![[The River Houses]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/arms-icon-100x100.png "The River Houses"){kind=icon}
![[Cygnus Constellation Chart (1822)]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/cygnus-jamieson-1822-150x124.jpg)
We divide the homeschool year into four three-month terms in the River Houses. Today is the first day of Cygnus Term, our fall term, named for the Great Swan of the Heavens. Cygnus Term runs from September through November.
🔭 Homeschool Astronomy: Celestial Lessons for the Whole Year
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken.
Little homeschool astronomy lessons and easy teaching tips on stars, planets, constellations, comets, meteors, galaxies, space exploration, and more, from the River Houses Homeschool Network. Use these posts to enrich your homeschool science teaching all through the year, and subscribe to our free homeschool newsletter to get more little homeschool science lessons delivered right to your mailbox every week. 📫
❡ Star bright: This Homeschool Astronomy collection also includes our special series of monthly Great Star lessons that introduce you and your students to twelve of the brightest stars of the northern hemisphere night sky. 🌟
![[Thomas Carlyle on Knowing the Constellations]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/carlyle-astronomy-1024x222.png)
🌎 🌌 SUNDAY STATES BONUS: The Earth, Solar System, and Universe
![[Flags of the World]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/world-flags-148x150.png)
Thank you for taking a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with us over the past year! We conclude today with one extra bonus: the Earth itself and the amazing Universe beyond. A new world tour for the upcoming homeschool year will begin next month!
🔭 OUR HOMESCHOOL ASTRONOMY YEAR is Complete!
![[Homeschool Astronomy]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/emoji-telescope-large-150x150.png)
Our explorations of stars and planets, comets and meteors, galaxies and more, are now complete for the homeschool year! What astronomical apparitions will you and your students be examining in the new homeschool year that begins in September?
🌟 STAR BRIGHT: Vega for August and the End of the Homeschool Year
![[Lyra Star Chart]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/lyra-chart-150x138.png)
Make one last homeschool friend for the summer: our blue-white neighbor-star Vega in the constellation Lyra the Lyre, one of the brightest stars in the northern hemisphere night sky.
🖋 🌠 WONDERFUL WORDS: A Star in a Stoneboat
“From following walls I never lift my eye, / Except at night to places in the sky / Where showers of charted meteors let fly.” (Our clever homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Robert Frost, for this month’s Perseid meteor shower.)
🌠 HOMESCHOOL ASTRONOMY: Perseid Meteors for August
Point your homeschool students to the constellation Perseus this month for the annual Perseid meteor shower, the lovely trail of debris left behind by Comet Swift–Tuttle.
🔭 WATCHERS OF THE SKIES: Homeschool Astronomy for August
Our homeschool review of the educational wonders that you and your students can watch for in the northern hemisphere night sky during the month of August.
🚀 🌕 HOMESCHOOL SCIENCE: Apollo 11 Moon Landing Resources
Share some great educational resources with your homeschool students this month for the July 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.
🌟 STAR BRIGHT: Arcturus and Boötes for July
![[Boötes Star Chart]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/arcturus-122x150.png)
Introduce your homeschool students to the ancient orange giant Arcturus in the constellation Boötes the Herdsman this month, one of the brightest stars in the northern hemisphere’s night sky, and make it their friend for life.
🌕 HOMESCHOOL SCIENCE: Lunar Samples for Your Local Library
![[Apollo Moon Rover Stamp 1971]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/apollo-moon-rover-stamp-1971-150x95.jpg)
With help from your local librarians you might be able to bring some real moon rocks to your town, courtesy of NASA. It’s a homeschool project worth exploring!
🌝 KNOW YOUR MOONS 🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑
![[Full Moon Stamp]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/us-moon-stamp-2016-150x150.jpg)
Celebrate the anniversary of the first moon landing in 1969 by teaching your homeschool students the phases of the moon. You can even use emojis to do it!
🔭 WATCHERS OF THE SKIES: Homeschool Astronomy for July
Our homeschool review of the educational wonders that you and your students can watch for in the northern hemisphere night sky during the month of July.
🌠 JOIN A HOMESCHOOL SCIENCE PROJECT for International Asteroid Day!
You and your students can help astronomers study the shapes and orbits of real asteroids in space, right from the comfort of your little home academy. How cool is that?
🔭 ☄️ HOMESCHOOL ASTRONOMY: The Most Beautiful Objects in the Universe
Happy birthday to the great French astronomer Charles Messier (1730–1817), who cataloged some of the most beautiful nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies in the universe — so he could ignore them.
🗓 ⛱ SUMMER IS HERE! (Astronomically Speaking)
![[Equinoxes & Solstices]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/equinox-solstice-150x100.png)
Summer is here! If you’re in the northern hemisphere, that is. If you’re in the southern hemisphere, winter is here! Happy June solstice to homeschoolers everywhere!
🌅 HOMESCHOOL SEASONS: Watch the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge
Follow a live broadcast of the summer-solstice sunset and sunrise at Stonehenge, the ancient astronomical landmark in southern England.
📺 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!)
🌟 STAR BRIGHT: Spica and Virgo for June
![[Virgo Star Chart]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/virgo-chart-150x127.png)
Make the acquaintance of the young blue-white giant Spica in the constellation Virgo this month, one of the brightest stars in the northern hemisphere sky, and make it your homeschool friend for life.
🔭 WATCHERS OF THE SKIES: Homeschool Astronomy for June
Our homeschool review of the educational wonders that you and your students can watch for in the northern hemisphere night sky during the month of June.
🗓 💪 HERCULES TERM and the River Houses Homeschool Year
![[Hercules Constellation Chart (1822)]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/hercules-jamieson-1822-150x125.jpg)
We divide the homeschool year into four three-month terms in the River Houses. Today is the first day of Hercules Term, our summer term, named for the Great Hero of the Heavens. Hercules Term runs from June through August.
🖋 🌟 WONDERFUL WORDS: Hymn to the North Star
“A beauteous type of that unchanging good, / That bright eternal beacon, by whose ray / The voyager of time should shape his heedful way.” (An extra astronomical homeschool poem-of-the-week, from William Cullen Bryant, for Polaris, our Great Star for the month of May.)
🚀 HOMESCHOOL ASTRONOMY: Skylab, America’s First Space Station
Do you have a future astronaut in your homeschool? Then why not take a few minutes this week to learn about Skylab, America’s first space station, launched on this day in 1973.
🌟 STAR BRIGHT: Polaris and Ursa Minor for May
![[Ursa Minor Star Chart]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/polaris-ursa-minor-chart-135x150.png)
Make the acquaintance of the pole star Polaris in the constellation Ursa Minor this month, one of the most important stars in the northern hemisphere sky, and make it your homeschool friend and sky-mark for life.
🔭 WATCHERS OF THE SKIES: Homeschool Astronomy for May
Our homeschool review of the educational wonders that you and your students can watch for in the northern hemisphere night sky during the month of May.
🌟 STAR BRIGHT: Regulus and Leo for April
![[Leo Star Chart]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/leo-regulus-chart-122x150.png)
Make the acquaintance of “the little king” Regulus in the constellation Leo the Lion this month, one of the brightest stars in the northern hemisphere night sky, and make it your homeschool friend for life.
🔭 WATCHERS OF THE SKIES: Homeschool Astronomy for April
Our homeschool review of the educational wonders that you and your students can watch for in the northern hemisphere night sky during the month of April.
🖖 HOMESCHOOL HOLIDAYS: Happy First Contact Day!
“Sure on this shining night / I weep for wonder wand’ring far alone / Of shadows on the stars.” (On this day in the year 2063, in a remote area near Bozeman, Montana, a Vulcan survey ship will make first contact with the human race. Perhaps some of today’s homeschoolers will be there to see it.)
