• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

The River Houses

A National Network of Local Homeschool Societies

  • Subscribe!
  • Home
  • Topics โ–พ
    • Arts & Music
    • Astronomy
    • Books & Libraries
    • Collections & Collecting
    • Friday Bird Families
    • Great Stars
    • Holidays & Anniversaries
    • Language & Literature
    • Lunar Society Bulletins
    • Maps & Geography
    • Museums & Monuments
    • Natural History
    • Poems-of-the-Week
    • Quick Freshes
    • Research & News
    • States & Countries
    • Terms & Calendars
    • Weekly World Heritage
  • Homeschool Calendars
  • Six Books
  • TWOC โ–พ
    • The Lunar Society of the River Houses
  • About Us โ–พ
    • Our Mascots
  • Shop!
You are here: Home > Quick Freshes > This Post

๐Ÿ—“ QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Familiesย โ€“ Week of 3 October 2021

3 October 2021 by Bob O'Hara

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. Add your name to our free mailing list to get posts like these delivered right to your mailbox each week. Visit our River Houses calendar page to print your own homeschool calendars and planners for the entire year.

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ OUR STATE-OF-THE-WEEK is Connecticut, and our COUNTRIES are Belgiumย ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ช, Belizeย ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฟ, Beninย ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฏ, and Bhutanย ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡น. (Our separate Sunday States & Countries post for the week went up just a few minutes ago.)

๐ŸŒ˜ THE MOON at the beginning of this week is a waning crescentย โ€” aย 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 371โ€“386 in your almanac. Browse through our many astronomy posts for even more.

๐Ÿ—“ TODAY, Sunday (3 October 2021) โ€” Today is the 276th day of 2021; there are 89 days remaining in this common year. Learn more about different kinds of modern and historical calendars on pages 387โ€“393 in your River Houses almanac.ย ๐Ÿ“š Today is also the birthday of English veterinarian James Herriot (1916โ€“1995), author of All Creatures Great and Small and other popular books about animals.ย ๐Ÿ‘ย ๐Ÿ‚ย ๐Ÿ“ย ๐Ÿ–ย ๐Ÿ

Monday (4 October 2021) โ€” On this day in 1582, the Gregorian calendar was adopted on the European continent by decree of Pope Gregory (of course) XIII. Today was the 4th of the month, and tomorrow was declared to be the 15th. (The English-speaking world didn’t make the change for almost two more centuries.)ย ๐Ÿ—“

Tuesday (5 October 2021) โ€” Today is the birthday of the American physicist and engineer Robert Goddard (1882โ€“1945), inventor of the liquid-fueled rocket that made spaceflight possible.ย ๐Ÿš€ And since this is the first Tuesday of the month, today we’ll invite you to browse a new Dewey Decimal class with your students on your next visit to your local library. This month: the General 000s.ย ๐Ÿ“š

Wednesday (6 October 2021) โ€” Today is the birthday of the Norwegian explorer and ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl (1914โ€“2002).ย ๐ŸŒŠ And our Wednesday tour of World Heritage Sites this week will take you to the Royal Palaces of Abomey in Benin.ย ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฏ

Thursday (7 October 2021) โ€” Today is the birthday of the early American choral composer William Billings (1746โ€“1800).ย ๐ŸŽถ And the great Danish physicist and Nobel laureate Niels Bohr was born on this day in 1885.ย โš›๏ธ

Friday (8 October 2021) โ€” On this day in 1956, New York Yankees pitcher Don Larsen threw the only perfect game in World Series history.ย โšพ๏ธ Our homeschool poem-of-the-week for the second week of October is Emily Dickinson’s autumnal gem “God made a little Gentian,” for all late-bloomers. Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar and follow along with us throughout the year.ย ๐Ÿ–‹ And our Friday Bird Families post this week will introduce you to the Pigeons and Doves! Print your own River Houses Calendar of American Birds and follow the flyways with us throughout the year.ย ๐Ÿ•Š

Saturday (9 October 2021) โ€” Italian astronomer Lodovico delle Colombe recorded the appearance of a new star in the constellation Ophiuchus on this day in 1604. The subsequent observations of the star made by Johnannes Kepler over the next several weeks gave it the name Kepler’s Supernova. The brightest Milky Way supernova in modern times, it was visible during daylight hours for three weeks.ย ๐ŸŒŸ Today is also the birthday of American businessman Charles Rudolph Walgreen (1873โ€“1939), founder of the nationwide Walgreens pharmacy chain.ย ๐Ÿ›’ And since this is the second Saturday of the month, we’ll introduce you to another one of the Great Stars of the northern hemisphere night sky. This month: Alpheratz, the brightest star in the constellation Andromeda.ย ๐ŸŒŸ

Sunday (10 October 2021) โ€” Today is the birthday of the great Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi (1813โ€“1901).ย ๐ŸŽผ And on this day in 1845 in Annapolis, Maryland, the United States Naval Academy opened with 50 students and seven professors.ย โš“๏ธ

๐Ÿฅ‚ OUR WEEKLY TOAST is an old traditional for the approaching harvest season: “Health to our bodies, peace to our minds, and plenty to our tables.”

โกโ€…Toasts can be a fun educational tradition for your family table. We offer one each week โ€” 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!”). Many of our current toasts are taken from an old anthology called The Royal Toast Master, Containing Many Thousands of the Best Toasts Old and New (London, 1793). What will you toast this week?ย ๐Ÿฅ‚

๐ŸŒ ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฏ EVERYTHING FLOWS: Benin in western Africa is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the Okpara River, which forms part of the border between Benin and Nigeria, and which, like most rivers in Benin, flows south into the Atlantic Ocean. You can find its location in your recommended homeschool atlas, and you can read more about it in the Okpara River entry in Wikipedia or perhaps on your next visit to your local library.

The Okpara River in Benin. (Image:ย Wikimediaย Commons.)

โกโ€…Children of Ocean: 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 699โ€“701), 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. Aย whole world of geographical learning awaits you.ย ๐ŸŒ

What do you have planned for your homeschool this week?ย ๐Ÿ˜Š

โกโ€…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 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 and follow along with us.ย ๐Ÿ—“

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Related Posts:

  • ๐Ÿ—“ QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Familiesย โ€“ Week of 31 January 2021๐Ÿ—“ QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Familiesย โ€“ Week of 31 January 2021
  • ๐ŸŒ• RESEARCH PROJECTS for Homeschoolers โ€“ October 2021๐ŸŒ• RESEARCH PROJECTS for Homeschoolers โ€“ October 2021
  • ๐Ÿ—“ QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Familiesย โ€“ Week of 17 October 2021๐Ÿ—“ QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Familiesย โ€“ Week of 17 October 2021
  • ๐ŸŒŸ STAR BRIGHT: Alpheratz for October๐ŸŒŸ STAR BRIGHT: Alpheratz for October

Filed Under: Quick Freshes

Reader Interactions

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe to Our Newsletter!

Itโ€™s free! Your name and email address are never shared with any third parties.

CHECK YOUR INBOX (or spam folder) to confirm your subscription. Thank you! ๐Ÿ˜Š

Search the River Houses

Recent Posts

  • ๐ŸŒ ๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ฏ WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: Tajik National Park in Tajikistan
  • ๐Ÿ—“ QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Familiesย โ€“ Week of 26 June 2022
  • ๐ŸŒŽ ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ SUNDAY STATES: Idaho, Switzerland, Tajikistan, and More
  • ๐Ÿ–‹ ๐Ÿš‚ WONDERFUL WORDS: โ€œIt was late Juneโ€
  • ๐Ÿฆ… FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Wood-Warblers (II)
  • ๐Ÿ–‹ ๐ŸŒž WONDERFUL WORDS: Stevensonโ€™s โ€œSummer Sunโ€
  • ๐ŸŒ ๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡ฐ WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: The Dambulla Temple in Sri Lanka
  • ๐Ÿ—“ โ›ฑ SUMMER IS HERE! (Astronomically Speaking)
  • ๐Ÿ”Ž HOMESCHOOL RESEARCH & NEWS โ€“ June 2022
  • ๐Ÿ—“ QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Familiesย โ€“ Week of 19 June 2022
  • ๐ŸŒŽ ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ SUNDAY STATES: Washington, Sri Lanka, Sweden, and More
  • ๐Ÿฆ… FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Wood-Warblers (I)
  • ๐Ÿ–‹ ๐Ÿฐ HAPPY FATHER’S DAY WEEK from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
  • ๐ŸŒ ๐Ÿ‡ฟ๐Ÿ‡ฆ WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: The Mapungubwe Sites in South Africa
  • ๐ŸŒ• RESEARCH PROJECTS for Homeschoolers โ€“ June 2022

Post Calendar

June 2022
S M T W T F S
« May    
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930  

Post Categories

  • ๐ŸŽต Homeschool Arts & Music
  • ๐Ÿ”ญ Homeschool Astronomy
  • ๐Ÿ“š Homeschool Books & Libraries
  • ๐Ÿ’ฐ Homeschool Collections & Collecting
  • ๐Ÿ“… Homeschool Holidays & Anniversaries
  • ๐Ÿ“– Homeschool Language & Literature
  • ๐ŸŒ• Lunar Society Bulletins
  • ๐Ÿ—บ Homeschool Maps & Geography
  • ๐Ÿ› Homeschool Museums & Monuments
  • ๐Ÿž Homeschool Natural History
  • ๐Ÿ—“ Quick Freshes for Homeschool Families
  • ๐Ÿ”Ž Homeschool Research & News
  • ๐ŸŒŽ ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Homeschool States & Countries
  • ๐Ÿ—“ Homeschool Terms & Calendars

Astronomy

  • American Meteor Society
    • โ€“ Fireball Reporting System
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day
  • Evening Sky Maps
  • Homeschool Astronomy (Sky & Telescope)
  • Hubble Space Telescope
    • โ€“ย Learning Resources
  • NASA
    • โ€“ย Asteroid Watch
    • โ€“ Educator Resources
    • โ€“ Our Solar System
    • โ€“ Spot the Station
    • โ€“ Webb Space Telescope
  • The Planets Today
    • โ€“ย Light-Distance to the Planets
  • The Sky This Week (USNO)
  • Space Weather
  • Stellarium Night Sky Charts
  • Time and Date
    • โ€“ Eclipses
    • โ€“ Meteor Showers
    • โ€“ Moon Phases
    • โ€“ Seasons
  • Tonight’s Sky (hubblesite.com)
  • Virtual Planisphere

Books & Libraries

  • Baldwin Library of Children’s Literature
  • Biodiversity Heritage Library
  • Classic Children’s Books (read.gov)
  • Folger Shakespeare Library
    • โ€“ Educator Resources
    • โ€“ Shakespeare’s Plays Online
  • HathiTrust Digital Library
  • In Our Time (BBC Podcasts)
  • New York Public Library Digital Collections
  • Project Gutenberg
  • US Library of Congress
    • โ€“ Children’s Book Selections
    • โ€“ Educator Resources
    • โ€“ LC Blogs
    • โ€“ LC Digital Collections
    • โ€“ Minerva’s Kaleidoscope
  • US National Archives
    • โ€“ Educator Resources
    • โ€“ Founders Online
    • โ€“ Kโ€“5 Resources
    • โ€“ Teaching With Documents
  • Vatican Library Digital Collections
  • WorldCat Library Catalog
    • โ€“ WorldCat Library Finder
  • World Digital Library

Museums, Parks, & Monuments

  • Art Collections Online
  • British Museum Collections Online
  • Google Arts & Culture Collections
  • Smithsonian Institution
    • โ€“ Educator Resources
    • โ€“ Smithsonian Museums
    • โ€“ Smithsonian Open Access
  • Timeline of Art History
  • US National Park Service
    • โ€“ Educator Resources
    • โ€“ National Memorials
    • โ€“ National Monuments
    • โ€“ National Parks
    • โ€“ Wild & Scenic Rivers Program
  • US National Wildlife Refuges
  • US State Parks
  • Watercolour World

Natural History

  • All About Birds (Cornell University)
    • โ€“ Bird Identification Guide
    • โ€“ eBird Online
  • Biodiversity Heritage Library
  • BirdCast Daily Migration Maps
  • Time and Date
    • โ€“ Seasons
  • UC Museum of Paleontology
    • โ€“ Educator Resources
  • US Fish & Wildlife Service
    • โ€“ Education Programs
  • US Geological Survey
    • โ€“ Educator Resources
    • โ€“ Latest Earthquakes
  • US National Weather Service
    • โ€“ Educator Resources
    • โ€“ Nationwide Air Quality
    • โ€“ Nationwide River Conditions
    • โ€“ Wildfire and Smoke Map
  • Wild & Scenic Rivers Program

Maps & Geography

  • Antipodes Map
  • FlightAware (Planes in the Air)
  • Mapquest World Maps
  • MarineTraffic (Ships at Sea)
  • OpenStreetMap World Maps
  • Printable Blank Maps & Flags
  • Printable Outline Maps (d-maps.com)
  • River Runner
  • USGS Topographic Maps
  • World Factbook (cia.gov)
  • World Heritage Sites (UNESCO)
    • โ€“ Educator Resources
  • Zoom Earth

Civics & Social Science

  • 1776 Unites
  • Bill of Rights Institute
  • Constitution Center
  • C-Span Classroom
  • Foundation for Economic Education
  • Free Speech Curriculum from FIRE
  • History of the Western World (I)
    • โ€“ Western World (II)
  • iCivics.org
  • Learn Liberty
  • Mises Institute Economics
  • MyMoney.gov
    • โ€“ Educator Resources
  • Online Library of Liberty
  • US Founding Documents
  • US Government Portal
    • โ€“ The Congress
    • โ€“ The Supreme Court
    • โ€“ The White House
  • US Mint
    • โ€“ Coin Activities for Kids
    • โ€“ Educator Resources
  • US Postal Museum
    • โ€“ Explore the Collections
    • โ€“ Activities for Kids
    • โ€“ Stamps Teach (from APS)
  • Visual Capitalist

Post Archives

  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • April 2017
Sign up for our free newsletter and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox every week!

All original content ยฉ 2017โ€“2022 by The River Houses ยท The River Houses and the River Houses emblem are Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off.