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You are here: Home > Homeschool Natural History

🏞 Homeschool Natural History: Little Lessons for the Whole Year

The river is moving.
The blackbird must be flying.

— Wallace Stevens, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”

Great homeschool teaching tips and easy little lessons on birds and natural history from the River Houses Homeschool Network. Add your name to our River Houses mailing list and get posts like these delivered right to your mailbox every week! 😊

❡ Homeschool birds: This Homeschool Natural History collection includes our regular Friday Bird Families posts that introduce you and your students to the birds of North America, as well as our special May posts for our annual Bird Migration Month. 🦅

🦃 🐓 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: “Gallinaceous” Birds

22 September 2023 by Horace the Otter 🦦

Come along on our homeschool tour of North American birds and pick up some great science and natural history lessons along the way. This week: New World Quail, Curassows, Guans, Partridges, Grouse, Turkeys, and Old World Quail.

Filed Under: Friday Bird Families, Homeschool Natural History

🦆 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Ducks, Geese, and Swans (Part II)

15 September 2023 by Horace the Otter 🦦

Come along on our homeschool tour of North American birds and pick up some great science and natural history lessons along the way. This week: the familiar Ducks, Geese, and Swans (Part II).

Filed Under: Friday Bird Families, Homeschool Natural History

🦢 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Ducks, Geese, and Swans (Part I)

8 September 2023 by Horace the Otter 🦦

Come along on our homeschool tour of North American birds and pick up some great science and natural history lessons along the way. This week: the Ducks, Geese, and Swans (Part I).

Filed Under: Friday Bird Families, Homeschool Natural History

🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Getting to Know Your Bird Guide

1 September 2023 by Horace the Otter 🦦

Introducing our year-long homeschool tour of the birds of North America — come follow the flyways with us from coast to coast! This week, for the start of the new homeschool year: getting to know your bird guide.

Filed Under: Friday Bird Families, Homeschool Natural History

🐦 HOMESCHOOL NATURE NOTES: Getting Started with Bird Study and eBird

25 August 2023 by Horace the Otter 🦦

Bird study is one of the best subjects you can take up in a homeschool environment. Here’s a great way for you and your young naturalists to get started.

Filed Under: Friday Bird Families, Homeschool Natural History

🦅 NATURE NOTES: The Beginning of Fall Bird Migration

18 August 2023 by Horace the Otter 🦦

It still feels like summer, but the first signs of fall are beginning to appear all around us. Have your homeschool naturalists seen them?

Filed Under: Friday Bird Families, Homeschool Natural History

🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Our Annual Tour is Complete!

11 August 2023 by Horace the Otter 🦦

Our annual homeschool tour of the birds of North America is complete! Take a look back this week at all the wonderful feathered friends we made, and be sure to tune in next month for a new round of avian explorations for the new homeschool year that begins in September.

Filed Under: Friday Bird Families, Homeschool Natural History

🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Accidental and Extinct Species (To Close the Year)

4 August 2023 by Horace the Otter 🦦

Come along on our homeschool tour of North American birds and pick up some great science and natural history lessons along the way. This week we wrap up the year with a look at a number of accidental and extinct North American birds from your bird guide’s appendix.

Filed Under: Friday Bird Families, Homeschool Natural History

🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Blackbirds, Meadowlarks, Orioles, and Allies

28 July 2023 by Horace the Otter 🦦

Come along on our homeschool tour of North American birds and pick up some great science and natural history lessons along the way. This week: the familiar and widespread Blackbirds, Meadowlarks, Orioles, Grackles, Cowbirds, and their allies.

Filed Under: Friday Bird Families, Homeschool Natural History

🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Cardinals, Grosbeaks, and Allies

21 July 2023 by Horace the Otter 🦦

Come along on our homeschool tour of North American birds and pick up some great science and natural history lessons along the way. This week: the brilliant Cardinals and their allies, including the American Tanagers, Grosbeaks, and Buntings.

Filed Under: Friday Bird Families, Homeschool Natural History

🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Emberizid Sparrows (Part II)

14 July 2023 by Horace the Otter 🦦

Come along on our homeschool tour of North American birds and pick up some great science and natural history lessons along the way. This week: the diverse and ubiquitous Emberizid Sparrows (Part II).

Filed Under: Friday Bird Families, Homeschool Natural History

🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Emberizid Sparrows (Part I)

7 July 2023 by Horace the Otter 🦦

Come along on our homeschool tour of North American birds and pick up some great science and natural history lessons along the way. This week: the diverse and ubiquitous Emberizid Sparrows (Part I).

Filed Under: Friday Bird Families, Homeschool Natural History

🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Tropical Tanagers and the Western Spindalis

30 June 2023 by Horace the Otter 🦦

Come along on our homeschool tour of North American birds and pick up some great science and natural history lessons along the way. This week: the tropical Tanagers and the peculiar Western Spindalis.

Filed Under: Friday Bird Families, Homeschool Natural History

🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Wood-Warblers (Part II)

23 June 2023 by Horace the Otter 🦦

Come along on our homeschool tour of North American birds and pick up some great science and natural history lessons along the way. This week: the tiny and colorful Wood-Warblers (Part II).

Filed Under: Friday Bird Families, Homeschool Natural History

🖋 🚂 WONDERFUL WORDS: “It was late June”

22 June 2023 by Bob O'Hara

“And for that minute a blackbird sang / Close by, and round him, mistier, / Farther and farther, all the birds / Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.” (Our homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Edward Thomas, for late June and the birds of summer.)

Filed Under: Homeschool Language & Literature, Homeschool Natural History, Poems-of-the-Week

🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Wood-Warblers (Part I)

16 June 2023 by Horace the Otter 🦦

Come along on our homeschool tour of North American birds and pick up some great science and natural history lessons along the way. This week: the tiny and colorful Wood-Warblers (Part I).

Filed Under: Friday Bird Families, Homeschool Natural History

🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Finches, Longspurs, and Snow Buntings

9 June 2023 by Horace the Otter 🦦

Come along on our homeschool tour of North American birds and pick up some great science and natural history lessons along the way. This week: the small and familiar Fringillid Finches, and the Longspurs and Snow Buntings.

Filed Under: Friday Bird Families, Homeschool Natural History

🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Wagtails and Pipits

2 June 2023 by Horace the Otter 🦦

Come along on our homeschool tour of North American birds and pick up some great science and natural history lessons along the way. This week: the ground-loving Wagtails and Pipits.

Filed Under: Friday Bird Families, Homeschool Natural History

🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Indigobirds, Old World Sparrows, and Allies

26 May 2023 by Horace the Otter 🦦

Come along on our homeschool tour of North American bird families and pick up some great science and natural history teaching tips along the way. This week: the Indigobirds and Whydahs, the Weavers, the Estrildid Finches, and the Old World Sparrows.

Filed Under: Friday Bird Families, Homeschool Natural History

🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Bulbuls, Starlings, Waxwings, and Allies

19 May 2023 by Horace the Otter 🦦

Come along on our homeschool tour of North American bird families and pick up some great science and natural history teaching ideas along the way. This week: the Bulbuls, Starlings, Waxwings, Silky-Flycatchers, Olive Warblers, and Accentors.

Filed Under: Friday Bird Families, Homeschool Natural History

🐦 WHAT BIRDS ARE MIGRATING Through Your Neighborhood?

12 May 2023 by Horace the Otter 🦦

May is Bird Migration Month in the River Houses. Here’s how you can find out what birds are migrating though your homeschool neighborhood this month (or any month of the year).

Filed Under: Homeschool Natural History

🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Mockingbirds, Catbirds, and Thrashers

12 May 2023 by Horace the Otter 🦦

Come along on our homeschool tour of North American birds and pick up some great science and natural history lessons along the way. This week: the loquacious Mockingbirds, Catbirds, and Thrashers.

Filed Under: Friday Bird Families, Homeschool Natural History

📚 🦉 LIBRARY LESSONS: The Macaulay Library of Natural History

9 May 2023 by Bob O'Hara

Invite your homeschool naturalists to explore the sights and sounds of birds all over the world through the online collections of the Macaulay Library at Cornell University.

Filed Under: Homeschool Books & Libraries, Homeschool Natural History

🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Thrushes

5 May 2023 by Horace the Otter 🦦

Come along on our homeschool tour of North American bird families and pick up some great science and natural history teaching tips along the way. This week: the melodious Thrushes.

Filed Under: Friday Bird Families, Homeschool Natural History

🌳 HOMESCHOOL HOLIDAYS: Happy Arbor Day Weekend!

28 April 2023 by Bob O'Hara

It’s National Arbor Day! Why not celebrate the delightful dendrological occasion by planting a tree in honor of your homeschool this week.

Filed Under: Homeschool Holidays & History, Homeschool Natural History

🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Sylviid Warblers and Allies

28 April 2023 by Horace the Otter 🦦

Come along on our homeschool tour of North American birds and pick up some great science and natural history lessons along the way. This week: the Sylviid Warblers, Leaf Warblers, Grasshopper-Warblers, and Old World Flycatchers and Chats.

Filed Under: Friday Bird Families, Homeschool Natural History

🖋 🌸 WONDERFUL WORDS: Loveliest of Trees

22 April 2023 by Bob O'Hara

“And since to look at things in bloom / Fifty springs are little room, / About the woodlands I will go / To see the cherry hung with snow.” (Our homeschool poem-of-the-week, from A.E. Housman, for the loveliest of trees.)

Filed Under: Homeschool Language & Literature, Homeschool Natural History, Poems-of-the-Week

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