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🖋 🏡 “A HANDSOME HOUSE to lodge a friend, a river at my garden’s end”

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(This is our first homeschool poem-of-the-week for the 2021–2022 school year. Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar and follow along with us, and add your name to our weekly mailing list to get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year.)

Romania (not Rome) remembered Horace in 1965.
Every great institution should have a motto (or two). The United States has “E Pluribus Unum” and “In God We Trust.” The Supreme Court has “Equal Justice Under Law.” The Boy Scouts have “Be Prepared.” McDonald’s has “I’m lovin’ it.”

The motto of the River Houses is Hoc erat in votis, which we translate freely as “This was ever my wish.” The phrase comes from Book II of the Satires of the ancient Roman poet Horace, written about 30 B.C. “Satire” in the Horatian sense doesn’t carry the sharp connotation that it carries in modern English. Horace’s Satires are poems of daily life — modest, sometimes self-deprecating, never grandiloquent, mindful of human foibles and often amused by them.

The sixth satire in Horace’s Book II begins with a famous image of domestic contentment, just as we might wish for in a homeschool — aye, there’s the connection — and this little extract in its several renderings counts as our first homeschool poem-of-the-week for every new River Houses year:

Hoc erat in votis: modus agri non ita magnus,
hortus ubi et tecto vicinus iugis aquae fons
et paulum silvae super his foret.

The prose translator of the Loeb Classical Library’s edition of Horace renders it as:

This is what I prayed for! — a piece of land not so very large, where there would be a garden, and near the house a spring of ever-flowing water, and up above these a little bit of woodland.

“In the opening words,” the translator observes, “Horace gives utterance to a feeling of deep satisfaction as he contemplates the scene before him in the morning sunshine. His former prayer has been realized. Hence the past tense of erat.” This was ever my wish — and now here it all is before me.

Horace’s expression of contentment with domestic life has long been a favorite of country estate owners, and it has often been inscribed on the walls of rural villas.

[Hoc erat in votis]
Horace in the wild, inscribed on the wall of the Poggio Verde country villa in Lombardy, Italy. “Nil amplius oro.” (“Nothing more do I ask.”) (Image: ilpoggioverde.com.)

Here in the River Houses, we think these ancient lines from Horace capture something of the homeschooling ideal as well, and that’s why we’ve drawn our motto from them. A home with family and friends, a garden and a little stream — nothing more do we ask.

The verse translation that we especially like is this one from the Anglo-Irish poet Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) — it captures some of Horace’s light-heartedness:

I’ve often wished that I had clear,
For life, six hundred pounds a year,
A handsome house to lodge a friend,
A river at my garden’s end,
A terrace walk, and half a rood
Of land, set out to plant a wood.

Starting from the Latin original and abbreviating Swift, we can produce this extended version of the River Houses motto: Hoc erat in votis — This was ever my wish: a handsome house to lodge a friend, a river at my garden’s end.

Nothing more do we ask.

What wonderful words and poetical productions will you be studying in your homeschool this Cygnus Term? 😊

❡ A river at my garden’s end: If a special line or turn of phrase happens to strike you in one of our weekly poems, just copy it onto your homeschool bulletin board for a few days and invite your students to speak it aloud — that’s all it takes to begin a new poetical friendship and learn a few lovely words that will stay with you for life. 🏡

❡ Literary lives: The website of the Poetry Foundation includes biographical notes and examples of the work of many important poets (including Horace) that are suitable for high school students and homeschool teachers. 🖋

❡ Here, said the year: This post is one of our regular homeschool poems-of-the-week. Add your name to our River Houses mailing list to get posts like these delivered right to your mailbox, and print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar to follow along with us as we visit fifty of our favorite friends over the course of the year. 📖

🗓 📓 ✏️ HAPPY HOMESCHOOL SEPTEMBER from the River Houses!

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Happy September to all our homeschool readers and friends! Here are some educational ideas, events, and activities to look for in the homeschool month ahead. 🔍

Third-century Roman calendar mosaic from Tunisia. (Image: Ad Meskens/Wikimedia Commons.)
September with 30 days is the first month of Cygnus Term, our fall term in the River Houses. Cygnus Term opens our homeschool year and runs from September through November. 🦢 Visit our main calendar page (riverhouses.org/calendars) and print out some of our simple educational calendars and planners — they’ll help you create a light and easy structure for your own homeschool year. 🗓

The month of September is so named because it was the seventh month (Latin septem, “seven”) of the ancient Roman calendar, which considered the spring equinox in March to be the beginning of the year. (That’s why next month is October, “Eighth,” followed by 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. 📚

September signs and wonders:

When the goldenrod is yellow,
 And the leaves are turning brown —
Reluctantly the summer goes
 In a cloud of thistledown.
When squirrels all are harvesting
 And birds in flight appear —
By these autumn signs we know
 September days are here.

September is the month of the autumnal (fall) equinox in the northern hemisphere — the astronomical beginning of autumn — which “falls” this year on Wednesday the 22nd. (In the southern hemisphere the 22nd will be the vernal equinox — the astronomical beginning of spring.) The autumnal and vernal equinoxes each year are the days of “equal light and night,” when the number of minutes of darkness and the number of minutes of daylight are very nearly the same. 🌞 🌚

Our Sunday states-of-the-week for September will be Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Georgia, and our countries will run from Afghanistan to Belarus. 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 Algeria, Argentina, Azerbaijan, and Barbados this month — our River Houses World Heritage Calendar will point the way. 🗺

We’ll have homeschool poems this month from Horace (the Roman, not the otter, for the new homeschool year), Elizabeth Jennings (for approaching fall), Robert Frost (for migrating Monarchs), and Emily Dickinson (for departing summer). 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 Ducks, Geese, and Swans (twice over); and the many “Gallinaceous” birds (Grouse, Partridges, Quails, Turkeys, and more). 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 September is Deneb (alpha Cygni), 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 monthly Learning the Library post for September will introduce our annual tour of the Dewey Decimal system — follow along with us (on the first Tuesday of each month) and invite your students to explore the whole of knowledge (really!) over the course of the homeschool 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:

 ⬩ 1 September (W): The River Houses Year Begins! 🎉
 ⬩ 6 September (M): Labor Day 🇺🇸
 ⬩ 12 September (Su): Traditional date of the Battle of Marathon, 490 B.C. 🏃
 ⬩ 17 September (F): Constitution Day & Citizenship Day 🇺🇸
 ⬩ 19 September (Su): International Talk-Like-a-Pirate Day! ☠️
 ⬩ 20 September (M): Lunar Society Report 🌕
 ⬩ 22 September (W): Autumnal (September) Equinox 🌞🌚 First Day of Fall 🍂

And finally, dietary advice for September, courtesy of Richard Saunders’ Apollo Anglicanus almanac (1665):

In this Moneth eat all manner of meats and fruits that your stomack desires, for all things are now in their proper vigor and perfection, good to purge, and to this end is highly commendable the flour of Cassia new drawn, that gently purgeth and comforts nature, and use cordial powders in your broths, these preserve the body sound till the next Spring…. Goats milk and Pomegranats eaten this Moneth are commendable, for that they both increase blood, and cause a good colour. 🍒

What calendrical events and annual apparitions will you be marking in your homeschool this September? 😊

❡ 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. 🗞

🗓 🦢 CYGNUS TERM 2021 and the New Homeschool Year

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Today is the beginning of the River Houses homeschool year and the beginning of our fall term: Cygnus Term, named for the Great Swan of the Heavens. Cygnus Term runs from September through November.

We put great stock in the educational value of the calendar in the River Houses. The calendar is the framework on which we human beings hang most of the facts we know about the world: historical events, natural phenomena, personal reminiscences, the seasons, blooming flowers, migrating birds, the sun and moon, the planets, the stars. A key part of every student’s intellectual development is the development of “calendar sense” — a sense of time and history.

The constellation Cygnus, creatively depicted in A Celestial Atlas Comprising a Systematic Display of the Heavens in a Series of Thirty Maps by Alexander Jamieson (1822). (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

Our annual River Houses calendar divides the homeschool year into four three-month terms (quarters) that correspond to the “meteorological seasons,” and these terms are named after prominent seasonal constellations of the northern hemisphere:

  • 🗓 🦢 Fall or Cygnus Term (September–November)
  • 🗓 🗡 Winter or Orion Term (December–February)
  • 🗓 🦁 Spring or Leo Term (March–May)
  • 🗓 💪 Summer or Hercules Term (June–August)

This calendrical division is an open-ended idea that we’ve developed for the River Houses, and we think has a great deal of educational potential. We’re looking forward to expanding upon it as time goes on.

As you think about your own homeschool year, think about how different parts of it — curricular, co-curricular, social, or recreational — might be informally arranged into these four terms. You could have a different decorating theme in your classroom each term, for example, or you could schedule a regular trip to a special place where you take a photo at the beginning of each term to track how the seasons change. You could group your curricular work by term, or bake a quarterly cake, or set goals at the beginning of each term that you want your students to have met by the end. You could have your students measure their height at the beginning of each term, or take their penny-jar to the bank for a quarterly deposit. At the end of each term you could assemble a portfolio of student accomplishments. (And you can use our simple planners to track your progress.) With a little imagination you will be able to come up with a clever and comfortable arrangement and a new way to think about the structure of your educational year.

The constellation Cygnus, in a more modern rendering, making its nightly flight to the western horizon. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

Cygnus Term is named for the Great Swan of the Heavens that is high in the east at sunset now each evening, and that will be passing overhead to the west as the fall comes on. (Your students’ vocabulary word for the day is “cygnet.” And be sure to take note of the scientific names of the earthly swans on page 22 in your bird guide.) Cygnus Term is home to Labor Day (6 September), Constitution Day and Citizenship Day (17 September), and the Autumnal Equinox (22 September); to Columbus Day (11 October) and the anniversary of the Battle of Hastings (14 October), to St. Crispin’s Day (25 October) and Halloween (31 October); to Marie Curie’s Birthday (7 November), Veterans Day (11 November), the annual Leonid Meteor Shower (16–18 November), and Thanksgiving (25 November) — not to mention countless other holidays, anniversaries, and events, local and global, public and private, that you may wish to mark on your own homeschool calendar.

If you want to make a special astronomical study this Cygnus Term, your River Houses reference library includes an excellent backyard guide to the night sky that will show you the location of Cygnus and its most prominent stars:

Cygnus lies in what for observers is a dense and fascinating part of the sky. The bird’s wings span the Milky Way at a location packed with stars and an assortment of deep-sky objects. Owing to the positions of its brightest stars it is sometimes called the Northern Cross — the northern parallel to the Southern Cross constellation in the Southern Hemisphere. You will see Cygnus highest in the sky in late summer and early fall, with its head pointing south like a bird on its migratory path toward warmer climates.

A thick band of dust lies within Cygnus, creating a dark space in the Milky Way that is easily visible to the naked eye under good conditions. This part of the Milky Way is known as the Cygnus Rift or the Northern Coalsack, a name borrowed from a similar dark spot found in the Southern Cross. (National Geographic Backyard Guide to the Night Sky, page 216)

Why not spend a little time out after dark with your students over the next three months and watch the Great Swan as he makes his nightly migratory flight to the west. Once you learn to spot him, you’ll have a friend for life.

What educational adventures do you and your homescholars have planned for this Cygnus Term? 😊

❡ Quarter days and cross-quarter days: Dividing the year into quarters is an ancient and natural practice: the annual movement of the sun across the sky automatically gives us two equinoxes, two solstices, and four seasons. Our four terms are just a simple modification of that arrangement so that our River Houses calendar will align more conveniently with the ordinary months — with the “meteorological seasons” rather than the astronomical seasons — and with the customary American school year. In many traditional calendrical systems, going back into the Middle Ages, the first day of each quarter is called the quarter day and the midpoint of each quarter is called the cross-quarter day. That means the quarter days of the River Houses year are 1 September, 1 December, 1 March, and 1 June, and the cross-quarter days are 16 October, 14 January (15 January in Leap Years), 15 April, and 16 July. (Fun fact: a vestige of the old system of quarter and cross-quarter days is Groundhog Day, also known as Candlemas on the Christian calendar: it’s the cross-quarter day between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.) Quarter days have for centuries been the traditional days on which school terms began, so homeschoolers who follow our four-term River Houses calendar are participating in a very ancient tradition indeed. 🗓

❡ Watchers of the skies: Teaching your students to recognize the constellations is one of the simplest and most enduring gifts you can give them. Your recommended River Houses night-sky guide has descriptions and maps of each constellation that point out the highlights, and the astronomical section of your recommended world atlas has beautiful large charts of both celestial hemispheres. Why not find a dark-sky spot near you this term and spend some quality homeschool time beneath the starry vault. 🔭

❡ Choose something like a star: If you’d like some more light and easy homeschool astronomy lessons, download and print a copy of our annual River Houses Star Calendar and follow along with us month by month as we make twelve heavenly friends-for-life over the course of the year. 🌟

❡ Here, said the year: This is one of our occasional posts about our Homeschool Terms & Calendars. 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. 🗞

🗓 🏡 🎉 THE 2021–2022 HOMESCHOOL YEAR BEGINS: Let the River Run!

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Welcome to the new 2021–2022 River Houses year! Let all the dreamers wake the nation.

“Let the River Run” performed by Conspirare (Simon/arr. Johnson).

Please add your name to our weekly mailing list to get great homeschool teaching ideas all through the coming year. And be sure to print out your own River Houses calendars and planners as well — they will help to give a light and easy structure to your educational year.

Let The River Run

Carly Simon

We’re coming to the edge,
Running on the water.

Let the river run,
Let all the dreamers
Wake the nation.
Come, the New Jerusalem.

Silver cities rise,
The morning lights
The streets that meet them,
And sirens call them on
With a song.

It’s asking for the taking.
Trembling, shaking.
Oh, my heart is aching.

We’re coming to the edge,
Running on the water,
Coming through the fog,
Your sons and daughters.

Let the river run,
Let all the dreamers
Wake the nation.
Come, the New Jerusalem.

Silver cities rise,
The morning lights
The streets that meet them,
And sirens call them on
With a song.

We’re coming to the edge,
Running on the water.

What works of art will you be creating, what astronomical alignments will you be examining, what calendrical events will you be marking, what geographical excursions will you be taking, what historical anniversaries will you be remembering, what holidays will you be celebrating, what museums will you be visiting, what music will you be playing, what poems will you be reciting, what scientific experiments will you be conducting, what stellar spectacles will you be observing, what wonderful words will you be reading, and what worlds will you be discovering your homeschool in the year ahead? 😊

❡ Let the river run: This is one of our occasional Homeschool Terms & Calendars posts. Print your own River Houses Calendars and follow along with us throughout the year, and add your name to our free mailing list to get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox every week. 🗞

🏡 WELCOME! (Pinned Post)

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First time visitor? We post a wide range of easy-to-use educational ideas and “little lessons” that will enrich your homeschooling schedule all through the year. Please add your name to our free mailing list! (Just one message a week and no spam.) 😊

There’s a wealth of wonderful material here on our website — everything from homeschool astronomy to books and libraries to language and literature to geography, natural history, homeschool calendars, and more. The materials we’re developing are going to become the foundation for a new type of homeschool network made up of friendly local groups called “houses” (just like in Harry Potter). Make yourself at home! 😊