: the day with the shortest period of daylight and the longest period of darkness. ⛄️
Our Sunday states-of-the-week for December will be Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio, and our countries will run from El Salvador to Grenada. 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. 🇺🇸 🌎
We’ll be visiting World Heritage Sites in the Dominican Republic, Eritrea, Fiji, Gabon, and Ghana this month — our River Houses World Heritage Calendar will point the way. 🗺
We’ll have homeschool poems this month from A.E. Housman (for Orion Term), Emily Dickinson (for her birthday), Robert Frost (for the end of fall), Clement Clarke Moore (for Saint Nick), and Robert Burns (for auld lang syne). Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar and join us as we visit with fifty of our favorite friends over the course of the year. ✒️
Our Friday Bird Families this month will include the Skuas, Jaegers, Auks, Murres, and Puffins; the Gulls, Terns, and Skimmers (twice over); and the Tropicbirds, Loons, and Albatrosses. (So many wonderful names, yes?) 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. 🦅
Our monthly Great Star for December is Aldebaran (alpha Tauri), 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 December is the Religious 200s — 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! 📚
And watch for our monthly Wikimedia Commons Photo Challenge post, coming up this week — it’s a great opportunity for all homeschool photographers. 📸
Also coming up this month:
⬩ 10 December (Th): Emily Dickinson’s Birthday, 1830 🖋
⬩ 21 December (M): December (Winter) Solstice – First Day of Winter ⛄️
⬩ 24 December (Th): Festival of Carols at King’s College, Cambridge 🎵
⬩ 25 December (F): Christmas Day 🎄 / Isaac Newton’s Birthday, 1642 🍎
⬩ 29 December (Tu): Lunar Society Report 🌕
⬩ 31 December (Th): New Year’s Eve 🔔
And finally, health tips for December, courtesy of Richard Saunders’ Apollo Anglicanus almanac (1665):
“In December Melancholy and Phlegm much increase, which are heavy, dull, and cold, and therefore it behoves all that will consider their healths to keep their heads and bodies very well from cold, and to eat such things as be of a hot quality…. Drink often Wine this month; and Honey, Cinnamon, Mace, Nutmegs, Ginger, Grains, Cloves, Galingale or such, often drunk or eaten this month, do cherish the blood, the heart, and all the body.“ 🍷
What calendrical events will you be marking in your homeschool this December? 😊
❡ Thirty days hath September: This is one of our regular Homeschool Terms & Calendars posts (riverhouses.org/topics/calendars). Print your own set of River Houses Calendars (riverhouses.org/calendars) to follow along with us, and add your name to our weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) to get more great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🗞
