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🌍 πŸ‡·πŸ‡Έ WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: The Medieval Monuments of Kosovo

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Click to: riverhouses.org/2020-serbia

Serbia in southeastern Europe is one of our homeschool countries-of-the-week, so why not spend a few minutes today learning about one of Serbia’s World Heritage Sites: the Medieval Monuments of Kosovo.

The Visoki Dečani Monastery in Kosovo. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

The Medieval Monuments of Kosovo World Heritage Site consists of four groups of historic church buildings that reflect the religious history of the region (a region currently in dispute between the governments of Serbia and Kosovo; UNESCO treats it as part of Serbia):

“The four edifices of the site reflect the high points of the Byzantine–Romanesque ecclesiastical culture, with its distinct style of wall painting, which developed in the Balkans between the 13th and 17th centuries. The Dečani Monastery was built in the mid-14th century for the Serbian king Stefan Dečanski and is also his mausoleum. The Patriarchate of PeΔ‡ Monastery is a group of four domed churches featuring series of wall paintings. The 13th-century frescoes of the Church of Holy Apostles are painted in a unique, monumental style. Early 14th-century frescoes in the church of the Holy Virgin of Ljevisa represent the appearance of the new so-called Palaiologian Renaissance style, combining the influences of the eastern Orthodox Byzantine and the Western Romanesque traditions. The style played a decisive role in subsequent Balkan art.“ (UNESCO World Heritage Centre #724)

The site’s buildings are particularly noted for their many narrative murals.

“This extensive Serbian cycle showing the life of Saint Nicholas was painted from 1673–74 by Radul, the best-known Serbian artist in the late 17th century. The tiny Saint Nicholas Chapel, built in 1337, is part of the Monastery of the Patriarchate of Pec.” (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

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. πŸ—Ί

What world treasures did you explore in your homeschool this Leo 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.Β πŸ‡·πŸ‡Έ

❑ 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. 🌍

πŸ–‹ πŸŽ“ GRADUATION SEASON: β€œSet me free to find my calling”

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Click to: riverhouses.org/2020-homeward-bound

The end of May marks the end of the Leo Term, our spring term in the River Houses, and many homeschoolers treat the end of May as an opportunity to hold a family graduation ceremony. The beautiful song “Homeward Bound” by American composer Marta Keen (b.Β 1953) has in recent years become a staple of high school choirs around the country and of many other vocal groups as well. The narrator in the song is a young person asking permission to leave home, and promising to return. We think “Homeward Bound” is an ideal graduation anthem for every home academy. The words are our homeschool poem-of-the-week for the last week of May:

Homeward Bound

In the quiet misty morning, when the moon has gone to bed,
When the sparrows stop their singing and the sky is clear and red,
When the summer’s ceased its gleaming, when the corn is past its prime,
When adventure’s lost its meaning, I’ll be homeward bound in time.

Bind me not to the pasture, chain me not to the plow,
Set me free to find my calling and I’ll return to you somehow.

If you find it’s me you’re missing, if you’re hoping I’ll return,
To your thoughts I’ll soon be list’ning; in the road I’ll stop and turn,
Then the wind will set me racing as my journey nears its end,
And the path I’ll be retracing when I’m homeward bound again.

Bind me not to the pasture, chain me not to the plow,
Set me free to find my calling and I’ll return to you somehow.

In the quiet misty morning when the moon has gone to bed,
When the sparrows stop their singing, I’ll be homeward bound again.

Here’s a fine video performance by the Brigham Young University student ensemble Vocal Point, accompanied by the All-American Boys Chorus:

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Or perhaps instead of an all-male chorus, you’d prefer the all-female Ballard High School Treble Choir from Seattle:

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Or, if you’d like a more Classical rendition, try this resonant recording from the great Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, produced by Deutsche Grammophon:

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Or maybe best of allΒ β€” and an inspiration for any young singers you may have in your home academyΒ β€” here’s a delightful performance by the Texas Children’s Choir in San Antonio:

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Maybe someday we’ll have a great big River Houses homeschool choir and a “Homeward Bound” version of our very own. 🎡

What other wonderful words and marvelous music did you discover in your homeschool this Leo Term? 😊

❑ I’ll be homeward bound in time: 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 β€” 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. 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. πŸ“–

πŸ“š WRITING TIPS from Jason Reynolds and the Library of Congress

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Click to: riverhouses.org/2020-jason-reynolds

If you have an aspiring writer in your homeschool, why not tune in to some tips from young-adult author Jason Reynolds, this year’s official National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature at the Library of Congress:

Reynolds invites students to think about using frames as a storytelling device, and about inventing a special recipe β€” not just for food, but for anything you want to create, real or imaginary β€” and using that recipe as an element in a story.

[See attached blog post for images and video]

This is just one of the many Resources for Families that are available at the Library of Congress β€” why not explore them all for your homeschool! πŸ“š

What treasures did you discover (online or off) in your library this past Leo Term? 😊

❑ Dukedoms large enough: Have you found all the local libraries in your area? There may be more than you realize! The WorldCat Library Finder will help you find all the library collections near you β€” public and private, large and small β€” and the WorldCat catalog itself will help you locate the closest copy of almost any book in the world. 😊

❑ 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, as well as permanent links to WorldCat and the WorldCat Library Finder. Why not sit yourself down at a large screen for a while (rather than a phone) and give them a browse. 😊

❑ When in doubt, go to the library: This is one of our regular Homeschool Books & Libraries 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. πŸ“š

πŸ–‹ β€œAFTER A HUNDRED YEARS / Nobody knows the Place”

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An extra homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Emily Dickinson, for Memorial Day.

After a hundred years
Nobody knows the Place
Agony that enacted there
Motionless as Peace

Weeds triumphant ranged
Strangers strolled and spelled
At the lone Orthography
Of the Elder Dead

Winds of Summer Fields
Recollect the way β€”
Instinct picking up the Key
Dropped by memory β€”

Old South Street Cemetery, Fitchburg, Massachusetts

What other wonderful words have you studied in your homeschool this Leo Term?

❑ Here, said the year: This 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 all through the year. πŸ“–

πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ MEMORIAL DAY 2020

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Click to: riverhouses.org/2020-memorial-day

Monday is Memorial Day in the United States, the day we remember the nation’s war dead. Why not let some undergraduates from one of the most selective colleges in the country β€” the United States Military Academy at West Point β€” assist you and your students in your remembrance this weekend (with words and music from Randall Wallace and Nick Glennie-Smith):

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For homeschoolers, everything is an opportunity for learning: holidays, history, songs, singers, and place names. Can your students find West Point, New York, on a map and explain its significance?

Although “West Point” is now shorthand for our national military academy, the name West Point in its original sense refers to the high point of land that projects into the Hudson River just a few miles north (upstream) from New York City. The point forces the Hudson to make a sharp bend, and artillery placed there can easily control all traffic on the river. West Point was first fortified during the American Revolution and it has been occupied by the United States Army ever since. The Hudson River–Lake Champlain–Richelieu River corridor between New York City and Montreal (on the St. Lawrence River) was one of the most contested military and commercial transportation routes on the North American continent for almost 200 years. Plate 44 in your River Houses atlas (riverhouses.org/books) will show you the location of West Point and let your students get a sense of its geographical importance.

You can also remind your students this weekend that what we now call Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day after the custom of decorating the graves of soldiers who had fought in the Civil War. The name has changed, but the honorable custom continues, as you’ll see if you visit almost any cemetery across the country in the next few days.

[Decoration Day at Arlington National Cemetery]
Grave of General Frank. M. Andrews (1884–1943), United States Army Air Corps, Arlington National Cemetery. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1882 poem “Decoration Day” shows us why Longfellow was the most popular poet of nineteenth-century America. Why not share it with your homeschool students also on this Decoration Day weekend.

Decoration Day

Sleep, comrades, sleep and rest
On this field of the Grounded Arms,
Where foes no more molest,
Nor sentry’s shot alarms!

Ye have slept on the ground before,
And started to your feet
At the cannon’s sudden roar,
Or the drum’s redoubling beat.

But in this camp of Death
No sound your slumber breaks;
Here is no fevered breath,
No wound that bleeds and aches.

All is repose and peace,
Untrampled lies the sod;
The shouts of battle cease,
It is the Truce of God!

Rest, comrades, rest and sleep!
The thoughts of men shall be
As sentinels to keep
Your rest from danger free.

Your silent tents of green
We deck with fragrant flowers
Yours has the suffering been,
The memory shall be ours.

Longfellow’s “Decoration Day” is a fine example that you can use to teach about extended metaphors in literature. The poem draws an imaginative comparison between soldiers sleeping on their battlefield campgrounds at night, and the rows of graves in the burial ground covered by “tents” of green grass. See how many specific contrasts and comparisons your students can identify (the contrast between the trampled ground of the battlefield and the untrampled ground of the burying field; the comparison between the sentinel guards on the battlefield and all of us as guardians of memory on the burying field; and so on).

What other educational and historical anniversaries have you been studying in your homeschool this Leo Term?

❑ Stay up to date: This is one of our regular Homeschool Holidays & Anniversaries 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. πŸ—“

πŸ—“ QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 24 May 2020

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Click to: riverhouses.org/2020-05-24

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 (and planners!) for the entire year.

πŸ—“ 🦁 This is the last full week of Leo Term, our spring term in the River Houses. Hercules Term, our summer term, begins on Monday of next week, the first of June.

🐦 πŸ¦… May is Bird Migration Month in the River Houses, and throughout the month we’ve been sharing an assortment of extra homeschool notes on one of the world’s most wonderful natural phenomena.

πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ OUR STATE-OF-THE-WEEK is North Dakota, and our COUNTRIES are SenegalΒ πŸ‡ΈπŸ‡³, SerbiaΒ πŸ‡·πŸ‡Έ, SeychellesΒ πŸ‡ΈπŸ‡¨, and Sierra LeoneΒ πŸ‡ΈπŸ‡±. (Our separate Sunday States & Countries post for the week went up just a few minutes ago.)

πŸŒ’ THE MOON at the beginning of this week is a waxing crescent β€” 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!

πŸ—“ TODAY, Sunday (24 May 2020) β€” Today is the 145th day of 2020; there are 221 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). πŸ“š Today is the birthday of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (1819–1901), who gave her name to an entire historical era. You can read more about Victoria and the Victorians on page 348 in your homeschool history encyclopedia (riverhouses.org/books). πŸ‘‘ And on this day in 1844, Samuel F.B. Morse sent the message “What hath God wrought!” from the U.S. Capitol building to his assistant in Baltimore, thirty-five miles away, instantly, thereby inaugurating the first commercial telegraph line between two U.S. cities. ⚑️

Monday (25 May 2020) β€” Today is Memorial Day in the United States, the day we remember the nation’s war dead. πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ Today is also the birthday of the great American poet, essayist, and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882). πŸ–‹ And on this day in 1977, the first Star Wars movie was released! πŸš€

Tuesday (26 May 2020) β€” It’s National Paper Airplane Day! ✈️

Wednesday (27 May 2020) β€” It’s World Otter Day! Our mascot Horace the Otter approves! 🦦 It’s also the birthday of the American poet and songwriter Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910), author of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” (“Mine eyes have seen the glory”).Β πŸ‡ And our Wednesday tour of World Heritage Sites this week will take you to the Medieval Monuments of Kosovo in Serbia.Β πŸ‡·πŸ‡Έ

Thursday (28 May 2020) β€” A solar eclipse occurred on this day in the year 585 B.C. during the Battle of the Halys River in central Anatolia, leading to a truce. The exact date of that eclipse is one of the key reference points from which other dates in ancient Near Eastern history are calculated.Β πŸŒΒ πŸŒ‘Β πŸŒž

Friday (29 May 2020) β€” On this day in 1453, the city of Constantinople fell to the Ottoman armies of Sultan Mehmed II after a 53-day siege, bringing to an end the ancient Byzantine Empire that had survived for more than a thousand years. You can explore more on pages 198, 206, and 246 in your homeschool history encyclopedia (riverhouses.org/books) βš”οΈ And speaking of eclipses, another solar eclipse, occurring on this day in 1919, allowed Sir Arthur Eddington to confirm Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity.Β πŸŒΒ πŸŒ‘Β πŸŒž And on this day in 1953, mountaineers Edmund Hillary and Tenzig Norgay became the first climbers ever to reach the summit of Mount Everest.Β πŸ” Our Friday Bird Families post this week will introduce you to the Indigobirds and Whydahs, the Weavers, the Estrildid Finches, and the Old World Sparrows. Print your own River Houses Calendar of American Birds (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us throughout the year.Β πŸ¦…

Saturday (30 May 2020) β€” The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., was dedicated on this day in the year 1922. πŸ› Today is also the birthday of the great voice actor Mel Blanc (1908–1989), “the man of a thousand voices,” who gave us Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Marvin the Martian, PepΓ© Le Pew, Speedy Gonzales, Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner, and even the Tasmanian Devil. 😺

Sunday (31 May 2020) β€” Today is the last day of Leo Term and the last day of the River Houses academic year. Hercules Term, our summer term, begins tomorrow. πŸ—“ Today is also the birthday of the great American poet Walt Whitman (1819–1892), who contained multitudes. πŸ–‹

πŸ₯‚ OUR WEEKLY TOAST, for Memorial Day: “May freedom’s fire never go out.”

❑ Toasts can be a fun educational tradition for your family table. We offer one each week β€” 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!”). What will you toast this week? πŸ₯‚

🌍 πŸ‡·πŸ‡Έ EVERYTHING FLOWS: Serbia in southeastern Europe is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the Great Morava, one of the principal rivers of Serbia. You can find its location in your recommended homeschool atlas (riverhouses.org/books), and you can read more about it in the Great Morava entry in Wikipedia or perhaps on your next visit to your local library.

The Great Morava near Lapovo in central Serbia. (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. πŸ—“

🌎 πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ SUNDAY STATES: North Dakota, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and More

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Click to: riverhouses.org/2020-north-dakota

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 (almanac page 420), so this week’s state is:

  • πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ
    North Dakota State Bird and Flower
    NORTH DAKOTA (the 39th state, 2 November 1889) β€” The Peace Garden State. Capital: Bismarck. North Dakota can be found on page 581 in your almanac and on plates 39 and 142 in your atlas. Name origin: “Sioux word β€˜Dakota’, meaning β€˜friend’ or β€˜ally’” (almanac page 422). State bird: Western Meadowlark (bird guide page 530). Website: www.nd.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:

  • πŸ‡ΈπŸ‡³β€…SENEGAL in western Africa. Population: 15,377,009. Capital: Dakar. Government: Presidential republic. Website: www.sec.gouv.sn (in French).
  • πŸ‡·πŸ‡Έβ€…SERBIA in southeastern Europe. Population: 7,045,162. Capital: Belgrade. Government: Parliamentary republic. Website: www.srbija.gov.rs (in Serbian and English).
  • πŸ‡ΈπŸ‡¨β€…SEYCHELLES in the Indian Ocean. Population: 95,321. Capital: Victoria. Government: Presidential republic. Website: www.egov.sc (in English).
  • πŸ‡ΈπŸ‡±β€…SIERRA LEONE on the west coast of Africa. Population: 6,466,064. Capital: Freetown. Government: Presidential republic. Website: statehouse.gov.sl (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 excursions (real or virtual) have you made in your homeschool this Leo 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. πŸ”

❑ Come, here’s the map: Teaching your students to be fluent with high-quality maps β€” not just basically competent, but fluent β€” 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. πŸ—Ί

❑ 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. ✈️ 🚞 πŸš— πŸ›³ 🐎 😊

❑ 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. πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ 🌎

🐦 WHAT BIRDS Are Migrating Through Your Neighborhood?

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Click to: riverhouses.org/2020-ebird-charts

May is Bird Migration Month in the River Houses β€” we think bird study is one of the best subjects you can take up in a homeschool environment. But how can you find out what birds are present and migrating through your local area? A good bird guide will give you a general idea, but what about week by week in your specific state, county, or town?

For that information you can turn to the wonderful eBird.org website, sponsored by Cornell University. eBird is a big site with many features and services, and it will not only let you record your own bird observations, but will also show you summary data for any part of the country (or the world).

Suppose you’re a homeschooler in Minot, North Dakota (to select a random location). Minot is in Ward County, so if you use eBird’s geographical browsing tool you can navigate your way to the seasonal charts for Ward County, North Dakota. Here’s a sample of what they look like:

Seasonal chart for birds of Ward County, North Dakota. (Image: eBird.org.)

Can your students see how to interpret this chart? (That’s an important academic skill right there!) Each row represents a species of bird: Bobolink, Western Meadowlark, Eastern Meadowlark, and so on. The columns represent the weeks and months of the year, from January to December. The thickness of the green bars indicates how frequently each species is reported during a given week. For example: the first few Bobolinks begin to arrive during the first two weeks of May; they become more common by the end of the month and are regularly seen through June and early July. By August and September, although they’re still present, they aren’t seen as frequently as they were during June and July; and then by the end of September they’re gone, except for an occasional straggler.

So if you’re a homeschooler in Minot, North Dakota, the Bobolinks arrived at the beginning of this month, as did the Baltimore Orioles; about this time (the latter part of May) the Orchard Orioles are joining them. Western Meadowlarks, Red-winged Blackbirds, and several other species arrived earlier in the season and by now, in late May, they have settled in for the summer.

But where can you go to see these birds? Switch to the map view in eBird, and you’ll get something like this β€” it’s a mid-May map for Western Meadowlarks in the Ward County, North Dakota, area:

Western Meadowlark records in the Ward County region of North Dakota in mid-May. (Image: eBird.org.)

If your students can understand and interpret a professional map like this they’ll be ready for all kinds of academic science. What the map shows is all the Western Meadowlark sighting locations that have been entered into eBird for this region of North Dakota. The red symbols stand for observations made the last 30 days; the blue symbols for observations older than 30 days (and often going back many years). The larger symbols are eBird “hotspots” β€” public locations such as parks or wildlife refuges that anyone (including you and your students) can visit and explore.

But what if you don’t even know what a Western Meadowlark is? 😊 We do recommend an excellent bird guide for all homeschool families β€” printed books are often the best educational tools, especially for young people β€” but that information is also available online in eBird. If you click the species name in the bar chart, you’ll get a detailed profile that looks like this:

Western Meadowlark profile from eBird.org.

The eBird website is a wonderful resource that can become a regular part of your homeschool science and natural history studies. Bookmark it and give it a browse, and see what avian visitors are passing through your homeschool neighborhood this month. 😊

❑ Books in the running brooks: Our recommended homeschool reference library (riverhouses.org/books) includes an excellent bird guide that would serve your homeschool well. Many other similar guides are also available β€” find one that’s a good fit for your family and take it with you on all your outings, whether far afield or just out to the backyard.Β πŸ¦‰

❑ Rivers in the sky: How many birds are migrating this week overall? You can find out from the BirdCast website, also sponsored by Cornell University, which offers daily bird migration forecasts in the spring and fall for the entire United States.Β πŸ¦…

❑ 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. 🐦

πŸ¦… WATCH A PEREGRINE FALCON NEST LIVE!

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For a great homeschool biology and natural history lesson, have your students watch this livestream of a Peregrine Falcon nest in Madison, Wisconsin β€” four fuzzy white chicks just hatched this week:

[See attached blog post for images and video]

If you have a spare computer screen, just open this livestream up and leave it on all week for your students to watch. (The images are even visible at night.) You’ll see mom and dad falcon making periodic trips out for food (mostly pigeons) and bringing it back to feed the chicks. In the first few days the parents will spend a lot of time sitting on the chicks because they aren’t yet able to regulate their own body temperature, but as the chicks mature they’ll be left alone for longer periods as both parents go out to forage and feed. The brown objects in the back of the field of view (visible as of this writing) are the remains of the chicks’ empty egg shells.

Peregrine Falcons were a featured species in one of our Friday Bird Families posts back in February β€” with great photos and video!

What ornithological observations and naturalistical notes have you made in your homeschool this Leo Term? 😊

❑ Books in the running brooks: Our recommended homeschool reference library (riverhouses.org/books) includes an excellent bird guide that would serve your homeschool well. Many other similar guides are also available β€” find one that’s a good fit for your family and take it with you on all your outings, whether far afield or just out to the backyard. πŸ¦‰

❑ 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. πŸ¦†

❑ 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. 🐦

πŸ¦… FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Bulbuls, Starlings, Waxwings, Silky-Flycatchers, Olive Warblers, and Accentors

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Click to: riverhouses.org/2020-bulbuls

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 (six different families) are the Bulbuls (pages 422–423), the Starlings (pages 422–423), the Waxwings (pages 424–425), the Silky-Flycatchers (pages 424–425), the Olive Warblers (pages 426–427), and the Accentors (pages 426–427). That may seem like a lot, but only a few members of these families occur in North America.

[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 aΒ picture book and spend aΒ 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 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:

“BULBULS β€” Family Pycnonotidae. Noisy, active Old World family of the tropics and subtropics. Species: 123 World, 1 N.A. [North America]“

“STARLINGS β€” Family Sturnidae. Widespread Old World family. Chunky and glossy birds; most species are gregarious and bold. Species: 117 World, 3 N.A.“

“WAXWINGS β€” Family Bombycillidae. Waxy tips on secondary feathers are often indistinct, and sometimes they are absent altogether. All waxwings have sleek crests and silky plumage, and both N.A. species have yellow-tipped tails. Where berries are ripening, waxwings come to feast in amiable, noisy flocks. Species: 3 World, 2 N.A.“

“SILKY-FLYCATCHERS β€” Family Ptilogonatidae. This New World tropical family of slender, crested birds is closely related to the waxwings. The family’s common name described their soft, sleek plumage and agility in catching insects on the wing. Species: 4 World, 2 N.A.“

“OLIVE WARBLERS β€” Family Peucedramidae. Recently placed in its own family because relationships are uncertain. Species: 1 World, 1 N.A.“

“ACCENTORS β€” Family Prunellidae. Small Eurasian family. One species strays into N.A. Species: 13 World, 1 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 aΒ new group β€” about the Waxwing family, for example. How many species? (Only three worldwide.) Are there any near us? (Two species in North America, and the individual maps will give us more detail.) What are their distinctive features? (Crested, waxy tips on secondaries, yellow-tipped tails, 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 Waxwing family, why not investigate the Cedar Waxwing (page 424), a widespread species found all across North America.

[See attached blog post for images and video]

All sorts of biological information is packed into the brief species descriptions in your bird guide β€” can your students tease it out? How big is the Cedar Waxwing? (7ΒΌ inches long.) What is its scientific name? (Bombycilla cedrorum.) 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.)

[See attached blog post for images and video]

Waxwings are beautiful birds with unusual lax plumage that gives them a very soft and smooth appearance, especially at close range. In the summer they hawk insects like flycatchers, but in the winter they are berry-feeders and will often gather by the dozens in a cherry or crab apple tree and strip the branches bare in a matter of minutes. Their call is a high buzzy trill and whistle that they often give in flight and while flocking, and they’re often heard before they are seen.

For a species in the Starling family this week, take a look at the European Starling (page 422), one of the most common and widespread birds in North America, but not a native: our “American” Starlings were introduced from Europe in the late 1800s and have since become naturalized across the entire continent. Bold, squeaky, and squawky, they are speckled in the winter but glossy purple-blue-black in the summer (when they will happily invade the eaves of your house to nest).

[See attached blog post for images and video]

The other families this week occur only around the margins of our continent. The Red-whiskered Bulbul (page 422) is an Asian species that has escaped from captivity and become naturalized in a few places in Florida; the handsome Phainopepla (page 424) and the Olive Warbler (page 426) are both Central American species that cross a short distance into the United States in the southwest; and the Siberian Accentor (page 426) is an Asian bird that sometimes occurs in western Alaska.

[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 one that is near you, or that looks striking, or that has a strange name, and explore.

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 made in your homeschool this Leo 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 littleΒ bit about basic bird biology and about some of the technical terminology used throughout the book β€” why not have your students study it asΒ a special project. Have them note particularly the diagrams showing the parts ofΒ a bird (pages 10–11) so they’ll be able to tell primaries from secondaries and flanks from lores. πŸ¦‰

❑ Words for birds: You may not think of your homeschool dictionary (riverhouses.org/books) asΒ a nature reference, but aΒ 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.Β πŸ“–

❑ 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. 🌎

❑ Rivers in the sky: How many birds are migrating this week? You can find out from the BirdCast website, also sponsored by Cornell University, which offers daily bird migration forecasts in the spring and fall for the entire United States.Β πŸ¦…

❑ 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. 🐦 πŸ¦‰ πŸ¦† πŸ¦ƒ πŸ¦…

πŸ—“ πŸ‘©β€βš•οΈ HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the American Red Cross!

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Click to: riverhouses.org/2020-red-cross

The American Red Cross was established on this day in 1881 by Civil War nurse Clara Barton (1821–1912). If you ever make a homeschool trip to Washington (once the current pestilence has subsided) you can learn about the Red Cross and its history by paying a visit to the American Red Cross Headquarters and Museum for a free guided tour. Or if you prefer, you and your students can explore some of their online exhibits right now from the comfort of your home academy:

Clara Barton is a name every American student should know:

“Clarissa Harlowe Barton, known as Clara, is one of the most honored women in American history. Barton risked her life to bring supplies and support to soldiers in the field during the Civil War. She founded the American Red Cross in 1881, at age 60, and led it for the next 23 years. Her understanding of the ways she could provide help to people in distress guided her throughout her life. By the force of her personal example, she opened paths to the new field of volunteer service. Her intense devotion to serving others resulted in enough achievements to fill several ordinary lifetimes.“ (redcross.org)

The Red Cross operates today in nearly every community in America, providing disaster relief, helping to maintain the nation’s blood supply, providing nursing support to members of the military, offering first aid training to the general public, and much more. Maybe you have Red Cross volunteers in your family too!

What other historical anniversaries have you marked and what museum exhibits have you and your students explored (online or off) during this Leo Term? 😊

❑ Let the river run: This is one of our occasional Homeschool Holidays & Anniversaries 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. πŸ—ž

πŸ—“ πŸ“ HAPPY WORLD METROLOGY DAY!

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Click to: riverhouses.org/2020-metrology

It’s World Metrology Day! On this day in 1875, the meter was adopted as the standard for the metric system of measurement, and the rest is history. πŸ“

Poster for World Metrology Day 2020. (Available from worldmetrologyday.org.)

Metrology is the science of measurement, and it serves as a foundation for all other branches of science (not to mention commerce, industry, and daily life). Can your students recognize the basic measurement units that comprise the International System of Units (SI), better known informally as the metric system? We measure the universe in seconds (s), meters (m), kilograms (kg), amperes (A), kelvins (K), moles (mol), and candelas (cd) β€” and any student going on to study science in high school or college should know how the standard metric units (SIΒ units) work.

Take a look at just a few of the places that scientific and engineering measurements interact with your life every day:

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You can download and print your own copy of the 2020 World Metrology Day poster at worldmetrologyday.org β€” it’s just the thing for your homeschool bulletin board!

What scientific measurements have you taken in your homeschool this week? 😊

❑ Explore more: For a quick homeschool review of the metric system and other systems of weights and measures, turn to page 357 in your River Houses almanac (riverhouses.org/books). πŸ“š

❑ Stay in the loop: This is one of our regular Homeschool Holidays & Anniversaries posts. Add your name to our free weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get more great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. πŸ—ž