Our River Houses Homeschool Mascot

Between ancient rolling chalk hills the age-old river flows
Where orange and blue cloaked kingfisher over chalk stream feeds.
Water voles hunt and the family of an otter grows.
White-petalled water crowfoot among fresh water reeds
And in clear running brooks the trout, crayfish and grayling swim.

—Barry Stebbings, “River Life”

Horace the River Otter is our official homeschool mascot here in the River Houses, and he has proved to be an adventurous otter indeed.

Horace is named for the ancient Roman poet Horace (65–8 B.C.), who provides the River Houses with our official motto: “Hoc erat in votis” — This was ever my wish. Ancient Horace’s simple rural wish was for A handsome house to lodge a friend, / A river at my garden’s end.

Our Horace is a North American river otter (Lontra canadensis), not one of those salty sea otters. His relatives live in rivers and streams all across the continent, so you might just encounter one of them in your own homeschool travels.

Horace likes to be outdoors and fall is his favorite season.

[Horace in the Fall] — Horace the Otter enjoys the fall.

And of course he loves rivers.

[Horace at the Concord River] — Horace the Otter visits the river where America began.

Horace is quite an intellectual and literary otter.

[Horace at the Emerson House] — Horace the Otter pays a call on his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson.

And he’s also a scientific adventurer — he’s even visited the far side of the moon!

[Horace Explores the Moon] — Horace the River Otter explores the far side of the moon.

And needless to say, he loves books.

[Homeschool Almanac] — Horace the Otter with one of his favorite homeschooling books.

You can get your very own likeness of Horace online from Amazon.com and take him along with you on all your homeschool adventures, nearby and far away. If you do, please take pictures!

We like to imagine a not-so-distant future when Horace will appear from sea to shining sea and in all corners of the earth — the world’s most adventurous otter. 😊

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