Archives for August 2020

Click to: riverhouses.org/2020-08-30

Quick Freshes are our regular Sunday notes on the homeschool week ahead. Pick one or two or three of the items below each week and use them to enrich your homeschooling schedule! Add your name to our free weekly mailing list to get these posts delivered right to your mailbox, and visit our River Houses calendar page (riverhouses.org/calendars) to print your own homeschool calendars and planners for the entire year.

🇺🇸 🌎🌍🌏 WE’VE COMPLETED our grand year-long tour of the U.S. STATES and the COUNTRIES of the world — take a look at all the wonderful places we visited! Our new tour for the 2020–2021 homeschool year will begin next week. Print your own copy of our River Houses States & Countries Calendar and follow along with us, from Delaware to Hawaii and Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

🌔 THE MOON at the beginning of this week is gibbous and waxing, heading toward full on September 2nd. 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 (30 August 2020) — Today is the 243rd day of 2020; there are 123 days remaining in this leap year. Learn more about different kinds of calendars on pages 350–356 in your River Houses almanac (riverhouses.org/books). 📚 Today is also the birthday of the novelist Mary Shelley (1797–1851), author of Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). 🌭🍺 The great physicist and Nobel Laureate Ernest Rutherford was born on this day in 1871. ⚛️ It’s also the birthday of baseball great Ted Williams (1918–2002), the last major league player to bat over .400 in a season (1941). ⚾️

Monday (31 August 2020) — Italian educator and physician Maria Montessori was born on this day in 1870. Her approach to early childhood education remains popular in homeschools as well as in public and private schools around the world. 👩🏼‍🏫

🏡 🎉 The 2020–2021 River Houses Year Begins — Let the river run!

🗓 🦢 Cygnus Term 2020–2021 Begins

Tuesday (1 September 2020) — A New River Houses Homeschool Year Begins! 🗓 Today is the first day of Cygnus Term, our fall term in the River Houses, named for the Great Swan of the Heavens. 🦢 And for this first week of September, this first week of Cygnus Term, and this first week of the 2020–2021 River Houses year, our homeschool poem-of-the-week will be our traditional extract from Jonathan Swift’s adaptation of the Roman poet Horace (65–8 B.C.): “A handsome house to lodge a friend, / A river at my garden’s end.” Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us throughout this new (poetical!) homeschool year. 🖋 And since this is also the first Tuesday of the month, today we’ll invite you and your students to learn all about your local library by starting on our twelve-month tour of the Dewey Decimal system. This month: Discovering Dewey. 📚

Wednesday (2 September 2020) — On this day in 1752, nearly two centuries after the countries of Continental Europe, Great Britain and her American colonies adopted the Gregorian Calendar: Wednesday, September 2nd, 1752, was followed by Thursday, September 14th, 1752. 🗓 Our Wednesday World Heritage tours that began all the way back last September are now complete! Take a look at all the world’s wonders we explored and stop by our homeschool calendar page to print a copy of the new schedule we’ll be following in the new 2020–2021 homeschool year! 🇺🇳 And, there’s a full moon tonight, so that means we’ll have a report on student research opportunities from the River Houses Lunar Society (riverhouses.org/lunar). 🌕

Thursday (3 September 2020) — The American Revolution came to a formal end on this day in 1783 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris between Great Britain and the new United States of America. 🇺🇸🕊🇬🇧

Friday (4 September 2020) — On this day in the year 476, Emperor Romulus Augustulus was deposed by the provincial warlord Odoacer who declared himself King of Italy, bringing to an end the Western Roman Empire, which had lasted for nearly 500 years. 👑 Our Friday Bird Families post this week, the first of the 2020–2021 homeschool year, will introduce you to your recommended bird guide. 🐦 Print your own River Houses Calendar of American Birds (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow the flyways with us throughout the coming year. 🦅

Saturday (5 September 2020) — In response to the Intolerable Acts, the first Continental Congress assembled on this day in 1774 in Philadelphia. 🇺🇸 And on this day in 1836, Sam Houston was elected the first President of the Republic of Texas. ★ 🌵 And since this is the first Saturday of the month, we’ll post our regular monthly preview today of some of the astronomical events you and your students can watch for over the next few weeks. 🔭

Sunday (6 September 2020) — On this day in 1522, the ship Victoria, the only survivor of the Magellan expedition, arrived back in Spain having completed history’s first circumnavigation of the world. The voyage took just over three years. 🌍🌎🌏🌍 Today is also the birthday of English scientist John Dalton (1766–1844), one of the founders of modern chemistry. ⚗️

🥂 THIS WEEK’S SPECIAL TOAST is our traditional offering for the beginning of every new River Houses year: “Let the river run!”

❡ 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 unpredictability in toasting!”). What will you toast this week? 🥂

🌎 EVERYTHING FLOWS: Starting next Sunday we’ll be posting a Weekly World River in this space from one of our regular countries-of-the-week. Why not do your own homeschool study of world rivers over the course of the 2020–2021 year? You can investigate the one we select each week, or start with the river lists in your homeschool 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 at your local library. A whole world of geographical learning awaits you! 🌏

What do you have planned for your homeschool this week, this month, this term, and this year? 😊

❡ 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. 🗓

Click to: riverhouses.org/2020-08-23

Quick Freshes are our regular Sunday notes on the homeschool week ahead. Pick one or two of the items below each week and use them to enrich your homeschooling schedule! Add your name to our free weekly mailing list to get these posts delivered right to your mailbox, and visit our River Houses calendar page (riverhouses.org/calendars) to print your own homeschool calendars and planners for the entire year.

🗓 💪 This is the last full week of Hercules Term, our Summer term in the River Houses. Cygnus Term, our Fall term, and the new 2020–2021 River Houses year, begin on Tuesday the first of September.

🌎 OUR “STATE” OF THE WEEK, wrapping up our year-long tour with a bonus, is the planet Earth itself, and our “COUNTRIES” are the Solar System and the Universe beyond! 🌌 (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 (23 August 2020) — Today is the 236th day of 2020; there are 130 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). 📚 On this day in 1775, four months after Lexington and Concord, and two months after Bunker Hill, King George III formally proclaimed the American colonies to be in a state of “open and avowed rebellion.” ⚔️

Monday (24 August 2020) — Although there is some debate among scholars, this is generally believed to be the day on which Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79, burying the ancient Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. 🌋 And speaking of destruction, on this day in 1814, during the War of 1812, British troops captured the city of Washington and burned the White House and the U.S. Capitol. 🇬🇧⚔️🇺🇸

Tuesday (25 August 2020) — On the second day of the burning of Washington in 1814, the U.S. Treasury, the Library of Congress, and other public buildings were destroyed by British Troops. 🇬🇧⚔️🇺🇸 Today is also the birthday of American illustrator Walt Kelly (1913–1973), the creator of the comic strip Pogo. 🎨 And it’s also the birthday of the great American conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990). 🎵

Wednesday (26 August 2020) — Today is the birthday of one of the founders of modern chemistry, the great French scientist Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794), who coined the names “oxygen” and “hydrogen.” ⚗️ And our Wednesday World Heritage tours that began all the way back in September are now complete! Take a look at all the wonderful places we visited and stop by our homeschool calendar page to print a copy of the schedule we’ll be following in the new homeschool year that’s about to begin. 🇺🇳

Thursday (27 August 2020) — One of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history took place on this day in 1883 in the Krakatoa archipelago in Indonesia. Over the course of the previous day an ash cloud seventeen miles high had developed over the islands, and on the 27th four massive explosions occurred, the largest of which was heard 3000 miles away in the Indian Ocean. The ash injected into the atmosphere by the Krakatoa eruption produced vivid sunsets all around the world for many months. 🌋

Friday (28 August 2020) — Today is the birthday of the American naturalist and artist Roger Tory Peterson (1908–1996), whose series of compact field guides helped to make amateur bird study popular around the world. 🦆 On this day in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. 🕊 And our Friday flights with the Families of American Birds are also now complete! Take a look at all the wonderful avian friends we made this past year and print your own Calendar of American Birds to follow during the new homeschool year that’s about to begin. 🦅

Saturday (29 August 2020) — Today is the birthday of the great philosopher of liberty John Locke (1632–1704), whose works influenced the framing of the American system of government. 📖

Sunday (30 August 2020) — Today is the birthday of the novelist Mary Shelley (1797–1851), author of Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). 🌭🍺 The great physicist and Nobel Laureate Ernest Rutherford was born on this day in 1871. ⚛️ It’s also the birthday of baseball great Ted Williams (1918–2002), the last major league player to bat over .400 in a season (1941). ⚾️

🥂 OUR TOAST FOR THE LAST WEEK of every homeschool year is one of our traditional maritime offerings, for all our friends embarking on new voyages: “Fair winds and following seas.”

❡ 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!”). What will you toast this week? 🥂

🌌 EVERYTHING FLOWS, even the stars: The Universe is our “country” of the week for this last week of the River Houses year, so our Weekly World River is the constellation Eridanus, the Great River of the Heavens. You can chart its course in the astronomical section of your homeschool atlas and in your night-sky guide (riverhouses.org/books), and you can read more about it in the comprehensive Eridanus entry in Wikipedia or perhaps on your next visit to your local library.

❡ Daughters of Ocean: Why not do a homeschool study of world rivers over the course of the year? Take the one we select each week, 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. 🗓

Click to: riverhouses.org/2020-08-16

Quick Freshes are our regular Sunday notes on the homeschool week ahead. Pick one or two of the items below each week and use them to enrich your homeschooling schedule! Add your name to our free weekly mailing list to get these posts delivered right to your mailbox, and visit our River Houses calendar page (riverhouses.org/calendars) to print your own homeschool calendars and planners for the entire year.

🇺🇸 OUR “STATES” OF THE WEEK are the special U.S. Territories of American Samoa 🇦🇸, Guam 🇬🇺, the Northern Mariana Islands 🇲🇵, Puerto Rico 🇵🇷, the U.S. Virgin Islands 🇻🇮, and the District of Columbia, and our “COUNTRIES” are the five oceans of the world. (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 (16 August 2020) — Today is the 229th day of 2020; there are 137 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). 📚 On this day in 1858, the first transatlantic telegraph cable was put into service with an exchange of messages between U.S. President James Buchanan and Britain’s Queen Victoria. 🇺🇸⌁🇬🇧 Today is also the birthday of the British soldier, writer, and archeologist T.E. Lawrence (1888–1935), better known as Lawrence of Arabia. 🐪

Monday (17 August 2020) — Today is the birthday of the American folk hero, soldier, and politician Davy Crockett (1786–1836). 🐻 And on this day in 1807, the world’s first commercial steamboat service was inaugurated when Robert Fulton’s North River Steamboat departed New York City for Albany, 130 miles up the Hudson River. 🚢

Tuesday (18 August 2020) — On this day in 1920, exactly one hundred years ago, the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote, was ratified. 🇺🇸 🗳 🎉

Wednesday (19 August 2020) — On this day in 1812, during the War of 1812, the American frigate U.S.S. Constitution defeated Great Britain’s H.M.S. Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia and earned the nickname “Old Ironsides” (because cannonballs bounced off her sturdy hull). Old Ironsides is today the oldest commissioned warship in the U.S. Navy and you can pay her a visit any day you like in the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston. ⚓️ And speaking of ships, today is also the birthday of Gene Roddenberry (1921–1991), the creator of Star Trek! 🚀 And our Wednesday tour of World Heritage Sites that began all the way back in September is done! Take a look at all the wonderful places we visited and stop by our homeschool calendar page to print a copy of the new schedule we’ll be following in the new homeschool year that’s about to begin. 🇺🇳

Thursday (20 August 2020) — Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s famous 1812 Overture debuted on this day in 1882 in Moscow. 🎆 Today is also the birthday of the American writer H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937), author of many creepy (but popular) horror stories. 🙀 And on this day in 1975, NASA launched the Viking 1 Mars probe. Viking 1 became the first successful Mars lander and remained in operation for more than six years. (An earlier probe, the Soviet Union’s Mars 3, did successfully land on Mars in 1971, but it transmitted for only twenty seconds.) 🚀

Friday (21 August 2020) — Nat Turner’s Rebellion, one of the largest slave uprisings in early America, began on this night in 1831 in Southampton County, Virginia. ⚔️ And on this day in 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the Union. 🇺🇸 The Great American Solar Eclipse of 2017 took place on this day just three years ago — perhaps you saw it! 🌏 🌑 🌞 Our year-long series of Friday Bird Families posts that reviewed all the birds of North America is now complete! 🐦 🦉 🦆 🦜 🦃 🦢 Visit our main River Houses calendar page (riverhouses.org/calendars) and print a new Calendar of American Birds for the new homeschool year that’s about to begin. 🦅

Saturday (22 August 2020) — The English Civil War between the King and Parliament began on this day in 1642 when Charles I raised the royal standard at Nottingham. To make this anniversary into a nice little homeschool lesson, turn to page 264 in your River Houses history encyclopedia (riverhouses.org/books). 👑 ⚔️ Today is also the birthday of famed French pianist and composer Claude Debussy (1862–1918). 🎹 And our homeschool poem-of-the-week for the fourth week of August, the last week of the 2019–2020 River Houses year, is “Envoy,” a cheerful farewell wish for happy houses and living waters from Robert Louis Stevenson. 🏡 Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us all through the new homeschool year to come. 🖋

Sunday (23 August 2020) — On this day in 1775, four months after Lexington and Concord, and two months after Bunker Hill, King George III formally proclaimed the American colonies to be in a state of “open and avowed rebellion.” ⚔️

🥂 OUR WEEKLY TOAST, for the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, is an old traditional: “To the Ballot: may it break the visible and invisible chains of slavery.”

❡ 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!”). Many of our current toasts are taken from an old anthology called Clark’s Original Songs, Recitations, &c. (Rye, Sussex, 1846). What will you toast this week? 🥂

🌊 EVERYTHING FLOWS: Last week we completed our annual tour of the countries of the world (from which we had been selecting our Weekly World Rivers), so it is only fitting this week that we look to the source of them all. The ancient Greeks believed that the whole world was encircled by a great flowing river, and they personified this universal river as the god Ὠκεανός (Okeanos, Oceanus, Ocean). Okeanos was one of the Titans, a child of Οὐρανός (Ouranos, Uranus, Heaven) and Γαῖα (Gaia, Terra, Earth), and with his sister-wife Τηθύς (Tethys), Okeanos fathered all the rivers of the world. You can read much more about this father of the waters in the comprehensive Okeanos/Oceanus entry in Wikipedia, or perhaps on your next visit to your local library. Our Weekly World River for this next-to-last week of the River Houses year is therefore the World River, Okeanos.

❡ 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, 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. 🗓