🗓 🍁 🎃 HAPPY HOMESCHOOL OCTOBER from the River Houses!

Happy October 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. 🔍

October with 31 days is the middle month of Cygnus Term, our fall term in the River Houses. Cygnus Term runs from September through November. 🦢 Visit our homeschool calendar page and print out some of our simple educational calendars and planners — they’ll help you create a light and easy structure for your homeschool year. 🗓

The month of October is so named because it was the eighth month (Latin octo, “eight”) of the ancient Roman calendar, which considered the spring equinox in March to be the beginning of the year. (That’s why the previous month was September, “Seventh,” and the next month is November, “Ninth,” and so on.) You can learn more about different kinds of modern and historical calendars in the Calendar section of your River Houses almanac. 📚

October advice:

In October dung your field
And your land its wealth shall yield.

Our Sunday states-of-the-week for October will be Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, and New Hampshire, and our countries will run from Bolivia to China. Print your own River Houses States & Countries Calendar and explore the United States and the whole world with us from Delaware to Hawaii and Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. 🇺🇸 🌎

And our weekly tour of American Heritage Sites this month will also visit the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, and New Hampshire — follow along with us as we tour the country in preparation for the 250th anniversary of American Independence! 🇺🇸

We’ll have homeschool poems this month from John Keats (for autumn), Emily Dickinson (for late bloomers), Robert Frost (for apple season), and Gordon Bok (for late October). 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 the Grebes and Flamingos; the Pigeons and Doves; the Cuckoos, Roadrunners, Anis, and Goatsuckers; and the Swifts and Hummingbirds. 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 October is Alpheratz in Andromeda, which we’ll be writing about next week. Print your own River Houses Stars & Constellations 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 October is the General 000s — 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:

 ⬩ 14 October (M): Columbus Day 🇺🇸
 ⬩ 14 October (M): Battle of Hastings, 1066 ⚔️
 ⬩ 16 October (W): Cross-quarter Day of Cygnus Term 🦢
 ⬩ 17 October (Th): Lunar Society Report 🌕
 ⬩ 25 October (F): St. Crispin’s Day, 1415 🏹
 ⬩ 31 October (Th): Halloween 🎃

And finally, dietary advice for October, courtesy of Richard Saunders’ Apollo Anglicanus almanac (1665):

In this Moneth doth the Body wax dry, and the Brain moist; therefore it behoveth to eat roasted meats often in this Moneth, and drink pleasant Wine, also drink new Wine, and eat pleasant meat often; Goats milk is held to be excellent good for this Moneth, because it purifieth the blood, and cleanseth the Lungs; its good to eat often Appletarts prepared with comfortable Spices and Sugar, for they comfort greatly the stomack. 🍷

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

❡ 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 help you create a light and easy structure for your homeschool year. Give them a try today! 🗓

❡ Support our work: If you enjoy our educational materials, please support us by starting your regular Amazon shopping from our very own homeschool teaching supplies page. When you click through from our page, any purchase you make earns us a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for helping us to keep going and growing! 🛒

❡ Join us! The aim of the River Houses project is to create a network of friendly local homeschool support groups — local chapters that we call “Houses.” Our first at-large chapter, Headwaters House, is now forming and is open to homeschoolers everywhere. Find out how to become one of our founding members on the Headwaters House membership page. 🏡