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You are here: Home > 2020 > May > 01

Archives for 1 May 2020

πŸ–‹ 🌼 WONDERFUL WORDS: May and the Poets

1 May 2020 by Bob O'Hara

The merry month of May is upon us! We hope you’ll spend many happy hours in the fields this month, but if you have to stay inside more than usual, from rain or from the current pestilence, you can still always find an echo of spring indoors β€” so Leigh Hunt reminds us in our homeschool poem-of-the-week for this first week of May:

May and the Poets

There is May in books forever;
May will part from Spenser never;
May’s in Milton, May’s in Prior,
May’s in Chaucer, Thomson, Dyer;
May’s in all the Italian books:β€”
She has old and modern nooks,
Where she sleeps with nymphs and elves,
In happy places they call shelves,
And will rise and dress your rooms
With a drapery thick with blooms.
Come, ye rains, then if ye will,
May’s at home, and with me still;
But come rather, thou, good weather,
And find us in the fields together.

Leigh Hunt (1784–1859) was one of the prominent writers of the Romantic period in England in the early 1800s, along with John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelly, and many others. He wrote not only poems, but also essays, plays, literary criticism, and political commentary. His verse is not as philosophical as Keats’ or Shelley’s, and so he is not as popular with academic critics today β€” but in a sense that makes some of his poems more accessible, especially for younger readers.

“May and the Poets” is a clever reminder that spring can be found at any time of year in the lines of the great poets β€” and Hunt recites his favorites for us: Edmund Spenser, John Milton, Matthew Prior, Geoffrey Chaucer, James Thomson, and George Dyer. May hides in our bookshelves, and even when it rains, May still can be found between the pages. Nevertheless, fair weather is always the best, so we β€” you and me β€” can go into the May fields together.

Structurally, “May and the Poets” is a string of seven couplets arranged into two sentences, and that gives it a cheerful regularity when read aloud. It starts out in perfect trochaic tetrameter (“There is May in books forever; / May will part from Spenser never”) β€” but once the catalog of poets is complete, Hunt begins to vary the line-lengths from seven to nine syllables, and that keeps the rhythm from becoming excessively monotonous. The first ten lines develop the May-in-books theme, and then the final four lines make a summary turn, almost like a sonnet, bringing us to a final wish not for books, but for the May fields themselves.

What wonderful words and poetical productions have you been studying in your homeschool this Leo Term? 😊

❑ Find us in the fields together: 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. 😊

❑ Explore more: For a quick homeschool review of the artistic and literary movement known as Romanticism β€” theΒ movement with which Hunt was associated β€” turn to page 338 in your River Houses history encyclopedia (riverhouses.org/books). πŸ“š

❑ Literary lives: The website of the Poetry Foundation includes biographical notes and examples of the work of many important poets (including Leigh Hunt) that are suitable for high school students and homeschool teachers. πŸ–‹

❑ 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“–

Filed Under: Homeschool Language & Literature, Poems-of-the-Week

πŸ¦… FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Sylviid Warblers, Leaf Warblers, Grasshopper-Warblers, and Old World Flycatchers and Chats

1 May 2020 by Horace the Otter 🦦

Click to: riverhouses.org/2020-sylviids

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 (four different families) are the Sylviid Warblers (pages 398–399), the Leaf Warblers (pages 400–403), the Grasshopper-Warblers (pages 402–403), and the Old World Flycatchers and Chats (pages 404–407). Although this may seem like a lot of birds, it’s actually a bit of a cheat, because only one or perhaps two species in these groups are really North American; the others are all birds of Europe and Asia that only occasionally arrive on this continent, mainly in western Alaska.

[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 and pointing out their ranges on the guide’s maps. 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 are the bird guide’s introductions to this week’s groups, written in the customary telegraphic style:

“SYLVIID WARBLERS β€” Family Sylviidae. This large, almost strictly Old World family comprises 14 genera, including one New World species, the Wrentit, and one vagrant to N.A. (Lesser Whitethroat, p. 559). Many are neatly patterned, and many more are rather colorful. Species: 62 World, 2 N.A. [North America]“

“LEAF WARBLERS β€” Family Phylloscopidae. This large Old World family of small, mostly greenish birds includes the Phylloscopus and the more colorful Seicerus genera. Many are difficult to identify. Species: 77 World, 8 N.A.“

“GRASSHOPPER-WARBLERS β€” Family Locustellidae. Old World family of medium to large size, mostly skulking birds. Species: 57 World, 2 N.A.“

“OLD WORLD FLYCATCHERS and CHATS β€” Family Muscicapidae. Short-legged birds that perch upright and obtain insects primarily through flycatching. May flick wings or tail. Species of genus Ficedula nest in cavities; genus Muscicapa build exposed nests. Not related to New World tyrant flycatchers. Species: 271 World, 14 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 Sylviid Warblers, for example. How many species? (62 worldwide.) Are there any near us? (Only one species in North America regularly, with a second species accidental; the individual maps will give us more detail.) What are their distinctive features? (An Old World family with only one species resident in North America; many species are colorful, although our one species is not, 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 Sylviid Warbler family, why not investigate the Wrentit (page 398), a bird of the scrublands of the west coast.

[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 Wrentit? (6Β½ inches long, including a long tail.) What is its scientific name? (Chamaea fasciata.) 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.)

The light-eyed, long-tailed Wrentit is the only member of the Sylviid Warbler family that is resident in the United States. It inhabits brushland and chaparral along much of the west coast and is non-migratory and generally inconspicuous, more often heard than seen.

For a second species this week, why not take a look at the Northern Wheatear, the only member of the Old World Flycatcher family that is regular in North America – with “North America” in this case meaning the high arctic.

[See attached blog post for images and video]

Wheatears are a diverse genus of birds (Oenanthe) found throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa, but the Northern Wheatear is the only species in the group that visits even the edges our continent. They are open-country insect eaters, and the birds that breed in northern Canada in the summer actually migrate back down over Europe and into Africa each winter.

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. For a species in the notoriously difficult Leaf Warbler family, why not take a look at the Arctic Warbler (page 400), a regular visitor to Alaska from Asia; and so on with as many species as you wish.

[See attached blog post for images and video]

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 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. 🌎

❑ 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¦…

Filed Under: Friday Bird Families, Homeschool Natural History

πŸ—“ 🌼 🐦 HAPPY HOMESCHOOL MAY from the River Houses!

1 May 2020 by Bob O'Hara

Click to: riverhouses.org/2020-may

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

Third-century Roman mosaic from Tunisia. (Image: Ad Meskens/Wikimedia Commons.)
May with 31 days is the third month of Leo Term, our spring term in the River Houses. Leo Term runs from March through May. Visit our main calendar page (riverhouses.org/calendars) and print out some of our simple educational calendars and planners β€” they’ll help you create a light and easy structure for your homeschool year. πŸ—“

May is Bird Migration Month in the River Houses. Watch for some extra natural history notes this month, even above and beyond our regular Friday Bird Families posts. 🐦

The month of May (Latin Mensis Maius) was the third month of the year in the earliest Roman calendars, which treated the beginning of spring in March as the beginning of the new year. The month’s name is probably a reference to Maia, the Roman goddess of the earth and of growth, although some ancient writers also connected it to the maiores (ancestors). Like some of the other Roman month names (such as Mensis Aprilis), the name Mensis Maius was so ancient that the Romans themselves were uncertain of its origin β€” indeed, Maia and maiores may even be cognate words far back in the prehistory of the Latin language. You can learn more about different kinds of modern and historical calendars on pages 350–356 in your River Houses almanac (riverhouses.org/books). πŸ“š

Monthly medical advice:

“If you would the doctor pay
Leave your flannels off in May.
“

Our Sunday states-of-the-week for May will be Nevada, Nebraska, Colorado, North Dakota, and South Dakota, and our countries will run from Portugal to the Solomon Islands. Print your own River Houses States & Countries Calendar and tour the United States and the whole world with us from Delaware to Hawaii and Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ 🌎

We’ll be visiting World Heritage Sites in Portugal, Saint Lucia, San Marino, and Serbia this month β€” our River Houses World Heritage Calendar will point the way. πŸ—Ί

We’ll have homeschool poems this month from Leigh Hunt (for May), Anne Bradstreet (for Mother’s Day), Robert Frost (for springtime play), and Marta Keen (for homeschool graduation). Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar and join us as we visit with forty-eight of our favorite friends over the course of the year. βœ’οΈ

Our Friday Bird Families this month will include the Sylviid Warblers; the Leaf Warblers; the Grasshopper-Warblers; the Old World Flycatchers and Chats; the Thrushes; the Mockingbirds and Thrashers; the Bulbuls; the Starlings; the Waxwings; the Silky-Flycatchers; the Olive Warblers; the Accentors; the Indigobirds and Whydahs; the Weavers; the Estrildid Finches; and the Old World Sparrows. (So many wonderful names, yes?) Print your own copy of our River Houses Calendar of American Birds, get out your copy of our recommended homeschool bird guide (riverhouses.org/books), and follow the flyways with us. πŸ¦…

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

Our Dewey Decimal class for May is the Artistic 700s β€” follow along with us (on the first Tuesday of each month) and help your students learn the whole library over the course of the year! πŸ“š

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

Also coming up this month:

⬩ 7 May (Th): Lunar Society Report πŸŒ•
⬩ 10 May (Su): Mother’s Day ❀️
⬩ 25 May (M): Memorial Day πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ
⬩ 31 May (Su): The River Houses academic year ends πŸŽ“

And remember:

A little madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King.

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

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

Filed Under: Homeschool Terms & Calendars

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