![[The River Houses]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/arms-icon-100x100.png "The River Houses"){kind=icon}
![[Christmas Stamp 2014]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/star-magi-stamp-2014-111x150.jpg)
Invite your students to listen to a number of different performances of this popular American carol in a variety of different styles this week, and help them think through their preferences. It’s a great way to encourage their intellectual and artistic development.
🎵 🎨 Homeschool Arts & Music: Little Lessons for the Whole Year
Great homeschool teaching tips and easy little lessons on arts and music from the River Houses Homeschool Network. Subscribe to our free homeschool newsletter to get posts like these delivered right to your mailbox every week. 📫
❡ Holiday Music Month: This Arts & Music collection includes our special series of December Homeschool Holiday Music Month lessons. 🎵 🎄 🎅
🎵 🚋 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: Walla Walla, Wash., an’ Kalamazoo!
![[Holiday Music]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/holiday-music-150x100.jpg)
“Antelope cantaloupe, ’lope with you!” (A happy family sing-a-long from Walt Kelly, for Homeschool Holiday Music Month.)
🎵 📚 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: Olden Times and Ancient Rhymes
What did Christmas in America sound like a hundred years ago? The National Jukebox at the Library of Congress has the answer for you and your homeschool students.
🎵 🎄 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: Introducing Vince Guaraldi
![[Charlie Brown Stamp 2015]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/charlie-brown-christmas-stamp-2015-150x119.jpg)
The American jazz musician Vince Guaraldi (1928–1976) wrote some of the best-loved Christmas music of our time. Why not introduce your homeschool students to his wonderful work this month.
🎵 🎄 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: What Sweeter Music
“Dark and dull night, fly hence away, / And give the honor to this day, / That sees December turned to May.” (A modern Christmas masterpiece, with ancient words by Robert Herrick and new music by John Rutter, for Homeschool Holiday Music Month.)
🎵 🎄 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: Introducing John Rutter and His Carols
“How do you capture the wind on the water? / How do you count all the stars in the sky? / How can you measure the love of a mother? / Or how can you write down a baby’s first cry?” (Introducing the work of the great modern carol-composer John Rutter, for Homeschool Holiday Music Month.)
📸 PHOTO CHALLENGE for December: “Pastels” and “Footprints”
![[Homeschool Photography Icon]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/camera-flash-emoji-150x150.png)
Calling all homeschool photographers! The Wikimedia Commons Photo Challenge is a great way for enthusiastic homeschool photography students to develop their skills and gain some recognition for their work. This month’s themes are “Pastels” and “Footprints.” Take a look!
🎵 🎄 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: All Those Christmas Clichés
“I want the tree full of toys and tinsel, / I want the wreath on the red front door, / I want the elves in the yard and each sentimental card / Dripping glitter on the floor.” (The great Nancy LaMott wishes you a Merry Christmas.)
🎵 📻 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: The Holiday Channel from WQXR
If you’d like to fill your homeschool with some beautiful background sounds this season, why not tune in to the 24-hour Holiday Channel from WQXR, the famous classical music radio station in New York City. It’s one of the easiest exercises in musical education you can do all year.
🎵 🎄 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH is Here! Good Morrow, Masters All!
“Past three o’clock, / And a cold frosty morning, / Past three o’clock; / Good morrow, masters all!” (Welcome to Homeschool Holiday Music Month! Enjoy a sprightly late-night carol, and learn the traditional call of the winter watchmen.)
🎵 🏡 THANKSGIVING MUSIC: “Rise up, follow me, I will lead you home”
“Through the air there’s a calling from far away, / There’s a voice I can hear that will lead me home.” (Some lovely music and words from Stephen Paulus and Michael Dennis Browne, for homeschool Thanksgiving.)
🎵 🍽 HOMESCHOOL THANKSGIVING: We Gather Together
Take two minutes this week to introduce your homeschool students to a beautiful four-hundred-year-old Dutch folk tune that has become an American Thanksgiving classic.
🎵 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.
📸 PHOTO CHALLENGE for November: “Sidewalk” and “Panning”
Calling all homeschool photographers! The Wikimedia Commons Photo Challenge is a great way for enthusiastic homeschool photography students to develop their skills and gain some recognition for their work. This month’s themes are “Sidewalk” and “Panning.” Take a look!
🖋 🌅 WONDERFUL WORDS (and Music!): Turning Toward the Morning
“If I had a thing to give you, / I would tell you one more time / That the world is always turning / Toward the morning.” (Our reassuring homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Gordon Bok, for late October.)
🏹 🧵 HOMESCHOOL HISTORY: 1066 and All That
Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Hastings in 1066: the beginning of the Norman Conquest of England. Why not use this occasion to introduce your homeschool students to one of the most famous objects that has survived from the Middle Ages: the Bayeux Tapestry.
🎵 🍎 WONDERFUL WORDS (and Music!): My Orchard in Linden Lea
“I be free to go abroad / Or take again my homeward road / To where for me the apple tree / Do lean down low in Linden Lea.” (An extra pomological homeschool poem-of-the-week, from William Barnes and Ralph Vaughan Williams, for apple season and Vaughan Williams’ birthday.)
📸 PHOTO CHALLENGE for October: “Blue & Yellow” and “Recycling”
Calling all homeschool photographers! The Wikimedia Commons Photo Challenge is a great way for enthusiastic homeschool photography students to develop their skills and gain some recognition for their work. This month’s themes are “Blue & Yellow” and “Recycling.” Take a look!
📸 PHOTO CHALLENGE for September: “Roof” and “Accessibility”
Calling all homeschool photographers! The Wikimedia Commons Photo Challenge is a great way for enthusiastic homeschool photography students to develop their skills and gain some recognition for their work. This month’s themes (to begin the new homeschool year) are “Roof” and “Accessibility.” Take a look!
🏡 🎉 A NEW HOMESCHOOL YEAR BEGINS: Let the River Run!
Welcome to a beautiful brand new homeschool year in the River Houses! Let all the dreamers wake the nation.
📸 PHOTO CHALLENGE for August: “Dust” and “Spices”
![[Homeschool Photography Icon]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/emoji-camera-flash-2-150x143.png)
Calling all homeschool photographers! The Wikimedia Commons Photo Challenge is a great way for enthusiastic homeschool photography students to develop their skills and gain some recognition for their work. This month’s themes (to wrap up the current homeschool year) are “Dust” and “Spices.” Take a look!
📸 PHOTO CHALLENGE for July: “Bread” and “Manhole Covers”
Calling all homeschool photographers! The Wikimedia Commons Photo Challenge is a great way for enthusiastic homeschool photography students to develop their skills and gain some recognition for their work. This month’s themes are “Bread” and “Manhole Covers.” Take a look!
🪙 FREE HOMESCHOOL TEACHING MATERIALS from the U.S. Mint!
![[U.S. Mint]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/mint-logo-150x150.png){kind=logo}
The U.S. Mint has a wide variety of free printable educational materials that you can easily drop into your homeschooling schedule this summer. Why not look them over and expand your students’ numismatical horizons.
📺 HISTORICAL DOCUMENTARIES for Your Homeschool Summer
Twelve multi-part masterpieces of the documentarian’s art that you and your homeschool students can watch together and discuss over the summer. (Or at any other time of year!)
🖋 🇺🇸 WONDERFUL WORDS (and Music!): “O! say can you see?”
“Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam, / In full glory reflected now shines on the stream — / ‘Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave / O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.” (Our American homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Francis Scott Key, for Flag Day, the 14th of June.)
📸 PHOTO CHALLENGE for June: “Mushroooms” and “Construction Sites”
Calling all homeschool photographers! The Wikimedia Commons Photo Challenge is a great way for enthusiastic homeschool photography students to develop their skills and gain some recognition for their work. This month’s themes are “Mushrooms” and “Construction Sites.” Take a look!
🖋 🌞 WONDERFUL WORDS (and Music!): “Sumer is i-cumin in”
“Loudly sing, cuckoo!” (Our ancient homeschool poem-of-the-week, anonymously, for the beginning of our summer term.)
