![[The River Houses]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/arms-icon-100x100.png "The River Houses"){kind=icon}
“Ring out the old, ring in the new, / Ring, happy bells, across the snow: / The year is going, let him go; / Ring out the false, ring in the true.” (Join Tennyson and some skillful bell-ringers to ring in the new year in your homeschool.)
Archives for 2023
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 31 December 2023
![[Weekly Homeschool Almanac]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/calendar-2-150x85.jpg)
Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: New Years, Twelfth Nights, new calendars, new moons, missing planets, winter poems, Dewey decimals, Guatemalan rivers, a toast to war and peace, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Louisiana, Guatemala, Guyana, and More
![[Louisiana State Flag]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/flag-louisiana-2010-150x95.png)
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Louisiana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Guyana. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
🎵 🎄 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: The Sussex Mummers’ Carol
“God bless your house, your children too, / Your cattle and your store; / The Lord increase you day by day / And send you more and more.” (The Sussex Mummers’ Carol, from Percy Grainger and others, for Homeschool Holiday Music Month.)
🗡♗ HOMESCHOOL HISTORY: Murder in the Cathedral
Take five minutes today to teach your students the story of Archbishop Thomas Becket, whose murder on this day in the year 1170 has loomed large in the Western imagination for nearly a thousand years.
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Shearwaters, Petrels, & Storm-Petrels
![[Homeschool Science & Nature Study]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/birds-shearwaters-petrels-150x92.png)
Come along on our homeschool tour of North American birds and pick up some great science and natural history lessons along the way. This week: the Shearwaters, Petrels, and Storm-Petrels, birds of the open ocean.
🖋 🍻 WONDERFUL WORDS (and Music!): Auld Lang Syne
“We two once ran along the hills and picked the daisies fine; / But we’ve wandered many a weary foot since those days of long ago.” (Our celebratory homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Robert Burns, for auld lang syne.)
🌍 🇩🇪 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: Historic Regensburg in Germany
![[Flag of Germany]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/flag-germany-150x90.png)
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 Town of Regensburg in Germany.
🎵 🌹 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming
“It came, a flow’ret bright, / Amid the cold of winter, / When half spent was the night.” (An ancient German carol that has been translated into many languages, for Homeschool Holiday Music Month.)
🎵 🌟 🐑 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: The Shepherd’s Carol
“We stood on the hills, Lady, / Our day’s work done, / Watching the frosted meadows / That winter had won.” (A Christmas night carol, from Bob Chilcott and Clive Sansom, for Homeschool Holiday Music Month.)
🌊 WONDERFUL WORDS: “It was a short, cold Christmas”
Herman Melville reminds us that even on Christmas Day, somewhere in the world there are ships and sailors heading out to sea.
🌎 HOMESCHOOL SCIENCE & HISTORY: Earthrise
![[Earthrise, 24 December 1968]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/NASA-Apollo8-Dec24-Earthrise-150x150.jpg)
Every smart homeschool student should be able to recognize one of the most famous photographs in history, taken from lunar orbit on this day in 1968.
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 24 December 2023
Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: Christmas days, Delaware crossings, splendid scientists, remarkable remonstrances, earth rises, Ghanaian rivers, a toast to Christmas, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Ohio, Germany, Grenada, and More
![[Ohio State Flag]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/flag-ohio-1902-150x92.png)
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Ohio, Germany, Ghana, Greece, and Grenada. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
🎵 🎄 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: Hallelujah!
Introduce your homescholars (in just five minutes) to one of the world’s most famous pieces of classical music, from George Frideric Handel, for our Homeschool Holiday Music Month.
🖋 🎅 WONDERFUL WORDS: ’Twas the Night Before Christmas
“The children were nestled all snug in their beds; / While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.” (Our festive homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Clement Clarke Moore, for Christmas Eve of course!)
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Tropicbirds, Loons, & Albatrosses
![[Homeschool Science & Nature Study]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/birds-tropicbirds-150x90.png)
Come along on our homeschool tour of North American birds and pick up some great science and natural history lessons along the way. This week: the water-loving Tropicbirds, Loons, and Albatrosses.
🎵 ❄️ HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: In the Bleak Midwinter
“Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; / Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, / In the bleak midwinter, long ago.” (A frosty carol from Christina Rossetti and Gustav Holst, for Homeschool Holiday Music Month and the winter solstice.)
🗓 ⛄️ WINTER IS HERE! (Astronomically Speaking)
Winter is here! If you’re in the northern hemisphere, that is. If you’re in the southern hemisphere, summer is here! Happy December solstice to homeschoolers everywhere!
🌍 🇫🇷 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: Chartres Cathedral in France
![[Flag of France]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/flag-france-150x100.jpg)
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: Chartres Cathedral in France.
🎵 🎄 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: I Wonder as I Wander
Introduce your homeschool students to an American folk tune that has now become an internationally famous Christmas carol, and invite them to think about how a single piece of music can sound very different under different vocal and instrumental arrangements.
🔎 HOMESCHOOL RESEARCH & NEWS – December 2023
![[Homeschool Research Icon]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/research-150x80.jpg)
Our December 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, on school psychology; black rural homeschooling; homeschooling in Indonesia; and homeschooling in India.
🎵 🎄 A CHRISTMAS EVE INVITATION: Carols from King’s College
The beautiful Festival of Lessons and Carols from King’s College at Cambridge University is broadcast every year on Christmas Eve to millions of people around the world. You and your homeschool students can join them.
📡 🎅 🦌 HOMESCHOOL HOLIDAYS: NORAD’s Santa Tracker is Up!
Want to know when Santa will deliver your Christmas presents? Don’t ask Amazon, ask the North American Air Defense Command! (And maybe even learn a little world geography along the way.)
🎵 MARVELOUS MUSIC: It’s Beethoven’s Birthday!
Take a few minutes out of your homeschool schedule today to celebrate an annual international musical milestone, to wit, Beethoven’s Birthday!
🎵 🎄 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: Christmas with William Billings
“Methinks I see an heavenly host / Of angels on the wing; / Methinks I hear their cheerful notes, / So merrily they sing.” (Discover what Christmas sounded like at the time of the American Revolution.)
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Gulls, Terns, & Skimmers (Part II)
Come along on our homeschool tour of North American birds and pick up some great science and natural history lessons along the way. This week: the strong-flying Gulls, Terns, and Skimmers (Part II).
