Great homeschool teaching ideas and little lessons for the week ahead, including: Memorial Days, summer terms, maritime poets, Dewey decimals, momentous invasions, big balloons, freedom fighters, African rivers, a toast to peace, and more!
Archives for May 2021
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: North Dakota, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and More
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: North Dakota, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, and Sierra Leone.
🇺🇸 MEMORIAL DAY 2021
“Rest, comrades, rest and sleep! / The thoughts of men shall be / As sentinels to keep / Your rest from danger free.” (Little homeschool lessons in literature, history, geography, and music, for the Memorial Day weekend.)
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Indigobirds, Old World Sparrows, and Allies
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 Indigobirds and Whydahs, the Weavers, the Estrildid Finches, and the Old World Sparrows.
🌕 RESEARCH PROJECTS for Homeschool Students – May 2021
Our May 2021 full-moon report on the real scientific and scholarly projects around the world that you and your students can contribute to from the comfort of your little home academy.
🌍 🇸🇦 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: The Ancient Rock Art of Saudi Arabia
Pay a homeschool visit to a World Heritage Site from one of our countries-of-the-week and learn some great history and geography along the way. This week: the ancient Rock Art of the Hail Region of Saudi Arabia.
🌞 🌏 🌕 WONDERFUL WORDS: “The stellar gauge of earthly show”
“Is such the stellar gauge of earthly show, / Nation at war with nation, brains that teem, / Heroes, and women fairer than the skies?” (An extra homeschool poem-of-the-week, a sonnet-masterpiece from Thomas Hardy, for this week’s lunar eclipse.)
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 23 May 2021
Great homeschool teaching ideas and little lessons for the week ahead, including: Lunar eclipses, American philosophers, coded messages, paper airplanes, battle hymns, mountain climbers, Middle Eastern rivers, a toast to blissful days, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Colorado, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, and More
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Colorado, Samoa, San Marino, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Saudi Arabia.
🖋 🎓 GRADUATION SEASON: “Set me free to find my calling”
“Bind me not to the pasture, chain me not to the plow, / Set me free to find my calling and I’ll return to you somehow.” (Our poem-of-the-week, from Marta Keen, for homeschool graduation season and the beginning of summer.)
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Bulbuls, Starlings, Waxwings, and Allies
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 Bulbuls, Starlings, Waxwings, Silky-Flycatchers, Olive Warblers, and Accentors
🗓 📏 HAPPY WORLD METROLOGY DAY 2021!
On this day in 1875, the meter was adopted as an international standard of measurement. That makes today World Metrology Day! Why not invite your students to take a few scientific measurements this week in your homeschool.
🇨🇦 HOMESCHOOL MUSIC & HISTORY: “To find the hand of Franklin”
To understand a complex and beautiful piece of literature or music your students must first know a great deal about the world — names, places, people, and events that may seem at first to be disconnected.
🌎 🇰🇳 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: Brimstone Hill Fortress on Saint Kitts
Pay a homeschool visit to a World Heritage Site from one of our countries-of-the-week and learn some great history and geography along the way. This week: Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park in Saint Kitts and Nevis.
🔎 HOMESCHOOL RESEARCH & NEWS – May 2021
Our May 2021 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 four items this month: Averett (2021), Daulay et al. (2021), Duvall (2021), and Oldenkamp (2021).
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 16 May 2021
Great homeschool teaching ideas and little lessons for the week ahead, including: Marvelous mechanisms, mysterious disappearances, fast horses, meticulous measurements, silky birds, West Indian rivers, a toast to spring labor, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Nebraska, Rwanda, Saint Vincent, and More
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Nebraska, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
🖋 🍃 WONDERFUL WORDS: Robert Frost’s “Birches”
“One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.” (Our homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Robert Frost, for childhood play and growing up.)
🌎 🐦 NATURE NOTES: Watching Bird Migration with BirdCast
May is Bird Migration Month in the River Houses! Why not show your homeschool naturalists how to track the number of avian migrants across the United States each night with BirdCast.
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Mockingbirds, Catbirds, and Thrashers
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 loquacious Mockingbirds, Catbirds, and Thrashers.
🌍 🇶🇦 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: The Historic Al Zubarah Site in Qatar
Pay a homeschool visit to a World Heritage Site from one of our countries-of-the-week and learn some great history and geography along the way. This week: the Al Zubarah Archaeological Site in Qatar.
📚 🦉 LIBRARY LESSONS: The Macaulay Library of Natural History
Invite your homeschool naturalists to explore the sights and sounds of birds all over the world through the online collections of the Macaulay Library at Cornell University.
🐦 WHAT BIRDS ARE MIGRATING Through Your Neighborhood?
May is Bird Migration Month in the River Houses! Here’s how you can find out what birds are migrating though your homeschool neighborhood this month (or any month of the year).
🐦 WHAT BIRDS ARE MIGRATING Through Your Neighborhood?
May is Bird Migration Month in the River Houses! Here’s how you can find out what birds are migrating though your homeschool neighborhood this month (or any month of the year).
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 9 May 2021
Great homeschool teaching ideas and little lessons for the week ahead, including: Mother’s Day, famous nurses, American composers, historic forts, great comets, loquacious birds, Russian rivers, a toast to moms, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Nevada, Portugal, Russia, and More
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Nevada, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, and Russia.
🖋 👩👧👦 WONDERFUL WORDS: Anne Bradstreet for Mother’s Day
“Great was my pain when I you bred, / Great was my care when I you fed. / Long did I keep you soft and warm / And with my wings kept off all harm.” (Our “ornithological” homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Anne Bradstreet, for Mother’s Day.)
