Happy July to all our homeschool readers and friends! Here are some wonderful educational opportunities and teaching traditions that you and your students can watch for in the homeschool month ahead. 🔍
The month of July was originally called Quintilis (“Fifth”) back when the ancient Roman calendar considered the spring equinox in March to be the beginning of the year. (That’s why we still have September, “Seventh,” followed by October, “Eighth,” and so on.) The fifth month was renamed July in honor of Julius Caesar in the year 44 B.C. You can learn more about different kinds of modern and historical calendars on pages 357–363 in your River Houses almanac. 📚
A prognostication:
If the first of July be rainy weather
’Twill rain more or less for four weeks together.
Our Sunday states-of-the-week for July will be Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona, and our countries will run from Tanzania to Venezuela. 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 Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, and Uruguay this month — our River Houses World Heritage Calendar will point the way. 🗺
We’ll have homeschool poems this month from William Ralph Emerson (for Independence Day), Phillis Wheatley (for the newly independent republic), Emily Dickinson (for July), and Gerard Manley Hopkins (for his birthday). 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 Emberizid Sparrows (twice over); the Cardinals; and the Blackbirds. 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. 🦅
Our monthly Great Star for July is Arcturus (alpha Boötis), 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 July is the Historical and Geographical 900s — 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. 📸
⬩ 3 July (M): Lunar Society Report 🌕
⬩ 4 July (Tu): Independence Day 🇺🇸
⬩ 20 July (Th): Gregor Mendel’s birthday, 1822 · First Moon Landing, 1969 👨🚀
And, sadly, don’t forget:
Do what we can, summer will have its flies.
What calendrical events and annual apparitions will you be marking in your homeschool this July? 😊
❡ Thirty days hath September: This is one of our regular posts about the seasons, months, and terms that make up the River Houses Homeschool Year. Add your name to our free mailing list to get more great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox every week. 🗞
❡ Homeschool calendars: We have a whole collection of free, printable, educational homeschool calendars and planners available on our main River Houses calendar page. They will all help you create a light and easy structure for your homeschool year. Give them a try today! 🗓
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