🗓 💕 💐 HAPPY HOMESCHOOL FEBRUARY from the River Houses!

Happy February to all our homeschool readers and friends! Here are some educational ideas, events, and activities to look for in the homeschool month ahead. 🔍

February with 28 days in each Common Year (and 29 days in each Leap Year) is the third month of Orion Term, our winter term in the River Houses. Orion Term runs from December through February. Visit our homeschool calendar page and print out some of our simple educational calendars and planners — they’ll help you create a light structure for your homeschool year. 🗓

The month of February (Latin mensis Februarius) was the last month of the year in the earliest Roman calendars, which treated the beginning of spring in March as the beginning of the new year. The month’s name is related to the verb februo, to cleanse or purify (especially in a religious sense). Just as we talk about “spring cleaning,” the early Romans regarded February as the month when people ritually cleaned out the old year to prepare for the new. You can learn more about different kinds of modern and historical calendars on pages 357–363 in your River Houses almanac. 📚

A February photograph:

White as an Indian Pipe
Red as a Cardinal Flower
Fabulous as a Moon at Noon
February Hour —

Want to brighten this dark winter month? Then Color Our Collections Week (6–10 February) is for you! 🖍

Our Sunday states-of-the-week for February will be Maine, Missouri, Arkansas, and Michigan, and our countries will run from Kiribati to Madagascar. Print your own River Houses States & Countries Calendar and tour the United States and the whole world with us from Delaware to Hawaii and Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. 🇺🇸 🌎

We’ll be visiting World Heritage Sites in Kenya, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, and Lebanon this month — our River Houses World Heritage Calendar will point the way. 🗺

We’ll have homeschool poems this month from Robert Frost (for deep winter), Emily Dickinson (for Valentine’s Day), Stephen Spender (for famous birthdays), and John Keats (for all watchers of the skies). Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar and join us as we visit with fifty of our favorite friends over the course of the year. ✒️

Our Friday Bird Families posts this month will feature the Trogons and Kingfishers; the Woodpeckers; the Caracaras and Falcons; and the Parrots. Print your own copy of our River Houses Calendar of American Birds, get out your copy of our recommended homeschool bird guide, and follow the flyways with us. 🦅

And speaking of birds, the Great Backyard Bird Count will take place this month from the 17th through the 20th (Friday through Monday) all around the world. It’s a great homeschool activity for the whole family and your participation will make a genuine contribution to science — don’t miss it! 🦉

Our monthly Great Star for February is Betelgeuse (alpha Orionis), which we’ll be writing about next week. Print your own River Houses Star Calendar and join us as we visit twelve high lights of the northern hemisphere night sky and make them friends for life. 🌟

Our Dewey Decimal class for February is the Linguistic 400s — follow along with us (on the first Tuesday of each month) and help your students learn the whole library over the course of the year! 📚

And watch for our monthly Wikimedia Commons Photo Challenge post, coming up in the next few days — it’s a great opportunity for homeschool photographers. 📸

Also coming up this month:

 ⬩ 5 February (Su): Lunar Society Report 🌕
 ⬩ 6–10 February (M–F): Color Our Collections Week 🖍
 ⬩ 8 February (W): Dmitri Mendeleev’s Birthday, 1834 ⚗️
 ⬩ 12 February (Su): Lincoln’s Birthday, 1809 🇺🇸 · Darwin’s Birthday, 1809 🦋
 ⬩ 14 February (Tu): Valentine’s Day 💕
 ⬩ 17–20 February (F–M): Great Backyard Bird Count 🐦
 ⬩ 20 February (M): George Washington’s Birthday (observed), 1732 🇺🇸

And don’t forget:

Surely as cometh the Winter, I know
There are Spring violets under the snow.

What calendrical events and annual apparitions will you be marking in your homeschool this February? 😊

❡ Thirty days hath September: This is one of our regular Homeschool Terms & Calendars posts. Print your own set of River Houses Calendars to follow along with us, and add your name to our weekly mailing list to get more great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🗞

❡ Support our work: If you enjoy the educational materials we distribute each week, please support our work and the noble cause of homeschooling by making a small donation as a Friend of the River Houses! Your support keeps us going and growing! 😊