We divide the homeschool year into four three-month terms in the River Houses. Today is the beginning of Orion Term, our winter term, named for the Great Hunter of the Heavens. Orion Term runs from December through February.
Archives for 2020
🌞 🌏 🌕 RESEARCH PROJECTS for Homeschool Students – November 2020
Our November 2020 full-moon report on the real scientific and scholarly projects around the world that you and your students can join and contribute to from the comfort of your little home academy.
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 29 November 2020
Great homeschool teaching ideas and little lessons for the week ahead, including: Orion Term, Holiday Music Month, American authors, falling rocks, quantum physicists, Dewey decimals, West Indian rivers, a toast to the chase, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Rhode Island, Dominica, Egypt, and More
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Rhode Island, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Egypt.
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Sandpipers (II)
Come along on our homeschool tour of North American bird families and pick up some great science and natural history teaching ideas along the way. This week: the Sandpipers (Part II), familiar shorebirds all around the world.
🎵 🍽 THANKSGIVING MEMORIES: “We Gather Together”
Take a just moment this week to introduce your homeschool students to a beautiful four-hundred-year-old Dutch folk tune that has become a Thanksgiving classic.
🌍 🇨🇿 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: The Church of St. John of Nepomuk in Czechia
Pay a visit to a World Heritage Site from one of our countries-of-the-week and learn some great homeschool history and geography along the way. This week: the Pilgrimage Church of St. John of Nepomuk at Zelená Hora in the Czech Republic.
📚 BOOKS & LIBRARIES: Happy Birthday to Andrew Carnegie!
If you love libraries as much as we do, be thankful this Thanksgiving week for the life of Andrew Carnegie, born on this day in 1835. His philanthropy built more than 2500 libraries in cities and towns across the United States and around the world.
🎵 🏡 THANKSGIVING MUSIC: “Rise up, follow me, I will lead you home”
“Through the air there’s a calling from far away, / There’s a voice I can hear that will lead me home.” (Some lovely music and words from Stephen Paulus and Michael Dennis Browne, for homeschool Thanksgiving.)
🎵 MUSICAL INTRODUCTIONS: Thomas Tallis, Master of Polyphony
Why not give thanks in your homeschool this Thanksgiving week for the life of Thomas Tallis, the grand master of early polyphonic music, who died on this day in 1585.
🖋 🦃 WONDERFUL WORDS: Delicious “Thanksgiving Magic”
“Oh, some like magic made by wands, / And some read magic out of books, / And some like fairy spells and charms / But I like magic made by cooks!” (Our homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Rowena Bastin Bennett, for Thanksgiving!)
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 22 November 2020
Great homeschool teaching ideas and little lessons for the week ahead, including: Thanksgiving thanks, ethereal music, famous books, free cities, literary philanthropists, Danish rivers, a toast to two great American birds, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: North Carolina, Cyprus, Djibouti, and More
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: North Carolina, Cyprus, Czechia (Czech Republic), Denmark, and Djibouti.
♃ ♄ SATURDAY STARS: The Coming Great Conjunction
Get your young astronomers ready to observe a notable celestial event next month: a Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, the first one in twenty years.
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Sandpipers (I)
Come along on our homeschool tour of North American bird families and pick up some great science and natural history teaching ideas along the way. This week: the Sandpipers (Part I), familiar shorebirds all around the world.
🇺🇸 SEVEN SCORE and Seventeen Years Ago
“What place is this? Where are we now?” (Marking the 157th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, with help from Ken Burns and Carl Sandburg.)
🌍 🇨🇮 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: Historic Grand-Bassam in Côte d’Ivoire
Pay a visit to a World Heritage Site from one of our countries-of-the-week and learn some great homeschool history and geography along the way. This week: the Historic Town of Grand-Bassam in Côte d’Ivoire.
🔎 HOMESCHOOL RESEARCH & NEWS – November 2020
A November 2020 roundup of some recent academic research and news about home education in the United States and around the world, with links to sources. We have three items this month: Dietrich et al. (2020), English (2020), and Watson (2020).
🌠 🦁 LEONID METEORS for November 2020
Take your young astronomers outside this week and look to the constellation Leo for the annual Leonid meteor shower.
🖋 🌠 WONDERFUL WORDS: Of Poems and Meteors
“Stars, I have seen them fall, / But when they drop and die / No star is lost at all / From all the star-sown sky.” (Our homeschool poem-of-the-week, from A.E. Housman, for the annual Leonid meteor shower.)
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 15 November 2020
Great homeschool teaching ideas and little lessons for the week ahead, including: Gettysburg addresses, shooting stars, youthful wizards, great whales, energetic matter, Costa Rican rivers, a toast to the People, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: New York, Costa Rica, Cuba, and More
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: New York, Costa Rica, Cote d’Ivoire, Croatia, and Cuba.
🌟 STAR BRIGHT: Algol for November
Make the acquaintance of the variable star Algol this month — “the demon star” in the constellation Perseus the Hero and one of the brightest stars in the northern hemisphere sky — and make it your homeschool friend for life.
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Lapwings, Plovers, and Jacanas
Come along on our homeschool tour of North American bird families and pick up some great science and natural history teaching ideas along the way. This week: the Lapwings, Plovers, and Jacanas.
🌍 🇨🇩 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: The Okapi Wildlife Reserve in the Congo
Pay a visit to a World Heritage Site from one of our countries-of-the-week and learn some great homeschool history and geography along the way. This week: the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
📚 🇺🇸 STUDENT OPPORTUNITIES: The Veterans History Project
You and your homeschool students can contribute to an important historical documentary project by interviewing American military veterans in your family or community for the Library of Congress.
🕊 THE ELEVENTH DAY of the Eleventh Month: For the Fallen
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: / Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. / At the going down of the sun and in the morning / We will remember them.” (Our homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Laurence Binyon, for Veterans Day and Armistice Day.)