![[The River Houses]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/arms-icon-100x100.png "The River Houses"){kind=icon}
“O let me rise / As larks, harmoniously, / And sing this day thy victories: / Then shall the fall further the flight in me.” (A special soaring homeschool poem-of-the-week, from George Herbert, for Easter.)
🗓 Homeschool Holidays & History: Little Lessons for the Whole Year
Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons on history, holidays, anniversaries, and notable events from the River Houses Homeschool Network. Use these regular posts to enrich your homeschool history curriculum all through the year. Print your own homeschool calendars and planners on our main River Houses calendar page, and subscribe to our free homeschool newsletter to get posts like these delivered right to your mailbox every week. 📫
🌸 HOMESCHOOL HOLIDAYS: Visit the Cherry Blossoms in Washington, D.C.
On March 27th in 1912, the city of Tokyo presented a gift of 3000 cherry trees to the United States to line the banks of the Potomac River and other sites in Washington, D.C., where they and their successors may still be seen today.
🎨 HOMESCHOOL ARTS: Introducing William Morris (1834–1896)
![[William Morris Stamp (2011)]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/william-morris-stamp-2011-150x142.jpg)
Take a few homeschool minutes this week to learn about William Morris, one of the great artistic polymaths of the nineteenth century, on the anniversary of his birth.
🎵 HOMESCHOOL MUSIC: Happy Birthday Bach!
![[Bach Stamp (2000)]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/bach-stamp-2000-147x150.jpg)
Take a few homeschool minutes to introduce your students to a tiny musical masterpiece by one of the world’s great composers, Johann Sebastian Bach, born on this day in 1685.
🎭 HOMESCHOOL HISTORY & LITERATURE: “Lend Me Your Ears!”
![[Comedy & Tragedy]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/comedy-tragedy-masks-emoji-150x150.png)
Why not wrap up this special Julius Caesar Week in your homeschool by viewing and discussing several versions of a famous Shakespearean speech with your students.
🗓 🗡 HOMESCHOOL HISTORY: “The Ides of March are come”
Remembering the Ides of March, the famous date on which the Roman politician, general, and dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C.
🖋 🗡 WONDERFUL WORDS: The Ides of March
![[Constantine Cavafy Stamp]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/cavafy-stamp-1983-104x150.png)
“And if you can’t curb your ambitions, / at least pursue them hesitantly, cautiously. / And the higher you go, / the more searching and careful you need to be.” (Our admonitory homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Constantine Cavafy, for the Ides of March. Beware!)
📡 JOIN A CITIZEN-SCIENCE PROJECT for Einstein’s Birthday
You and your young science students can join the search for undiscovered pulsars in deep space, right from the comfort of your own homeschool living room. (Really!) How cool is that?
📜 HOMESCHOOL LIBRARY LESSONS: A Free Course on the Book of Kells
Here’s a treat for homeschool history and art students: a free course on one of the world’s most famous books, The Book of Kells, from Trinity College in Ireland.
🗡 HOMESCHOOL HISTORY & LITERATURE: ”Beware the Ides of March“
![[Shakespeare Stamp 2016]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/shakespeare-caesar-stamp-2016-150x150.jpg)
Let Shakespeare help you and your students remember one of the most famous dates in ancient history: the Ides of March in 44 B.C.
🎻 HOMESCHOOL MUSIC: Introducing Barber’s Adagio and Agnus Dei
![[Samuel Barber Stamp 1997]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/barber-stamp-1997-150x119.jpg)
Today is the birthday of the great American classical composer Samuel Barber (1910–1981). Introduce your homeschool students to one of his most famous works this week and give them a new treasure for life.
🎉 📖 WONDERFUL WORDS: Happy Dord Day!
“Lexicógrapher. n.s. [λεξικὸν and γράφω; lexicographe, French.] A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words.” (A humorous homeschool holiday, for all lovers of words and dictionaries.)
🇺🇸 PRESIDENTIAL ADVICE: “Drink not nor talk with your mouth full”
![[Washington Stamp 1932]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/washington-stamp-1932-133x150.jpeg)
“Associate yourself with Men of good Quality if you Esteem your own Reputation; for ’tis better to be alone than in bad Company.” (The future President Washington has some advice for your homeschool students.)
☀️ 🌍 HOMESCHOOL SCIENCE & HISTORY: Copernicus and His Revolutions
On Copernicus’ birthday, introduce your homeschool students to one of the most important books ever published: “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres” (1543).
🔭 HOMESCHOOL SCIENCE & HISTORY: The Starry Messenger
Remembering one of the great minds of history, the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), on the anniversary of his birth.
🖋 🌠 WONDERFUL WORDS: The Truly Great
“Born of the sun, they travelled a short while toward the sun / And left the vivid air signed with their honour.” (Our transmigrational homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Stephen Spender, for the great birthdays of February.)
🇺🇸 🦋 HOMESCHOOL HISTORY: Lincoln and Darwin (and Horace)
Our recommended homeschool history encyclopedia is just the thing you need on a notable anniversary like today: the birthday of both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin (in the same year, 1809).
🗓 ⚗️ HOMESCHOOL SCIENCE: Happy Birthday, Dmitri! (Mendeleev, that is)
The father of the Periodic Table of the Elements, the great Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, was born on this day in 1834 near Tobolsk, Siberia. Here are some clever educational ways to remember him in your homeschool.
🖋 ❤️ WONDERFUL WORDS: “Unwind the solemn twine, and tie my Valentine!”
![[Emily Dickinson]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/dickinson-stamp-1971-96x150.jpg)
“Awake ye muses nine, sing me a strain divine!” (Our romantic homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Emily Dickinson, for Valentine Week.)
⏚ 🐖 HOMESCHOOL HOLIDAYS: Happy Groundhog Day!
![[Woodchuck Stamp 1987]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/woodchuck-groundhog-stamp-1987-96x150.jpg)
Happy mid-point of astronomical winter to northern-hemisphere homeschoolers everywhere! In other words, Happy Groundhog Day!
🎵 HOMESCHOOL MUSIC: Happy Birthday Mozart!
Happy birthday to one of the greatest musical composers of all time, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born on this day in 1756 in Salzburg, Austria. Here are some little Mozart lessons that you can share with your homeschool music students this week.
🖋 🌊 HOMESCHOOL HISTORY & LITERATURE: Remembering Challenger
“I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, / And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.” (Our commemorative homeschool poem-of-the-week, from John Masefield, for the Challenger Seven of 1986.)
