![[The River Houses]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/arms-icon-100x100.png "The River Houses"){kind=icon}
![[Flag of Japan]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/flag-japan-150x100.jpg)
Pay a homeschool visit to a World Heritage Site from one of our countries-of-the-week and learn some great history and geography along the way. This week: the Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara in Japan.
🖍 HOMESCHOOL ARTS: Color Our Collections Week!
![[Color Our Collections]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Color_Our_Collections_web-scaled-150x103.jpeg)
Download a whole year’s worth of free educational coloring booklets from libraries and museums all around the world. It’s one of the best educational art opportunities you can find for your homeschool.
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 28 January 2024
![[Weekly Homeschool Almanac]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/calendar-2-150x85.jpg)
Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: Coloring books, winter poems, groundhog days, American emperors, fishing birds, lunar landers, Middle Eastern rivers, a toast to bravery, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Alabama, Japan, Kenya, and More
![[Alabama State Flag]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/flag-alabama-1895-150x100.png)
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Alabama, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, and Kenya. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
🎵 HOMESCHOOL MUSIC: Happy Birthday Mozart!
Happy birthday to one of the greatest musical composers of all time, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born on this day in 1756 in Salzburg, Austria. Here are some little Mozart lessons that you can share with your homeschool music students this week.
🐦 NATURE NOTES: Join the Great Backyard Bird Count!
![[Great Backyard Bird Count 2024]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/gbbc-poster-2024-116x150.jpg)
Get your homeschool naturalists involved in the Great Backyard Bird Count, an annual international survey that will let you and your students make a real contribution to science. It’s one of the best educational nature activities your can do all year.
🦉 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Barn Owls and Typical Owls
![[Homeschool Science & Nature Study]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/birds-owls-150x95.png)
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 Barn Owls and the Typical Owls.
🌕 HOMESCHOOL “CITIZEN SCIENCE” PROJECTS for January
Our January full-moon report on the many “citizen science” projects around the world that you and your students can participate in from the comfort of your little home academy. Pick one and get started today!
🌍 🇮🇪 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: Sceilg Mhichíl in Ireland
![[Flag of Ireland]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/flag-ireland-150x75.png)
Pay a homeschool visit to a World Heritage Site from one of our countries-of-the-week and learn some great history and geography along the way. This week: the ancient island-monastery of Skellig Michael in Ireland — and its mysterious inhabitant!
🖋 🌊 HOMESCHOOL HISTORY & LITERATURE: Remembering Challenger
“I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, / And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.” (Our commemorative homeschool poem-of-the-week, from John Masefield, for the Challenger Seven of 1986.)
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 21 January 2024
Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: Tall ships, gold mines, Rocky Mountains, classical composers, wise birds, Irish islands, Italian rivers, a toast to lucky labor, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Illinois, Ireland, Jamaica, and More
![[Illinois State Flag]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/flag-illinois-1969-150x90.png)
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Illinois, Ireland, Israel, Italy, and Jamaica. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
🚀 HOMESCHOOL SCIENCE: The Webb Telescope & Other NASA Missions
![[Webb Space Telescope]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/webb-telescope-logo-150x83.png){kind=logo}
Homeschool scientists can discover a world of wonder by keeping track of a NASA mission or two each month, including the James Webb Space Telescope as it explores the early universe.
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Vultures, Ospreys, Hawks, Kites, & Eagles
![[Homeschool Science & Nature Study]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/birds-vultures-150x99.png)
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 Vultures, Ospreys, Hawks, Kites, and Eagles.
🌏 🇮🇳 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: The Elephanta Caves in India
![[Flag of India]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/flag-india-150x100.png)
Pay a homeschool visit to a World Heritage Site from one of our countries-of-the-week and learn some great history and geography along the way. This week: the ancient Elephanta Caves in India.
🔎 HOMESCHOOL RESEARCH & NEWS – January 2024
![[Homeschool Research Icon]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/research-150x80.jpg)
Our January roundup of some recent academic research and news about home education in the United States and around the world, with links to sources. We have three items this month, on urban homeschooling; homeschooling in Japan; and homeschooling in Eastern Europe.
🖋 🇺🇸 WONDERFUL WORDS (and Music!): Lift Every Voice and Sing
“Let our rejoicing rise / High as the listening skies, / Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.” (Our patriotic homeschool poem-of-the-week, from James Weldon Johnson, for the Martin Luther King holiday.)
🗓 🗡 HAPPY CROSS-QUARTER DAY of Orion Term
We divide the homeschool year into four three-month terms, and the midpoint of each term (following old calendrical tradition) is called the “cross-quarter day.” Today is the cross-quarter day of Orion Term, our winter term in the River Houses. How are things going in your homeschool?
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 14 January 2024
Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: Patriotic songs, imperial accessions, romantic prophecies, American originals, majestic birds, first fleets, Indian rivers, a toast to freedom, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Mississippi, India, Iraq, and More
![[Mississippi State Flag]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/flag-mississippi-2021-150x94.png)
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Mississippi, India, Indonesia, Iran, and Iraq. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
🌟 STAR BRIGHT: Capella and Auriga for January
![[Auriga Star Chart]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/auriga-capella-chart-150x141.png)
Make the acquaintance of Capella in the constellation Auriga the Charioteer this month — a nearby four-star system and one of the brightest lights in the northern hemisphere night sky — and make it your homeschool friend for life.
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Herons, Bitterns, Ibises, & Spoonbills
![[Homeschool Science & Nature Study]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/birds-herons-150x105.png)
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 Herons, Bitterns, Ibises, and Spoonbills, all long-legged wading birds.
🌎 🇭🇹 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: Haiti’s National History Park
![[Flag of Haiti]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/flag-haiti-150x90.png)
Pay a homeschool visit to a World Heritage Site from one of our countries-of-the-week and learn some great history and geography along the way. This week: the National History Park and Sans-Souci Palace in Haiti.
🇺🇸 LIBRARY LESSONS: The 118th Congress at the Library of Congress
If your homeschool students want to learn about the operations of the U.S. Congress, there’s no better place to look than on the website of the Library of Congress itself.
🖋 ⛸ WONDERFUL WORDS: A Winter Poem for Homeschool Dads
“She thinks she’ll never / be so happy, for who else will find her graceful, / find her perfect, skate with her / in circles outside the emptied rink forever?” (Our paternal homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Gail Mazur, for all homeschool fathers.)
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 7 January 2023 2024!
Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: Galilean moons, consequential crossings, fairy tales, notable naturalists, paternal poems, great stars, leggy birds, Honduran rivers, a toast to new joys, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Indiana, Haiti, Iceland, and More
![[Indiana State Flag]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/flag-indiana-1917-150x100.png)
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Indiana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, and Iceland. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
