Archives for January 2020

🦉 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Barn Owls and Typical Owls

31 January 2020 by Horace the Otter 🦦

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2020-owls

Every Friday we invite you and your homeschool students to learn about a different group of North American birds in your recommended bird guide (riverhouses.org/books). It’s a great way to add a few minutes of informal science, geography, natural history, and imagination to your homeschool schedule throughout the year.

This week’s birds (two different families) are the Barn Owls (pages 294–295) and the Typical Owls (pages 294–303).

[See attached blog post for images and video]

If you’re teaching younger children, the way to use these posts is just to treat your bird guide as a picture book and spend a few minutes each week looking at all the interesting birds they may see one day. With that, your little lesson is done.

If you have older students, one of your objectives should be to help them become fluent with a technical reference book that’s packed with dense information, the kind of book they will encounter in many different fields of study. Here is the bird guide’s combined introduction to this week’s two families, written in the customary telegraphic style:

“BARN OWLS and TYPICAL OWLS — Families Tytonidae and Strigidae. Distinctive birds of prey, divided by structural differences into two families, Barn Owls (Tytonidae) and Typical Owls (Strigidae). All have immobile eyes in large heads. Fluffy plumage makes their flight nearly soundless. Many species hunt at night and roost during the day. To find owls, search the ground for regurgitated pellets of fur and bone below a nest or roost. Also listen for flocks of small songbirds noisily mobbing a roosting owl. Species: Tytonidae, 19 World, 1 N.A. [North America]; Strigidae, 194 World, 23 N.A.“

When you’re training your young naturalists, teach them to ask and answer from their bird guide some of the first questions any naturalist would ask about a new group — about the Barn Owls, for example. How many species? (19 worldwide.) Are there any near us? (Only one species in North America, and the guide’s map will give us more information about its range.) What are their distinctive features? (Mostly nocturnal, large heads with forward-facing eyes, fluffy plumage, cough up pellets that can be found under roosts, and so on.)

Pick a representative species or two to look at in detail each week and read the entry aloud, or have your students study it and then narrate it back to you, explaining all the information it contains. This week, for the Barn Owl family, why not investigate (naturally enough), the Barn Owl (page 294). (There’s only one species in North America, so no extra adjective is usually added to the name.)

[See attached blog post for images and video]

All sorts of biological information is packed into the brief species descriptions in your bird guide — can your students tease it out? How big is the Barn Owl? (16 inches long.) What is its scientific name? (Tyto alba.) Will you be able to find this species where you live? At what times of year and in what habitat? (Study the range map and range description carefully to answer those questions, and see the book’s back flap for a map key.) Do the males and females look alike? The adults and juveniles? What song or call does this species make? How can you distinguish it from similar species? (The text and illustrations should answer all these questions.)

Barn Owls occur across the country except for the top tier of states, but they are not particularly common, and because they are almost wholly nocturnal they are not often seen. Their numbers have declined in recent years, possibly because of a decline in small-scale agriculture, which provided the varied hunting and nesting habitats they preferred.

[See attached blog post for images and video]

In the “Typical Owl” family — so called just to distinguish them from the Barn Owls — why not take a look at the most widespread and familiar North American owl, the Great Horned Owl (page 294). The bird’s “horns” are of course just paired feather tufts, not bony horns as in mammals. And although Great Horned Owls are found across the entire continent, because they are nocturnal they are more often heard hooting in the dark than they are seen in the daylight.

[See attached blog post for images and video]

You can do little ten-minute lessons of this kind with any of the species in your bird guide that catch your interest. Pick a species that is near you, or one that looks striking, or one that has a strange name, and explore. For example, take a look at the far-northern Snowy Owl (page 296), one of the few owl species that is largely diurnal; or the tiny Elf Owl of the desert southwest (page 298), which is about the size of a soda can; and so on with as many species as you wish.

In all these Friday Bird Families posts, our aim is not to present a specific set of facts to memorize. We hope instead to provide examples and starting points that you and your students can branch away from in many different directions. We also hope to show how you can help your students develop the kind of careful skills in reading, observation, and interpretation that they will need in all their future academic work.

What ornithological observations and naturalistical notes have you been making in your homeschool this Orion Term? 😊

❡ 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 elementary or as advanced 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 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. 🐦

❡ Vade mecum: The front matter in your bird guide (riverhouses.org/books) (pages 6–13) explains a little bit about basic bird biology and about some of the technical terminology used throughout the book — why not have your students study it as a special project. Have them note particularly the diagrams showing the parts of a bird (pages 10–11) so they’ll be able to tell primaries from secondaries and flanks from lores. 🦉

❡ Words for birds: You may not think of your homeschool dictionary (riverhouses.org/books) as a nature reference, but a comprehensive dictionary will define and explain many of the standard scientific terms you will encounter in biology and natural history, although it will not generally contain the proper names of species or other taxonomic groups that aren’t part of ordinary English. (In other words, you’ll find “flamingo” but not Phoenicopterus, the flamingo genus.) One of the most important things students should be taught to look for in the dictionary is the information on word origins: knowing the roots of scientific terms makes it much easier to understand them and remember their meaning. 📖

❡ Come, here’s the map: Natural history and geography are deeply interconnected. One of the first questions you should teach your students to ask about any kind of animal or plant is, “What is its range? Where (in the world) does it occur?” Our recommended homeschool reference library (riverhouses.org/books) includes an excellent world atlas that will help your students appreciate many aspects of biogeography, the science of the geographical distribution of living things. 🌎

❡ Nature notes: This is one of our regular Friday Bird Families posts for homeschool naturalists. Print your own copy of our River Houses Calendar of American Birds and follow along with us! You can also add your name to our free weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) to get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🐦 🦉 🦆 🦃 🦅

🌏 🇯🇵 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: The Monuments of Ancient Nara in Japan

29 January 2020 by Bob O'Hara

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2020-japan

Japan is one of our homeschool countries-of-the-week, so why not spend a few minutes today learning about one of Japan’s World Heritage Sites: the Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara.

The Golden Hall of Todaiji Buddhist Temple in Nara, Japan, one of the world’s largest wooden buildings. The current structure, the most recent of several on this site, dates to 1709. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

The historic district of the city of Nara is an important site in the history of the Japanese nation and the history of Buddhism:

“The Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara bear exceptional witness to the evolution of Japanese architecture and art and vividly illustrate a critical period in the cultural and political development of Japan, when Nara functioned as its capital from 710 to 784. During this period, the framework of national government was consolidated and Nara enjoyed great prosperity, emerging as the fountainhead of Japanese culture.

“Located in the modern city of Nara, the property includes eight component parts composed of seventy-eight different buildings covering 617.0 ha, which is surrounded by a buffer zone (1,962.5 ha) and the ‘historic environment harmonization area (539.0 ha).’

“The site of Heijô-kyô was carefully selected in accordance with Chinese geomantic principles. A grand city plan, based on Chinese examples such as Chang’an, was laid out, with palaces, Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, public buildings, houses, and roads on an orthogonal grid. The palace itself, located at the northern end of the central avenue, occupied 120 ha. It comprised the official buildings where political and religious ceremonies took place, notably the Daigokuden (imperial audience hall) and Chôdô-in (state halls), and the imperial residence (Dairi), together with various compounds for administrative and other purposes.“ (UNESCO World Heritage Centre #870)

World Heritage Sites are cultural or natural landmarks of international significance, selected for recognition by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. More than 1000 such sites have been recognized in over 160 countries, and we feature one every Wednesday, drawn from one of our homeschool countries-of-the-week. You can find a complete list online at the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and in Wikipedia.

The World Heritage Centre also has a free and comprehensive World Heritage education kit for teachers, as well as a wonderful full-color wall map of World Heritage Sites (riverhouses.org/2019-wh-map), available for the cost of shipping. Why not add them both to your own homeschool library. 🗺

What world treasures have you been exploring in your homeschool this Orion Term? 😊

❡ Books in the running brooks: You can always turn to your River Houses almanac, atlas, and history encyclopedia (riverhouses.org/books) for more information about any of our countries-of-the-week. The almanac has profiles of all the nations of the world on pages 745–852; the endpapers of the atlas are indexes that will show you where all of the individual national and regional maps may be found; the history encyclopedia includes national histories on pages 489–599; and you can find additional illustrations, flags, and other mentions through the indexes in each of these volumes. For an ideal little lesson, just write the name of the Weekly World Heritage Site on your homeschool bulletin board, find its location in your atlas, read the WHC’s brief description aloud, look at a picture or two, and you’re done. Over the course of the year, without even realizing it, your students will absorb a wealth of new historical, geographical, and cultural information. 🇯🇵

❡ The great globe itself: This is one of our regular Homeschool States & Countries posts featuring historical and natural sites of international importance. Download a copy of our River Houses World Heritage Calendar (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us as we tour the planet, and add your name to our weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) to get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🌏

🖋 🚀 REMEMBERING CHALLENGER

27 January 2020 by Bob O'Hara

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2020-challenger

On January 28th in 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds after its launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida. All seven members of the crew were lost: Francis Scobee, Michael Smith, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe.

The Challenger disaster had a disproportionate effect on young people in the United States at the time because crew member Christa McAuliffe was the first “Teacher in Space,” scheduled to broadcast classroom lessons from earth orbit. Tens of thousands of school children across the country watched the launch on live TV and saw the explosion as it happened.

We mark the Challenger anniversary each year with three texts that you may like to share with your students. The first is the famous poem “Sea-Fever” by the English poet John Masefield (1878–1967) — it’s our homeschool poem-of-the-week for this last week of January:

Sea-Fever

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

On the evening of the Challenger launch, President Ronald Reagan had been scheduled to deliver his annual State of the Union Address to Congress. He decided to postpone that event and instead spoke to the nation on television, addressing in particular the school children who had seen the disaster unfold earlier that day: “The future doesn’t belong to the faint-hearted: it belongs to the brave.” Classical homeschoolers may recognize Reagan’s Challenger Address, like Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, as an example of epideictic oratory. It’s now widely regarded as one of the great speeches of the late twentieth century.

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The final text, from the film Chariots of Fire, is the dinner speech given by the master of Caius College at Cambridge University to the college’s newly arrived students — young people not much older than your own students — just after the end of World War I in 1919.

“I take the war list and I run down it. Name after name, which I cannot read, and which we who are older than you cannot hear, without emotion; names which will be only names to you, the new college, but which to us summon up face after face, full of honesty and goodness, zeal and vigor, and intellectual promise; the flower of a generation, the glory of England; and they died for England and all that England stands for.

“And now by tragic necessity their dreams have become yours. Let me exhort you: examine yourselves. Let each of you discover where your true chance of greatness lies.

“For their sakes, for the sake of your college and your country, seize this chance, rejoice in it, and let no power or persuasion deter you in your task.“

Roger, go at throttle up.

➢

The future doesn’t belong to the faint-hearted: it belongs to the brave.

❡ All I ask is a tall ship: If a special line or turn of phrase 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 — that’s all it takes to begin a new poetical friendship and learn a few lovely words that will stay with you for life. ✒️

❡ The surly bonds of earth: Millions of Americans in 1986 would have immediately recognized the last lines of Reagan’s speech, even if they couldn’t name the source. The lines are from “High Flight,” a poem by World War II aviator John Gillespie Magee Jr. (1922–1941) that has long been a favorite of both pilots and astronauts. A two-minute film that featured the poem was broadcast for many years as the nightly sign-off transmission by television stations all across the country. “High Flight” was later inscribed on the memorial to the Challenger Seven in Arlington National Cemetery. ✈️

❡ Here, said the year: This post is one of our regular homeschool poems-of-the-week. Add your name to our River Houses mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) to get posts like these delivered right to your mailbox, and print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar (riverhouses.org/calendars) to follow along with us as we visit forty-eight of our favorite friends over the course of the year. 📖

🎵 HOMESCHOOL MUSIC: Happy Birthday Mozart!

27 January 2020 by Bob O'Hara

Happy birthday to one of history’s greatest musical composers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born on this day in 1756. 🎶

Whenever you’re looking for a little homeschool lesson on classical music, the best place to start is always the Classics for Kids website:

➢ Classics for Kids (classicsforkids.com)

There you’ll find a giant collection of short profiles of all sorts of famous composers, including Mozart:

“Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, where his father Leopold was a violinist and composer. Wolfgang (or Wolferl, as his family called him) was a child prodigy. He composed his first piece of music at age five; he had his first piece published when he was seven; and he wrote his first opera when he was twelve. By the time Wolfgang was 6, he was an excellent pianist and violinist. He and his sister Maria Anna (known as Nannerl) traveled all over Europe performing for royalty.“ (classicsforkids.com)

That profile page includes links to several kid-friendly (and teacher-friendly) introductions to major works by Mozart, including this famous little “Turkish Rondo” — a great three-minute piece to play today to get everyone marching around the living room:

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You’ll also find a long and detailed educator packet with lesson plans that will help you teach a comprehensive unit study on Mozart’s work if you’re so inclined:

➢ Lesson Plans for Mozart’s Music (classicsforkids.com)

Happy birthday, Wolferl!

What other historico-musical holidays and anniversaries are you marking in your homeschool this Orion Term? 😊

❡ Stay in the loop: This is one of our occasional Homeschool Arts & Music posts. Add your name to our weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🗞

🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 26 January 2020

26 January 2020 by Bob O'Hara

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2020-01-26

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! Visit our River Houses calendar page (riverhouses.org/calendars) and print your own homeschool calendars for the entire year.

🇺🇸 OUR STATE-OF-THE-WEEK is Alabama, and our COUNTRIES are Japan 🇯🇵, Jordan 🇯🇴, Kazakhstan 🇰🇿, and Kenya 🇰🇪. (Our separate Sunday States & Countries post for the week went up just a few minutes ago.)

🌒 THE MOON at the beginning of this week is a waxing crescent — a good time for stargazing! You can explore the night sky and the features of the moon in your recommended backyard astronomy guide and your homeschool world atlas, and you can learn a host of stellar and lunar facts on pages 342–357 in your almanac (riverhouses.org/books). Browse through our many astronomy posts for even more!

🗓 TODAY, Sunday (26 January 2020) — Today is the 26th day of 2020; there are 340 days remaining in this leap year. Learn more about different kinds of modern and historical calendars on pages 350–356 in your River Houses almanac (riverhouses.org/books). 📚 The world’s largest diamond, the Cullinan diamond, was found on this day in 1905 in the Premier mine near Pretoria, South Africa. 💎 And on this day in 1915, Rocky Mountain National Park was established by an act of the U.S. Congress. 🏞

Monday (27 January 2020) — Today is the birthday of the great classical composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). 🎼

Tuesday (28 January 2020) — On this day in 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds after launch, killing all seven members of the astronaut crew. 👨‍🚀👨‍🚀👨‍🚀👩‍🚀👩‍🚀👨‍🚀👨‍🚀 Today is also the birthday of the great choral composer John Taverner (1944–2013). 🎼

Wednesday (29 January 2020) — Today is the birthday of Revolutionary war general Moses Cleaveland (1754–1806), the founder of Cleveland, Ohio. 🏙 It’s also the birthday of the great Russian writer Anton Chekhov (1860–1904). 🖋

Thursday (30 January 2020) — Today is the birthday of U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt (1882–1945). 🇺🇸 It’s also the birthday of pioneering computer scientist Douglas Engelbart (1925–2013), inventor of the computer mouse and many other standard features of modern computers. 🖱

Friday (31 January 2020) — Today is the birthday of the great Austrian pianist and composer Franz Schubert (1797–1828). 🎹 It’s also the birthday of baseball great Jackie Robinson (1919–1972), the first African-American to play in the Major Leagues. ⚾️ Our Friday Bird Families post this week will introduce you to the Owls! 🦉 Print your own River Houses Calendar of American Birds (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us throughout the year. 🦅

Saturday (1 February 2020) — On this day in 1942, at the height of World War II, the Voice of America, the official overseas radio service of the U.S. government, began broadcasting to territories in Europe controlled by the Axis powers. 📻 Our homeschool poem-of-the-week for first week of February is Robert Frost’s wintry classic “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” ❄️ Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us throughout the year. 🖋 And since this is the first Saturday of the month, we’ll also post our regular monthly preview today of some of the important astronomical events you and your students can watch for over the next few weeks. 🔭

Sunday (2 February 2020) — It’s Groundhog Day! ⏚🐖 On this day in 1653, the city of New Amsterdam was incorporated. We know it today as the city of New York. 🏙

🥂 OUR WEEKLY TOAST: “May peace and plenty ever grow from American soil.”

❡ Toasts can be a fun educational 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 Perfect Gentleman; or, Etiquette and Eloquence (New York, 1860). What will you toast this week? 🥂

🌏 🇰🇿 EVERYTHING FLOWS: Kazakhstan in central Asia is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the Lepsy River, one of the principal rivers of eastern Kazakhstan. You can find its location in your recommended homeschool atlas (riverhouses.org/books), and you can read more about it in the Lepsy River entry in Wikipedia or perhaps on your next visit to your local library.

Dam on the upper reaches of the Lepsy River in Kazakhstan. (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 691–693), 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? 😊

❡ Lively springs: This is one of our regular “Quick Freshes” posts looking at the homeschool week ahead. Add your name to our River Houses mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get these weekly messages delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. You can also print your own River Houses calendars of educational events (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us. 🗓

🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Alabama, Japan, Kenya, and More

26 January 2020 by Bob O'Hara

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2020-alabama

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 our recommended homeschool reference library (riverhouses.org/books) includes a current world almanac, a world atlas, and a history encyclopedia that make these reviews fun and easy. Our annual review begins at the start of the River Houses year in September and goes through the states in the traditional order of admission to the Union (page 420 in your brand new 2020 almanac), so this week’s state is:

🇺🇸
Alabama State Bird and Flower
ALABAMA (the 22nd state, 14 December 1819) — The Camellia State. Capital: Montgomery. Alabama can be found on page 563 in your almanac and on plates 42 and 142 in your atlas. Name origin: “Choctaw word for a Chickasaw tribe. First noted in accounts of Hernando de Soto expedition” (almanac page 422). State bird: Northern Flicker (bird guide page 316). Website: www.alabama.gov.

❡ Little lessons: You can teach a hundred little lessons with our 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 just 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 wealth of new geographical and historical information, as well as a host of valuable reading and research skills. 😊

❡ Explore more: If you’re planning an extended unit-study of one or more of the U.S. states, be sure to look into the primary source materials for teachers available at the Library of Congress.

We go through the countries of the world in alphabetical order, so this week’s countries, with their official websites, are:

🇯🇵 JAPAN off the east coast of Asia. Population: 125,853,035. Capital: Tokyo. Government: Parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Website: www.japan.go.jp (in English).
🇯🇴 JORDAN in the Middle East. Population: 10,669,786. Capital: Amman. Government: Parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Website: jordan.gov.jo (in Arabic and English).
🇰🇿 KAZAKHSTAN in central Asia. Population: 18,923,073. Capital: Astana. Government: Presidential republic. Website: www.government.kz (in English, Russian, and Kazakh).
🇰🇪 KENYA in eastern Africa. Population: 49,142,516. Capital: Nairobi. Government: Presidential republic. Website: www.president.go.ke (in English).

These all appear in your current almanac, atlas, and history encyclopedia as well (riverhouses.org/books). The almanac, for example, has profiles of 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 grand global geographical explorations have you been making in your homeschool this Orion Term? 😊

❡ 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 exercise their critical reading and thinking skills. 🔍

❡ Come, here’s the map: Teaching your students to be fluent with high-quality maps — not just basically competent, but fluent — is one of the best educational gifts you can give them. Why not look up any one of our selected states or countries each week in your recommended homeschool atlas (riverhouses.org/books) and show your students how to locate rivers, lakes, marshes, water depths, mountains and their elevations, highway numbers, airports, oil fields, railroads, ruins, battle sites, small towns, big cities, regional capitals, national capitals, parks, deserts, glaciers, borders, grid references, lines of longitude and latitude, and much more. There is so much information packed into professional maps of this kind that a magnifying glass is always helpful, even for young folks with good eyesight. The endpapers of the atlas and the technical map-reading information on Plate 2 will guide you in your voyages of discovery. 🗺

❡ 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? Will you need a passport? 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. ✈️ 🚞 🚗 🛳 🐎 😊

❡ The great globe itself: This is one of our regular Sunday States & Countries posts. Print your own River Houses States & Countries Calendar (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us as we take an educational tour of the United States and the whole world over the course of the homeschool year. And don’t forget to add your name to our free mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) to get more great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox every week. 🇺🇸 🌎

🐦 NATURE NOTES: Cornell University Summer Program, June 2020

24 January 2020 by Horace the Otter 🦦

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2020-cornell

Here’s an outstanding opportunity for a high school homeschooler with a serious career interest in science and natural history. Cornell University’s Laboratory of Ornithology is offering a summer program for up to sixteen high school students at its headquarters in Ithaca, New York:

“The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is excited to host the Cornell Lab Young Birders Event, which will be held June 25–28, 2020, in Ithaca, New York. The Young Birders Event aims to bring together teenagers with a passion for birds and interested in pursuing a career in the field. You’ll meet people who have successful careers that involve birds in a variety of ways from ornithological researchers to tour leaders, to audio specialists and computer scientists. High school–aged young birders (students entering grades 9–12 in the fall) are invited to fill out our application form and return it for review by March 15, 2020. Sixteen young birders will be selected and notified in early April. Slight preference is given to students entering 12th grade and students who have previously applied.“ (ebird.org/news)

The program isn’t free: tuition is set at $600, similar to what you might find for any summer short-course at a university. And admission is competitive. But for a student looking toward college and a career in this area, it would be a hard opportunity to beat. You can find the application form and all the details here:

➢ The Cornell Lab Young Birders Event 2020

What ornithological observations and naturalistical notes have you been making in your homeschool this Orion Term? 😊

❡ 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 elementary or as advanced 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, 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. 🦆

❡ Nature notes: This is one of our regular Homeschool Natural History posts. Add your name to our weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🐦

🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: New World Vultures, Ospreys, Hawks, Kites, and Eagles

24 January 2020 by Horace the Otter 🦦

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2020-vultures

This week’s birds (three different families) are the New World Vultures (pages 268–269), the Ospreys (pages 270–271), and the Hawks, Kites, and Eagles (pages 270–293).

[See attached blog post for images and video]

If you have older students, one of your objectives should be to help them become fluent with a technical reference book that’s packed with dense information, the kind of book they will encounter in many different fields of study. Here are the bird guide’s introductions to this week’s groups, written in the customary telegraphic style:

“NEW WORLD VULTURES — Family Cathartidae. Small, unfeathered head and hooked bill aid in consuming carrion. Generally silent away from nesting site. Latest research indicates that these species are more closely related to hawks than storks; placement here restores an earlier treatment. Species: 3 World, 3 N.A. [North America]“

“OSPREYS — Family Pandionidae. Large, eagle-like raptor with reversible outer toes. Feeds almost exclusively on fish, normally caught live and then transported head first and belly down. Species: 1 World, 1 N.A.“

“HAWKS · KITES · EAGLES — Family Accipitridae. Worldwide family of diurnal birds of prey, with hooked bills and strong talons. Species: 240 World, 27 N.A.“

When you’re training your young naturalists, teach them to ask and answer from their bird guide some of the first questions any naturalist would ask about a new group — about the Hawks, Kites, and Eagles, for example. How many species? (240 worldwide — a large group!) Are there any near us? (27 species in North America, and the individual maps will give us more detail.) What are their distinctive features? (Diurnal, predatory, hooked bills, talons, and so on.) (And both “diurnal” and “talon” are certainly wonderful words, aren’t they — be sure to send someone to your homeschool dictionary to look them up!) 🔎

Pick a representative species or two to look at in detail each week and read the entry aloud, or have your students study it and then narrate it back to you, explaining all the information it contains. This week, from the Hawks, Kites, and Eagles, why not investigate our national bird: the Bald Eagle (page 274).

[See attached blog post for images and video]

Everybody can recognize an adult Bald Eagle, but have your students ever seen one in the wild? (It’s a real bird, not just an emblem. I saw two this past week.) All sorts of biological information is packed into the brief Bald Eagle species description in your bird guide — can your students tease it out? How big is a Bald Eagle? (31–37 inches long with a wingspan up to 90 inches!) What is its scientific name? (Haliaeetus leucocephalus.) Will you be able to find this species where you live? (Probably, as they occur across most of North America, although they aren’t common everywhere.) At what times of year and in what habitat? (Study the range map and range description carefully to answer those questions, and see the book’s back flap for a map key.) Do the males and females look alike? (Yes.) The adults and juveniles? (No!) What song or call does this species make? How can you distinguish it from similar species? (The text and illustrations should answer all these questions.)

For the Osprey family, which contains only a single species, take a few minutes to look at (naturally enough) the Osprey (page 270), a fish-eating predator found on every continent except Antarctica.

[See attached blog post for images and video]

And for the New World Vulture family, take a look at another widespread North American species that you can almost certainly find near you: the Turkey Vulture (page 268), named for its bare, red, turkey-like head.

[See attached blog post for images and video]

What ornithological observations and naturalistical notes have you been making in your homeschool this Orion Term? 😊

🌍 🇮🇪 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: Sceilg Mhichíl in Ireland

22 January 2020 by Bob O'Hara

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2020-ireland

Ireland is one of our homeschool countries-of-the-week, so why not spend a few minutes today learning about one of Ireland’s World Heritage Sites: the medieval island monastery of Sceilg Mhichíl. (And you won’t believe who was just found living there!)

Beehive-shaped monastic cells made of unmortared stone on Skellig Michael (Sceilg Mhichíl) off the southwest coast of Ireland. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

Sceilg Mhichíl or Skellig Michael (“Michael’s Splinter,” after the archangel Michael) is one of the most famous and most remote monastic sites in western Europe:

“Sceilg Mhichíl, also known as Skellig Michael, was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1996. The island of Sceilg Mhichíl lies at the extreme north-western edge of Europe, rising from the Atlantic Ocean almost 12 km west of the lveragh Peninsula in County Kerry. It is the most spectacularly situated of all Early Medieval island monastic sites, particularly the isolated hermitage perched on narrow, human-made terraces just below the South Peak.

“Faulting of Devonian sandstone has created a U-shaped depression known today as ‘Christ’s Valley’ or ‘Christ’s Saddle’ 130 m above sea level in the centre of the island, and this is flanked by two peaks, that to the north-east rising to 185 m and that to the west-south-west, 218 m. The rock is deeply eroded and weathered, owing to its exposed position, but it is almost frost-free.

“The three island landing points communicate by flights of steps with the principal monastic remains, which are situated on a sloping shelf on the ridge running north-south on the north-eastern side of the island; the hermitage is on the steeper South Peak.

“The monastery, its cells and oratories, and the even more precipitous structures of the South Peak Hermitage symbolise both the arrival and spread of Christianity and [the] emerging literacy of lands so remote that they were beyond the frontiers of the Roman Empire and the ultimate reach of organised monasticism which spread from Egypt by land and sea through Italy and Gaul to Britain and Ireland in a mere two centuries (the 5th and 6th). The date of the foundation of the monastery on this island is not known. It was dedicated to St Michael somewhere between 950 and 1050.“ (UNESCO World Heritage Centre #757)

Skellig Michael is thought to have been most active as a monastery from the 11th through the 13th centuries, during which time as many as a dozen monks were permanently resident on the island. A small cemetery near the oratory contains some of their remains.

The large oratory and the monks’ cemetery on Skellig Michael. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

Although Skellig Michael has long been known to a small group of history specialists, it didn’t become intergalactically famous until recently, when the Millennium Falcon came in for a landing and this remote monastery was revealed as the hiding place of Jedi-Knight-in-exile Luke Skywalker:

➢

What world treasures have you been exploring in your homeschool this Orion Term? 😊

🔎 HOMESCHOOL RESEARCH & NEWS – January 2020

21 January 2020 by Bob O'Hara

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2020-01-research

On the third Tuesday of each month we post a quick roundup of some recent academic publications and news about homeschooling, offered for your interest. These are typically university research papers, and they may have a positive, negative, or neutral outlook on home education — and if they don’t seem appealing, just scroll on by. The title links generally point to the full text of each publication, which is often a pdf file. The abstracts are quoted in full when possible, without editing.

We have six items this month. The sixth one is not specifically about homeschooling, but we have included it because it presents such a wonderful conclusion: if you want your kids to be smart, surround them with books! 📚 😊

(1) Extending Our Reach: Using Day Camps at Academic Library Makerspaces to Include Homeschoolers — L. Baker (2018)

Abstract: The makerspace at Abilene Christian University has been operational since 2015. It is unusual in that it is an academic space at a private university that offers equal service privileges to both the campus and the community. In an attempt to encourage a maker mindset within our broader region, we began offering a series of day camps for elementary and middle school students. To our surprise and delight, the homeschool community became our biggest group of participants. What started as serendipity is now a conscious awareness of this group of patrons. In this article, I outline how our camps are structured, what we discovered about the special needs and interests of homeschool families, and how we incorporate this knowledge into outreach and camp activities. I also share how we evaluate the camps for impact not only upon campers but also within the larger goals of the library and university.

(2) Perceived Barriers of Homeschooled Students Moving into Higher Education: Case Stories and Qualitative Perspectives — L. Kliewer (2019)

Abstract: Homeschooling is a viable educational option for many families. Challenges often arise when students are ready to transition into higher education. Barriers to smooth transitions exist, both for the homeschooled student as well as for college admissions teams. The purpose of this qualitative study was to recognize these barriers in order to increase the potential for working toward solutions for those involved. This study used a combination of case story and qualitative research methodology to gather perspectives through interviews from three homeschooling families in southern Minnesota and three higher education professionals working in the field of admissions. Some of the main barriers revealed in the findings of this study include reliable methods of communication with the homeschooling network, lack of recruitment of homeschooled students, homeschooling transcript expectations, and consistent requirements from schools. Acknowledging and presenting this knowledge gained about perceived barrier challenges and ideas for meaningful change will help move this topic forward and lead to better understanding and recognition of possible solutions to ease the transition process for homeschooled students.

(3) Escaping the Formal Education System: A Case Study of Chinese Homeschooling Families — Q. Wang & M.W. Lanager (2019)

Abstract: For this article a case study was conducted of homeschooling to describe the rationale for homeschooling, as well as decision-making regarding curricula and instruction, and the overall perceived effectiveness of homeschooling and socialization efforts in Xi’an, China. This article is based on an empirical study to reveal the main characteristics of the five sample families. Feeling uncomfortable about the formal school education system was the common impetus for commencing homeschooling. Combining informal learning activities with a formal curriculum was the prevailing choice amongst the families. As dictated by various needs, each family had their unique curriculum design. All the parents and students expressed their belief in the effectiveness of homeschooling. Socialization seemed to be a problem for these students, however, because there were no regular homeschooling groups to support their study and play.

(4) Understanding Families Who Choose to Homeschool: Agency in Context — A. Dennison, J. Lasser, D. Awtry Madres, & Y. Lerma (2020)

Abstract: Many families elect to educate their children at home rather than enroll them in school. Whereas each family maintains its own reasons for deciding to homeschool, a factor for some families, including families of color, may be found in their response to institutions and systems that have historical roots in inequality, that have intentionally or unintentionally perpetuated inequitable outcomes for their children. This article considers the decision to homeschool in the context of families’ efforts to regain agency and self-determination. Implications for school psychologists are discussed and recommendations for policy and practice are provided.

(5) The Efficacy of Problem-Solving Consultation for Homeschooled Students With Behavior Concerns — R.M. DeRish, T.R. Kratochwill, & S.A. Garbacz (2020)

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore the efficacy and acceptability of problem-solving consultation for homeschooling families with children who exhibited externalizing behavior problems. Three families participated, with multiple siblings participating from each family. Six children were male and 1 child was female. Children’s ages ranged from 5 to 9 years old. Single-case experimental multiple baseline designs were used to evaluate the functional relation between implementation of behavior support plans within problem-solving consultation and children’s externalizing behaviors. Direct observation data showed decreases in externalizing behaviors after the consultation and intervention process for 2 of the 3 families. The parents of the homeschooling children reported that the behavior support plans and consultation process were acceptable. Implications for future research and practice are presented.

(6) Keep the Books on the Shelves: Library Space as Intrinsic Facilitator of the Reading Experience — J.M. Donovan (2020)

Abstract: Library literature frequently reports projects to remove print collections and replace them with other amenities for patrons. This project challenges the untested assumption that the physical library itself serves no useful function to users unless they are actively consulting books from the shelves. The alternative hypothesis is that readers benefit from the mere act of studying while in a book-rich environment.

To test this possibility, ten subjects completed SAT-style reading comprehension tests in both a traditional library environment, and a renovated chapel that strongly resembles library space except for lacking books. Results provide a reasonable basis to support an expectation that readers perform better on reading comprehension tasks performed in book-rich environments.

What interesting homeschool news and research have you come across this Orion Term? 👩🏻‍🎓

❡ Explore more: If you’d like to investigate the academic literature on homeschooling, the best place to start is Google Scholar (scholar.google.com), the special academic search engine from Google. Just enter a search term or phrase of interest (“homeschool,” “unschooling,” “classical homeschooling,” “deschooling,” etc.), and Google Scholar will return a list of academic publications that mention your topic. 🔎

❡ Stay in the loop: This is one of our regular Homeschool Research & News posts. Add your name to our weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🗞

🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 19 January 2020

19 January 2020 by Bob O'Hara

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2020-01-19

🇺🇸 OUR STATE-OF-THE-WEEK is Illinois, and our COUNTRIES are Ireland 🇮🇪, Israel 🇮🇱, Italy 🇮🇹, and Jamaica 🇯🇲. (Our separate Sunday States & Countries post for the week went up just a few minutes ago.)

🌘 THE MOON at the beginning of this week is a waning crescent — a good time for stargazing! You can explore the night sky and the features of the moon in your recommended backyard astronomy guide and your homeschool world atlas, and you can learn a host of stellar and lunar facts on pages 342–357 in your almanac (riverhouses.org/books). Browse through our many astronomy posts for even more!

🗓 TODAY, Sunday (19 January 2020) — Today is the 19th day of 2020; there are 347 days remaining in this leap year. Learn more about different kinds of modern and historical calendars on pages 350–356 in your River Houses almanac (riverhouses.org/books). 📚 Today is the birthday of the polemical American lawyer and freedom-philosopher Lysander Spooner (1808–1887). ⚖️ It’s also the birthday of the spooky American poet and short-story writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849). 👻

Monday (20 January 2020) — Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday in the United States. Lift every voice and sing! 🇺🇸 And one of the first two men to walk on the moon, American astronaut Buzz Aldrin, was born on this day in 1930 — and he’s still alive and kicking at age 90. Happy birthday, Buzz! 👨‍🚀

Tuesday (21 January 2020) — Today is St. Agnes Day, named for Agnes of Rome, a teenage Christian martyr of the 4th century and a favorite subject of artists and writers for hundreds of years. On this day, saith tradition, young girls will have their future husbands revealed to them in their dreams: “Agnes sweet, and Agnes fair, / Hither, hither, now repair; / Bonny Agnes, let me see / The lad who is to marry me.”

Wednesday (22 January 2020) — Today is the birthday of two great English poets: John Donne (1573–1631) and George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824). 🖋 And speaking of poetry, our homeschool poem-of-the-week for last week of January is John Masefield’s “Sea-Fever,” in memory of the Space Shuttle Challenger and its crew, who died 28 January 1986. 🌊 Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us throughout the year. 🗓

Thursday (23 January 2020) — Today is the birthday of John Hancock (1737–1793), president of the Continental Congress and the most flamboyant signer of the Declaration of Independence. 🖋 And on this day in 1849, the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States, Elizabeth Blackwell (1821–1910), graduated from the Geneva Medical College in New York. 👩‍⚕️

Friday (24 January 2020) — On this day in 1848, James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter’s Mill, California, touching off the California Gold Rush. ⛏ And on this day in 1984, Apple Computer introduced the Macintosh, and 1984 wasn’t like 1984. 🍎 Our Friday Bird Families post this week will introduce you to the New World Vultures, Ospreys, Hawks, Kites, and Eagles. Print your own River Houses Calendar of American Birds (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us throughout the year. 🦅

Saturday (25 January 2020) — Today is the birthday of the great Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759–1796), aye. 🌹

Sunday (26 January 2020) — The world’s largest diamond, the Cullinan diamond, was found on this day in 1905 in the Premier mine near Pretoria, South Africa. 💎 And on this day in 1915, Rocky Mountain National Park was established by an act of the U.S. Congress. 🏞

🥂 OUR WEEKLY TOAST, in honor of the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill this week in 1848, is a traditional miners’ toast from Yorkshire: “May all your labours be in vein.”

🌍 EVERYTHING FLOWS: Israel is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the Dan River, a tributary of the Jordan River that is named for the ancient Israelite city and tribe of Dan. (And it’s not to be confused with another Dan River which flows through the American state of Virginia.) You can find its location in your recommended homeschool atlas (riverhouses.org/books), and you can read more about it in the Dan River entry in Wikipedia or perhaps on your next visit to your local library.

The Dan River passing through the Tel Dan Nature Reserve in Israel. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

What do you have planned for your homeschool this week? 😊

🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Illinois, Ireland, Jamaica, and More

19 January 2020 by Bob O'Hara

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2020-illinois

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.

🇺🇸
Illinois State Bird and Flower
ILLINOIS (the 21st state, 3 December 1818) — The Prairie State. Capital: Springfield. Illinois can be found on page 569 in your almanac and on plates 41 and 142 in your atlas. Name origin: “French for Illini or ‘land of Illini,’ Algonquin word meaning ‘men’ or ‘warriors’” (almanac page 422). State bird: Northern Cardinal (bird guide page 522). Website: illinois.gov.

❡ Explore more: If you’re planning an extended unit-study of one or more of the U.S. states, be sure to look into the primary source materials for teachers available at the Library of Congress.

We go through the countries of the world in alphabetical order, so this week’s countries, with their official websites, are:

🇮🇪 IRELAND in western Europe. Population: 5,123,219. Capital: Dublin. Government: Parliamentary republic. Website: www.gov.ie (in English and Irish).
🇮🇱 ISRAEL in the Middle East. Population: 8,550,149. Capital: Jerusalem. Government: Parliamentary democracy. Website: www.gov.il (in Hebrew, English, and several other languages).
🇮🇹 ITALY in southern Europe. Population: 62,334,799. Capital: Rome. Government: Parliamentary Republic. Website: www.governo.it (in Italian).
🇯🇲 JAMAICA in the West Indies. Population: 2,810,520. Capital: Kingston. Government: Parliamentary democracy under constitutional monarchy. Website: jis.gov.jm (in English).

What grand global geographical explorations have you been making in your homeschool this Orion Term? 😊

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