Happy October to all our homeschool readers and friends! Here are some educational ideas, events, and activities to look for in the homeschool month ahead. 🔍
The month of October is so named because it was the eighth month (Latin octo, “eight”) of the ancient Roman calendar, which considered the spring equinox in March to be the beginning of the year. (That’s why the previous month was September, “Seventh,” and the next month is November, “Ninth,” and so on.) You can learn more about different kinds of modern and historical calendars on pages 387–393 in your River Houses almanac. 📚
In October dung your field
and your land its wealth shall yield.
Our Sunday states-of-the-week for October will be Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, and New Hampshire, and our countries will run from Belgium to China. 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. 🇺🇸 🌎
We’ll be visiting World Heritage Sites in Benin, Botswana, Bulgaria, and Cameroon this month — our River Houses World Heritage Calendar will point the way. 🗺
We’ll have homeschool poems this month from John Keats (for autumn), Emily Dickinson (for late bloomers), Robert Frost (for the harvest), and Gordon Bok (for late October). Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar and join us as we visit with fifty of our favorite friends over the course of the year. ✒️
Our Friday Bird Families this month will include the Grebes and Flamingos; the Pigeons and Doves; the Cuckoos, Roadrunners, Anis, and Goatsuckers; the Swifts and Hummingbirds; and the Limpkins, Rails, Gallinules, Coots, and Cranes. (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, and follow the flyways with us. 🦅
Our monthly Great Star for October is Alpheratz (alpha Andromedae), 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 October is the General 000s — 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! 📚
And watch for our monthly Wikimedia Commons Photo Challenge post, coming up in the next few days — it’s a great opportunity for homeschool photographers. 📸
Also coming up this month:
⬩ 11 October (M): Columbus Day 🇺🇸
⬩ 13 October (W): National Fossil Day ⚒
⬩ 20 October (W): Lunar Society Report 🌕
⬩ 25 October (M): St. Crispin’s Day, 1415 🏹
⬩ 31 October (Su): Halloween 🎃
And finally, dietary advice for October, courtesy of Richard Saunders’ Apollo Anglicanus almanac (1665):
In this Moneth doth the Body wax dry, and the Brain moist; therefore it behoveth to eat roasted meats often in this Moneth, and drink pleasant Wine, also drink new Wine, and eat pleasant meat often; Goats milk is held to be excellent good for this Moneth, because it purifieth the blood, and cleanseth the Lungs; its good to eat often Appletarts prepared with comfortable Spices and Sugar, for they comfort greatly the stomack. 🍷
What calendrical events and annual apparitions will you be marking in your homeschool this October? 😊
❡ Thirty days hath September: This is one of our regular Homeschool Terms & Calendars posts. Print your own set of River Houses Calendars to follow along with us, and add your name to our weekly mailing list to get more great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🗞
