Our River Houses homeschool mascot, Horace the Otter, remembers the author of the popular American novel “Little Women” (1868) on her birthday.
Archives for November 2021
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 28 November 2021
Great homeschool teaching tips and little lessons for the week ahead, including: Winter terms, holiday music, American authors, meteoritical mishaps, maritime birds, South American rivers, a toast to the hunt, 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 (Part 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 long-legged Sandpipers (Part II), familiar shorebirds all around the world.
🎵 🍽 HOMESCHOOL THANKSGIVING: 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: Kronborg Castle in Denmark
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: Kronborg Castle in Denmark (Prince Hamlet’s “Elsinore”).
🎵 MUSICAL INTRODUCTIONS: Thomas Tallis, Master of Polyphony
![[Thomas Tallis historical marker]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/tallis-132x150.jpg)
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 21 November 2021
Great homeschool teaching tips and little lessons for the week ahead, including: Turkey Days, ethereal music, excellent equations, famous books, lost lighthouses, Revolutionary victories, European rivers, a toast to 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.
🌞🌏🌕 RESEARCH PROJECTS for Homeschoolers – November 2021
Our November 2021 full-moon report on the real scientific and scholarly projects around the world that you and your students can join from the comfort of your little home academy. Pick one and get started today!
🇺🇸 HOMESCHOOL HISTORY: Seven Score and Eighteen Years Ago
“What place is this? Where are we now?” (Marking the 158th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, with help from Ken Burns and Carl Sandburg.)
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Sandpipers (Part 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 long-legged Sandpipers (Part I), familiar shorebirds all around the world.
🌞 🌏 🌕 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.)
🌍 🇭🇷 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: The Old City of Dubrovnik in Croatia
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 Old City of Dubrovnik in Croatia.
🔎 HOMESCHOOL RESEARCH & NEWS – November 2021
Our November 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: Baker (2021), Hanák et al. (2021), Horn (2021), and Petty (2021).
🌞🌏🌕 LUNAR ECLIPSE Thursday–Friday Night (18–19 November 2021)
Invite your young homeschool astronomers to view the partial lunar eclipse coming up on Thursday–Friday night this week (18–19 November 2021).
🌠 🦁 LEONID METEORS for November 2021
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 14 November 2021
Great homeschool teaching tips and little lessons for the week ahead, including: Lunar eclipses, Leonid meteors, famous composers, magical movies, articulate confederations, Scottish geologists, Ivoirian rivers, a toast to popular government, 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: Sangha Park in the Congo Republic
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: Sangha Trinational Park in the Congo Republic.
📚 🇺🇸 STUDENT OPPORTUNITIES: The Veterans History Project
You and your homeschool students can contribute to an important historical documentary project by interviewing American veterans in your family or community for the Library of Congress.
