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🌊 WONDERFUL WORDS: “It was a short, cold Christmas”

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Not everyone gets to spend Christmas Day sitting around a cozy fire with family and friends. On this holiday, why not invite your students to remember all the hard working people who might like to be at home and warm, but who are instead out keeping our world running — police officers, fire fighters, snow plow drivers, and many others, including sailors at sea.

Herman Melville reminds us in Moby-Dick (1851) that somewhere in the world, even on Christmas Day, ships are leaving port and heading out onto the freezing ocean:

At last the anchor was up, the sails were set, and off we glided. It was a short, cold Christmas; and as the short northern day merged into night, we found ourselves almost broad upon the wintry ocean, whose freezing spray cased us in ice, as in polished armor. The long rows of teeth on the bulwarks glistened in the moonlight; and like the white ivory tusks of some huge elephant, vast curving icicles depended from the bows.

Lank Bildad, as pilot, headed the first watch, and ever and anon, as the old craft deep dived into the green seas, and sent the shivering frost all over her, and the winds howled, and the cordage rang, his steady notes were heard, —

Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood,
Stand dressed in living green.
So to the Jews old Canaan stood,
While Jordan rolled between.

Never did those sweet words sound more sweetly to me than then. They were full of hope and fruition. Spite of this frigid winter night in the boisterous Atlantic, spite of my wet feet and wetter jacket, there was yet, it then seemed to me, many a pleasant haven in store; and meads and glades so eternally vernal, that the grass shot up by the spring, untrodden, unwilted, remains at midsummer.

Can you hear Captain Bildad’s “steady notes” through the howling wind? Most of Melville’s contemporaries probably could as they read along: Bildad was singing the great “shape note” tune “Jordan” by the early American composer William Billings (1746–1800), who we learned about just the other day. “Jordan” was written to accompany the verses of the prolific hymn-writer and educator Isaac Watts (1674–1748) — this is what it sounds like and would have sounded like on that cold Christmas Day in the North Atlantic:

Melville’s fictional account is full of foreshadowing that hints at the ultimate fate of the novel’s characters. But today we can read it as a straightforward reminder that even on Christmas, there are people out working in the ice and snow.

So here’s a little homeschool lesson for today, to furnish your students’ minds with a nugget of knowledge to reflect upon: “You know in Herman Melville’s famous sailing adventure Moby-Dick — a story you’ll read some day — the ship sets sail on a Christmas afternoon. Even today, on Christmas, somewhere in the world there are sailors going to sea.”

What holiday traditions are you observing in your homeschool this week? 😊

❡ Looking in the lexicon: Today’s little extract has some good intermediate vocabulary that your students can look up in your family dictionary: bulwarks, lank, cordage, fruition, boisterous, meads, vernal — wonderful words, every one. And what about “So to the Jews old Canaan stood, / While Jordan rolled between”? That’s from the Book of Deuteronomy in the Hebrew Bible — your dictionary will identify those proper names as well, and your atlas will help you locate the storied Jordan River in the Middle East. 📖

❡ Let the river run: This is one of our occasional Homeschool Holidays & Anniversaries posts. Add your name to our weekly mailing list and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🗞

🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Tropicbirds, Loons, and Albatrosses

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Every Friday we invite you and your homeschool students to learn about a different group of North American birds in your recommended bird guide. It’s a great way to add a few minutes of informal science, geography, natural history, and imagination to your homeschool schedule throughout the year.

This week’s birds (three different families) are the Tropicbirds (pages 214–215), the Loons (pages 216–219), and the Albatrosses (pages 220–223).

If you’re teaching younger children, the way to use these posts is just to treat your bird guide as a picture book and spend a few minutes each week looking at all the interesting birds they may see one day. With that, your little lesson is done.

If you have older students, one of your objectives should be to help them become fluent with a technical reference book that’s packed with information, the kind of book they will encounter in many different fields of study. Here’s how your bird guide introduces this week’s birds:

TROPICBIRDS — Family Phaethontidae. Long central tail feathers identify adults. They are usually seen far out to sea, where they are solitary and mostly silent. Here, each of these glossy white species is often first spotted right over the highest point of the boat; they circle a few times and then fly off. They swim buoyantly with their tails raised. Species: 3 World, 3 N.A. [North America]

LOONS — Family Gaviidae. In all species, juvenal-like plumage held for over a year. Species: 5 World, 5 N.A.

ALBATROSSES — Family Diomedeidae. Gliding on extremely long, narrow wings, these largest of seabirds spend most of their lives at sea, alighting on the water whenever becalmed or when feeding on squid, fish, and refuse. Pelagic; most species nest in colonies on oceanic islands; pairs mate for life. A number of species, especially those in the Southern Hemisphere, are threatened by long-line fishing. Species: 15 World, 10 N.A.

When you’re training your young naturalists, teach them to ask and answer from their bird guide some of the first questions any naturalist would ask about a new group — about the Loons, for example. How many species? (5 worldwide.) Are there any near us? (All 5 species occur in North America, and the individual maps will give us more detail.) What are their distinctive features? (The guide’s description is a bit weak this time, except to say that they take more than one year to acquire adult plumage.)

Pick a representative species or two to look at in detail each week and read the entry aloud, or have your students study it and then narrate it back to you, explaining all the information it contains. This week, for the Loon family, why not investigate a bird that occurs across all of North America: the Common Loon (page 218).

All sorts of biological information is packed into the brief species descriptions in your bird guide — can your students tease it out? How big is the Common Loon? (32 inches long — a big bird.) What is its scientific name? (Gavia immer.) Will you be able to find this species where you live? At what times of year and in what habitat? (Study the range map and range description carefully to answer those questions, and see the book’s back flap for a map key.) Do the males and females look alike? The adults and juveniles? What song or call does this species make? How can you distinguish it from similar species? (The text and illustrations should answer all these questions.)

Loons are aquatic birds, inhabiting both fresh and salt water. They are larger than ducks, with sharp, pointed bills, and they ride very low in the water — more like a submarine than a ship. They are great divers and capture all their food under water. And they’re famous for carrying their downy chicks around on their backs.

It’s only by a stretch that this week’s other two families, the Tropicbirds and Albatrosses, can be considered North American birds — they’re really oceanic birds that are occasionally seen off the North American coast. As an example from the Albatross family, why not look at the Laysan Albatross (page 220), which, while it isn’t really a North American bird, is indeed a United States bird, since it is named for Laysan Island in Hawaii, one of its main nesting localities. (Your River Houses atlas will show you the location of Laysan Island.)

You can do little ten-minute lessons of this kind with any of the species in your bird guide that catch your interest. Pick one that lives near you, or that looks striking, or that has a strange name, and explore. For example, in this week’s third family, the Tropicbirds, take a look at the White-tailed Tropicbird (page 214), a beautiful, solitary wanderer of tropical seas. You’ll notice that the name of the tropicbird genus is Phaethon. Do your students know who Phaethon was? Send them to your family dictionary to find out!

In all these Friday Bird Families posts, our aim is not to present a specific set of facts to memorize. We hope instead to provide examples and starting points that you and your students can branch away from in many different directions. We also hope to show how you can help your students develop the kind of careful skills in reading, observation, and interpretation that they will need in all their future academic work.

What ornithological observations and naturalistical notes have you been making in your homeschool this Orion Term? 😊

❡ Homeschool birds: We think bird study is one of the best subjects you can take up in a homeschool environment. It’s suitable for all ages, it can be made as elementary or as advanced as you wish, it can be made solitary or social, and birds can be found just about anywhere at any season of the year. Why not track your own homeschool bird observations using the free eBird website sponsored by Cornell University. It’s a great way to learn more about what’s in your local area and about how bird populations change from season to season. 🐦

❡ Vade mecum: The front matter in your bird guide (pages 6–13) explains a little bit about basic bird biology and about some of the technical terminology used throughout the book — why not have your students study it as a special project. Have them note particularly the diagrams showing the parts of a bird (pages 10–11) so they’ll be able to tell primaries from secondaries and flanks from lores. 🦉

❡ Words for birds: You may not think of your homeschool dictionary as a nature reference, but a comprehensive dictionary will define and explain many of the standard scientific terms you will encounter in biology and natural history, although it will not generally contain the proper names of species or other taxonomic groups that aren’t part of ordinary English. (In other words, you’ll find “flamingo” but not Phoenicopterus, the flamingo genus.) One of the most important things students should be taught to look for in the dictionary is the information on word origins: knowing the roots of scientific terms makes it much easier to understand them and remember their meaning. 📖

❡ Come, here’s the map: Natural history and geography are deeply interconnected. One of the first questions you should teach your students to ask about any kind of animal or plant is, “What is its range? Where (in the world) does it occur?” Our recommended homeschool reference library includes an excellent world atlas that will help your students appreciate many aspects of biogeography, the science of the geographical distribution of living things. 🌎

❡ State birds: One species covered this week is a United States state bird: the Common Loon (Gavia immer), the state bird of Minnesota. 🇺🇸

❡ Nature notes: This is one of our regular Friday Bird Families posts for homeschool naturalists. Print your own copy of our River Houses Calendar of American Birds and follow along with us! You can also add your name to our free weekly mailing list to get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🐦 🦉 🦆 🦃 🦅

🎵 🎄 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: Hallelujah!

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One of the most famous pieces of classical music in the world is George Frideric Handel’s Messiah (1742). Its five-minute “Hallelujah Chorus,” which is often performed as a separate piece, as become a Christmas standard for public performance, and every young homescholar at this season, whether religious or secular, should learn to recognize it. Here’s a bright, sparkly performance led by the popular conductor and violinist André Rieu:

December is Homeschool Holiday Music Month in the River Houses, and throughout the month we’re sharing an assortment of seasonal favorites in a great variety of styles and genres — classical and modern, sacred and secular, serious and silly — along with a collection of easy educational notes that will let you teach little musical lessons all along the way.

Handel’s Messiah is not a symphony nor an opera, but an oratorio. If you send your students to your family dictionary they will discover that an oratorio is “a musical composition for voices and orchestra, telling a usually sacred story without costumes, scenery, or dramatic action” (which makes it less expensive to put on than an opera). The full Messiah, which runs about two and a half hours, tells the entire biblical story of Christ, and it is regularly performed in concert halls around the world. Here’s a grand live recording made last year at the Sydney Opera House in Australia (one of our previously featured World Heritage Sites):

The “Hallelujah Chorus,” the part of the Messiah that most people know best, comes near the end of the second of the oratorio’s three parts, and it runs only about five minutes. It’s a favorite not only of professional musicians but also of school and college choirs and amateur singing groups of all kinds.

What is perhaps the most famous musical rest — the most famous silent pause — in the entire classical repertoire occurs just before the last four notes of the “Hallelujah Chorus.” You heard it above in Rieu’s performance at the 3:05 mark. Keep Handel’s Great Rest in mind, because when we finally wrap up our Holiday Music Month on Twelfth Night you’ll encounter it again, in a very different context. (One of the deepest purposes of a liberal education is to enable people to get jokes.) 🍐 🌳

The text of the “Hallelujah Chorus” is based on parts of just three short New Testament verses (Revelation 11:15, 19:6, and 19:16), and Handel repeats these lines and intertwines them, making it seem like the voices are circling around one another over and over:

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth! The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever, King of kings, and Lord of lords. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! — Hallelujah!

Once your students learn to recognize the “Hallelujah Chorus” they’ll have a musical friend for life — and it’s a good friend to have, because you never know where it may turn up:

What marvelous musical discoveries have you been making in your homeschool during this delightful Holiday Music Month? 🎄 🎵

❡ Musical memories: If you’d like to fill your homeschool with some beautiful background sounds during the holidays, why not tune in to the 24-hour Holiday Channel from WQXR, the famous classical music radio station in New York City. “Enjoy the sounds of orchestras, choirs, brass ensembles and more as we celebrate the sacred and secular sounds of the season.” I have it on as background music almost all day at this time of year. Won’t you join me? 📻

❡ Olden times and ancient rhymes: What did Christmas sound like a hundred years ago and more? Find out from this wonderful collection of historic recordings of American Christmas music, brought together by the Library of Congress. 🎄

❡ Lift every voice: This is one of our occasional posts on Homeschool Arts & Music. Add your name to our weekly mailing list and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🗞

🖋 🎅 WONDERFUL WORDS: ’Twas the Night Before Christmas

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Merry Christmas to all our homeschool readers and friends! Could this poem by Clement Clarke Moore (who?) be the most popular poem in the world? Some people think it is. (It’s our homeschool poem-of-the-week each year for Christmas, so that counts for something.) Why not make an annual reading of it a tradition in your homeschool, if it isn’t already — you can join millions of others who read it every year all around the world.

A Visit from St. Nicholas

’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds;
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;

And mamma in her ’kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Gave a lustre of midday to objects below,
When what to my wondering eyes did appear,
But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny rein-deer,
With a little old driver so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment he must be St. Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”

As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the housetop the coursers they flew
With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too —
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.

His eyes, how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath;

He had a broad face and a little round belly
That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight —
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

Clement Clarke Moore (1779–1863) was a professor of ancient languages at the Protestant Episcopal seminary in New York City. (Would you have guessed that?) He wrote “A Visit from St. Nicholas” for his own children, little expecting that it would become a national and now an international favorite. It was first published anonymously in a local newspaper in Troy, New York, in 1823, and it has since gone on to become a Christmas standard, responsible in many ways for the modern conception of who “Santa Claus” is. 🎅

Readings and performances of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” take place all around the world every December. Here’s a wonderful version from the grand old singer Perry Como:

In Washington, the Librarian of Congress — first James Billington and now Carla Hayden — has given a public reading of the poem in the Library’s Great Hall nearly every year for the last two decades.

“Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden reads ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas’ at the Library’s holiday celebration on December 13, 2017, in the Great Hall. (Image: Library of Congress.)

Maybe the librarian of your little home academy (that would be you) will also be giving an annual reading, this year and for many years to come. 🤶 🎅

What wonderful words and poetical productions are you studying (and reading aloud) in your homeschool this Orion Term? 😊

❡ Not a creature was stirring: 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. 🖋

❡ Little literary lessons: It’s Christmas week and this is just a poem to have fun with today, so there’s really no need to point out that it’s a lovely example of anapestic tetrameter, is there. And look at that magnificent simile in stanza five: “As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly … So up to the housetop the coursers they flew.” It’s so natural and extended you could almost call it a Homeric simile — if you wanted to be technical, that is. 🔍

❡ Here, said the year: This post is one of our regular homeschool poems-of-the-week. 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, and add your name to our River Houses mailing list to get posts like these delivered right to your mailbox every week. 🗞

🌍 🇬🇲 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: The Stone Circles of Gambia

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Gambia in western Africa is one of our homeschool countries-of-the-week, so why not spend a few minutes today learning about one of Gambia’s World Heritage Sites: the Stone Circles of Gambia and adjacent Senegal.


Stone circles at Wassu in Gambia. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

The megalithic circles along the Gambia River are among the world’s most extensive collections of ancient stone monuments:

The inscribed site corresponds to four large groups of megalithic circles located in the extreme western part of West Africa, between the River Gambia and the River Senegal. These sites, Wassu and Kerbatch in Gambia, and Wanar and Sine Ngayene in Senegal, represent an extraordinary concentration of more than 1,000 stone circles and related tumuli spread over a territory 100 km wide and 350 km in length, along the River Gambia. Together, the four groups comprise 93 circles and associated sites, some of which have been excavated, some of which have revealed archaeological material and human burials, from pottery to iron instruments and ornamentation dating between the 1st and 2nd millennia to our era….

The Sine Ngayene complex (Senegal) is the largest site in the area. It consists of 52 circles of standing stones, including one double circle. In all, there are 1102 carved stones on the site. Around 1km to the east (outside the inscribed property) is the quarry from which the monoliths were extracted and where the sources of around 150 stones can be traced. The site was excavated around 1970, and more recently by Bocoum and Holl. The work established that the single burials appeared to precede in time the multiple burials associated with the stone circles. The Wanar complex (Senegal) consists of 21 circles including one double circle. The site contains 9 ‘lyre’ stones or bifed stones, sometimes with a cross piece strung between the two halves. The Wassu complex (Gambia) consists of 11 circles and their associated frontal stones. This site has the highest stones of the area. The most recent excavations conducted on these megalithic circles date to the Anglo-Gambian campaign led by Evans and Ozanne in 1964 and 1965. The finds of burials enabled the dating of the monuments between 927 and 1305 AD. The Kerbatch complex consists of 9 circles, including a double circle. The site possesses a ‘bifid’ stone, the only known one in the area.

The stones forming the circles were extracted from nearby laterite quarries using iron tools and skillfully shaped into almost identical pillars, either cylindrical or polygonal, on average around 2 m in height and weighing up to 7 tons. Each circle contains between eight to fourteen standing stones having a diameter of four to six metres. The four megalithic sites inscribed bear witness to a prosperous and highly organized society with traditions of stone circle constructions, associated with burials, and persisting in certain areas over more than a millennium. (World Heritage Centre #1226)

The Gambian stone circles on a fifty dalasi banknote. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

You can find a gallery of additional photos of the Stone Circles of Senegambia on the World Heritage Centre’s website.

World Heritage Sites are cultural or natural landmarks of international significance, selected for recognition by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. More than 1000 such sites have been recognized in over 160 countries, and we feature one every Wednesday, drawn from one of our homeschool countries-of-the-week. You can find a complete list of World Heritage Sites online at the World Heritage Centre and in Wikipedia.

The World Heritage Centre also has a free and comprehensive World Heritage education kit for teachers, as well as a wonderful full-color wall map of World Heritage Sites, available for the cost of shipping. Why not add them both to your own homeschool library. 🗺

What world treasures are you exploring in your homeschool this Orion Term? 😊

❡ Books in the running brooks: You can always turn to your River Houses almanac, atlas, and history encyclopedia for more information about any of our countries-of-the-week. The almanac has profiles of all the nations of the world on pages 752–859; the endpapers of the atlas are indexes that will show you where all of the individual national and regional maps may be found; the history encyclopedia includes national histories on pages 489–599; and you can find additional illustrations, flags, and other mentions through the indexes in each of these volumes. For an ideal little lesson, just write the name of the Weekly World Heritage Site on your homeschool bulletin board, find its location in your atlas, read the WHC’s brief description aloud, look at a picture or two, and you’re done. Over the course of the year, without even realizing it, your students will absorb a wealth of new historical, geographical, and cultural information. 🇬🇲

❡ The great globe itself: This is one of our regular Homeschool States & Countries posts featuring historical and natural sites of international importance. Download a copy of our River Houses World Heritage Calendar and follow along with us as we tour the planet, and add your name to our weekly mailing list to get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🌍

🎵 ❄️ HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: In the Bleak Midwinter

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It’s rare for a poem written by one author to be successfully set to music at a later date by an unrelated composer, but that was happily the case with the poem “In the Bleak Midwinter” by Christina Rossetti (1830–1894), beautifully converted into one of the most lovely religious carols of the season by English composer Gustav Holst (1874–1934). Here it is performed — in candlelit near-darkness — by the choir and congregation of Gloucester Cathedral in Britain:

December is Homeschool Holiday Music Month in the River Houses, and throughout the month we’re sharing an assortment of seasonal favorites in a great variety of styles and genres — classical and modern, sacred and secular, serious and silly — along with a collection of easy educational notes that will let you teach little musical lessons all along the way.

We post this carol today because today is the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere — the astronomical beginning of the season of winter. The winter solstice is “the shortest day of the year,” so it’s also traditionally called midwinter day: the day of the least light and the greatest darkness. (Send your students to your family dictionary to confirm this special meaning.) In your homeschool this midwinter week, why not spend a few minutes introducing your students to Rossetti’s poem, which tells the Christian Nativity story, and to Holst’s magnificent musical setting.

[Christina Rossetti]
Christina Rossetti (1830–1894), by her brother, the artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

Holst’s music for “In the Bleak Midwinter” has been arranged for many different combinations of singers and instruments. Here’s an appropriately frosty instrumental performance by Norwegian trumpet virtuosa Tine Thing Helseth (pronounced Tina Ting Helsett) and her accompanists Elise Båtnes on violin and Birgitte Volan Håvik on harp:

See if you can follow along in Rossetti’s text and figure out how to sing it with that musical accompaniment:

In the Bleak Midwinter

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,
A breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

What marvelous musical discoveries have you been making in your homeschool during this delightful Holiday Music Month? 🎄 🎵

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

❡ Musical memories: If you’d like to fill your homeschool with some beautiful background sounds during the holidays, why not tune in to the 24-hour Holiday Channel from WQXR, the famous classical music radio station in New York City. “Enjoy the sounds of orchestras, choirs, brass ensembles and more as we celebrate the sacred and secular sounds of the season.” I have it on as background music almost all day at this time of year. Won’t you join me? 📻

❡ Olden times and ancient rhymes: What did Christmas sound like a hundred years ago and more? Find out from this wonderful collection of historic recordings of American Christmas music, brought together by the Library of Congress. 🎄

❡ Lift every voice: This is one of our occasional posts on Homeschool Arts & Music. Add your name to our weekly mailing list and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🗞

🔎 HOMESCHOOL RESEARCH & NEWS – December 2021

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On the third Tuesday of each month we post a quick roundup of some recent academic publications and news about homeschooling, offered for your interest. These are typically university research papers, and they may have a positive, negative, or neutral outlook on home education. The title links generally point to the full text of each publication, which is often a printable pdf file. In some cases, a paid subscription may be required to read the whole article. The article abstracts or introductions below are quoted in full whenever possible, without editing.

In addition to the academic papers below, homeschoolers may also be interested in an encouraging essay by libertarian homeschool advocate Alice Salles: “We’ve Only Just Begun to See the Benefits of the New Surge in Homeschooling.” “While legacy media focused on cases of parents keeping their kids home out of fear of covid, longtime critics of the public school system argued that the pandemic actually helped to expose parents to the abuses and shortcomings that have long plagued public education.”

We have six regular items this month.

(1) Reasons for Choosing Homeschooling and Approaches Most Used: A Qualitative Content Analysis — S. Abuzandah (2021)

Abstract: The purpose of this content analysis was to review home school literature regarding homeschooling approaches, parents’ motivations for selecting homeschooling and technology integration. The main aim of this study was to use content analysis of some home school literature as a way to determine best practices, approaches, and reasons for choosing a homeschooling approach. The review of literature established that religion and morality, the need to align personal values with environmental and societal values, and school violence and overcrowding were the primary rationale for parents choosing homeschooling. The most common technique used was classical education with cooperative schooling approach. The second approach most commonly used was computer-based homeschooling, followed by the traditional method, followed by the public and private approach. Additionally, this study found that there has been an increase between technology integration and homeschooling, especially in learn and practice approaches, but also in the use of social networking websites to connect homeschooling families with broader networks. Due to the adoption and diffusion of modern technologies, parents have perceived homeschooling as a good option for their families and children. To conclude, through this study, new information was gathered regarding the integration of instructional technology by children learning from home. Therefore, this research study significantly contributes to the existing academic literature on the topic. The study is rich in information that can benefit the current and aspiring homeschoolers by explaining the curriculum amount and available homeschooling opportunities, as well as the benefits and constraints of technology.

(2) Ownership Versus Partnership Parenting: Parenting Styles Within the Homeschooling Movement — K.H. Averett & G. Lacy (2021)

Abstract: Scholars of the family agree on four main parenting styles, varying along two axes: responsiveness and control. Parental involvement and child autonomy fall under the control axis and are assumed to have an inverse relationship; where parental involvement is high, child autonomy is assumed to be low, and vice versa. Drawing on 22 in-depth interviews and participant observation at five homeschooling conferences, we examine the dominant parenting philosophies and practices of conservative Christian homeschoolers (which we call “ownership parenting”) and secular unschoolers (which we call “partnership parenting”). We demonstrate that the inverse relationship between parental involvement and child autonomy is not present in partnership parenting, which is marked by both high parental involvement and high child autonomy. Unschooling thus represents an empirical case against the theoretical conflation of parental involvement and child autonomy; a new expanded typology is thus posited that divides the control axis into two distinct axes.

(3) Homeschooling Response: Questioning Presumptions of the Primordial State — M.P. Donnelly (2021)

Introduction: In her article entitled Homeschooling and the Right to Education: Are States Fulfilling Their Constitutional Obligations to Homeschooled Students?, Sonia Muscatine argued that all states have a duty to regulate homeschooling sufficiently to ensure that every homeschooled child is receiving an “effective and appropriate” education. She acknowledged that education is not a federal constitutional right but posited that upon conveying a right to education, each state incurs a federal constitutional duty under the Fourteenth Amendment to ensure fulfillment of this “non-waivable” right to public education. Thus, Muscatine reasoned, states that do not affirmatively regulate home education by collecting evidence of educational outcomes have “abdicated” their constitutional responsibility. […] In this Counterpoint, I explore two presumptions at the core of Muscatine’s prescription for state regulation of homeschooling.

(4) Homeschooling: A Formula For Establishing Islamic Education In Remote Communities In Indonesia — H. Fakhrurrozi & S. Mashuri (2021)

Abstract: The disparity in the equality of education in Indonesia, especially in backwoods areas, is one of the problems of education in Indonesia. One of the Government’s action in overcoming this gap is by distributing teachers to remote areas of the country. In addition, the government also stipulates several laws and regulations as the formal legality of education in backwoods communities. This study aims to explore the possibility of implementing the homeschool education model (homeschooling) for backwoods communities, as an effort to applied Islamic subject matter and prevail education in Indonesia. This study uses a naturalistic phenomenological approach, using triangulation as one of the data analyses. The research location is in Hansibong, a backwoods hamlet in the Sojol mountains of Parigi Moutong district, Central Sulawesi. The results of this study found that education in Hansibong is carried out informally within the family. Learning process is held in a traditional way, using very minimal of media, methods and subject matter. The material taught is limited to morality values, reading and writing, arithmetic and the ability to survive in nature. Islamic education in its function as a strengthening of cognitive intelligence, morals, spirituality and nationality has not been provided in learning at home. As a research implication, a homeschooling socialization effort is needed so that the student community can continue to a higher level. The implementation of homeschooling that is not in accordance with the technical guidelines issued by the government will only disserve students because learning outcomes cannot be equalized with existing education levels.

(5) Homeschooling in Alberta: The Choices, Contexts, and Consequences of a Developing System [Presentation to the Public School Boards’ Association of Alberta] — C. Riep (2021)

Conclusions: All home education programs in Alberta should be supervised by an accredited school authority. Third-party contractors should not be permitted to supervise home education programs because they are not registered or accredited by the provincial government.

(6) Homeschooling: The Next Generation of Legal Debate — P.A. Zirkel (2021)

Introduction: In the Winter 2020 issue of this Journal, Sonia Muscatine, a legal manager at a financial investment company, proposed the adoption of results-focused state regulation of homeschooling. More specifically, she suggested that the first step be data collection for longitudinal tracking of student outcomes including, but not at all limited to, standardized testing. The stated purpose of her proposal — “to determine (1) which [homeschooling] alternatives … are effective and appropriate and (2) whether each [homeschooled] child is in fact receiving such an education” — seems sensible on its face, but the proposal does not explain how this first step would be effectively implemented and enforced. Moreover, the specification of the second and culminating step is limited to “implementing appropriate requirements for homeschools that are based on actual information.” The unaddressed problems are in the reliability, validity, and completeness of the “actual information,” and its interpretation and implementation in terms of the specific contents of “appropriate requirements.”

What interesting homeschool news and academic research have you come across this Orion Term? 👩🏻‍🎓

❡ See for yourself: If you’d like to investigate the current academic literature on homeschooling directly, the best place to start is Google Scholar, the special academic search engine from Google. Just enter a search term or phrase of interest (“homeschool,” “unschooling,” “classical homeschooling,” “deschooling,” etc.), and Google Scholar will return a list of academic publications that mention your topic. 🔍

❡ Explore more: For a comprehensive review of homeschooling research prior to 2020, see the paper by Kunzman & Gaither that is linked in our Research & News post for July 2020. 📖

❡ Stay in the loop: This is one of our regular Homeschool Research & News posts. Add your name to our weekly mailing list and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🗞

🗓 ⛄️ WINTER IS HERE! (Astronomically Speaking)

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Today is the December solstice — we call it the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere, but in the southern hemisphere it’s the summer solstice. The winter solstice is (in astronomical terms) the first day of winter, just as the summer solstice is (in astronomical terms) the first day of summer.

Whenever you’re investigating things temporal or calendrical, timeanddate.com is always a good place to start:

The seasons occur because the earth’s axis of daily rotation is not quite perpendicular to the plane of the earth’s annual orbit around the sun (it’s tilted by about 23º). The two solstices occur at the points in the orbit when the axis of rotation is tilted most directly away from the sun (in December, on the first day of northern-hemisphere winter) and most directly toward the sun (in June, on the first day of northern-hemisphere summer). The two equinoxes, in March and September, occur when the earth’s axis of rotation is “sideways” to the sun (so to speak), making the intervals of daylight and darkness equal (or very nearly so).

The two equinoxes (March and September) and the two solstices (June and December) are defined with respect to the earth’s position in its annual orbit around the sun. (Image: timeanddate.com.)

NASA has a fun educational crossword puzzle for kids that’s filled with seasonal vocabulary — solstices, equinoxes, and more.

Solstices, equinoxes, orbits, and more! A seasonal crossword puzzle for kids. (Image: NASA.)

You can print out your own copy at NASA’s “For Educators” website. And you can find many more technical facts and figures about solstices and equinoxes on page 385 in your recommended homeschool almanac.

What calendrical events and astronomical alignments will you be marking in your homeschool this Orion Term? 😊

❡ Watchers of the skies: Teaching your students about the seasons and the stars is one of the simplest and most enduring gifts you can give them. Your recommended River Houses astronomy guide has descriptions and maps of all the constellations that point out the seasonal 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 month and spend some quality homeschool time beneath the starry vault. 🔭

❡ Here, said the year: This is one of our regular posts on Homeschool Astronomy and on Homeschool Terms & Calendars. Add your name to our weekly mailing list and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the homeschool year. 🍂 ⛄️ 🌷 ⛱

🎵 🎄 A CHRISTMAS EVE INVITATION: Carols from King’s College

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Please join me Christmas Eve morning (10:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern, 7:00 a.m. Pacific, and 3:00 p.m. GMT) to listen to the annual broadcast of the Festival of Lessons and Carols from King’s College at Cambridge University. The King’s College festival was established in 1918 during World War I and it has been broadcast on radio since 1928. It is now heard over the air and via the Internet on Christmas Eve every year by millions of people around the world. You and your students can be among them.

In the United States the easiest way to listen is through the live feed available from Minnesota Public Radio, which has been broadcasting the King’s festival for more than forty years:

“An annual and beloved Christmas tradition, A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is an extraordinary and memorable live service of words and music from the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, England. Audiences will share in a live, worldwide Christmas Eve broadcast of a service of biblical readings, carols and related seasonal music (anthems a cappella and with organ accompaniment, and congregational hymns), presented by one of the world’s foremost choirs of men and boys (directed by Daniel Hyde), and performed in an acoustically and architecturally renowned venue.” (classicalmpr.org)

You can also tune in directly via BBC Radio Four, the original broadcaster in the United Kingdom:

The radio broadcast will be audio only, but there are many video versions of this annual event available from previous years, including a special edition made for the 2018 centennial.

This is how the King’s College festival begins each year, with a single chorister — the same age as your students, perhaps — singing the opening lines of the carol “Once in Royal David’s City,” written in 1848 by Cecil Frances Alexander and Henry John Gauntlett. After that solo minute, the full choir comes in, and then the organ and the entire congregation:

The King’s College Chapel, beautifully shown in that video, was built mostly from 1446–1515 and is one of the most famous architectural spaces in the world. It’s not a museum — it’s the working chapel of King’s College, one of the constituent colleges of Cambridge University, and like every college, King’s fills up each year with hundreds of students from around the world studying history and biology and philosophy and literature and all other subjects in between. The older members of the choir and the instrumentalists you hear are generally music students in the college.

You can download a printable copy of this year’s order of service on the King’s College Chapel’s website to follow along and learn about each piece as it is performed or sung.

So please join me this Friday, Christmas Eve, and listen along with millions of others around the world to this wonderful annual broadcast.

What marvelous musical discoveries have you been making in your homeschool during this delightful Holiday Music Month? 🎄 🎵

❡ Musical memories: If you’d like to fill your homeschool with some beautiful background sounds during the holidays, why not tune in to the 24-hour Holiday Channel from WQXR, the famous classical music radio station in New York City. “Enjoy the sounds of orchestras, choirs, brass ensembles and more as we celebrate the sacred and secular sounds of the season.” I have it on as background music almost all day at this time of year. Won’t you join me? 📻

❡ Olden times and ancient rhymes: What did Christmas sound like a hundred years ago and more? Find out from this wonderful collection of historic recordings of American Christmas music, brought together by the Library of Congress. 🎄

❡ Lift every voice: This is one of our occasional posts on Homeschool Arts & Music. Add your name to our weekly mailing list and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🗞

📡 🎅 🦌 HOMESCHOOL HOLIDAYS: NORAD’s Santa Tracker is Up!

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When will your Christmas presents arrive? Don’t ask Amazon, ask NORAD! The North American Air Defense Command’s annual Santa Tracker is up, and you and your students can watch the countdown to Christmas Eve midnight when NORAD’s radar will start to follow Santa and his reindeer as they deliver millions of presents all around the world.

Beginning over the Pacific Ocean (which is where Christmas Day itself first begins), Santa’s course will be on display in real time right here:

NORAD has been tracking Santa for more than sixty years. Here’s an amusing three-minute report from some of the children of NORAD service-members that explains how it all works:

What grand geographical explorations and gigantic global excursions will you be making in your homeschool this Orion Term? 🎅 😊

❡ Come, here’s the map: You can use this fun annual event to teach some informal geography lessons! Just get out your family atlas and have your students put a little post-it markers on the map to designate Santa’s route across the time zones. (And you can use it to learn about time zones, too — there’s a whole atlas plate showing the world’s time zones!) 📡 🎅 🌏🌍🌎

❡ There is magic in it: This is one of our occasional Homeschool Holidays & Anniversaries posts. Add your name to our weekly mailing list and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🗞