![[The River Houses]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/arms-icon-100x100.png "The River Houses"){kind=icon}
![[Homeschool Photography Icon]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/camera-flash-emoji-150x150.png)
Calling all homeschool photographers! The Wikimedia Commons Photo Challenge is a great way for enthusiastic homeschool photography students to develop their skills and gain some recognition for their work. This month’s themes are “Leatherwork” and “Ovals.” Take a look!
🎵 🎉 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: The Old Year Now Away is Fled
![[Holiday Music]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/holiday-music-150x100.jpg)
“Let’s merry be this day, / And let us now both sport and play, / Hang grief, cast care away, / God send you a happy new year!” (An ancient new-year carol sung to the tune “Greensleeves,” by the great countertenor Alfred Deller, for Homeschool Holiday Music Month.)
🖋 ❄️ WONDERFUL WORDS: “What so soon will wake and grow”
“They could not grasp it if they knew, / What so soon will wake and grow / Utterly unlike the snow.” (Our hopeful homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Philip Larkin, for all things born in January.)
🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Jean Lafitte National Historical Park
![[Homeschool American Heritage]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/america-250-150x120.jpg)
For America’s 250th anniversary, discover the history and landscape of the United States. This week: Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in Louisiana.
🗓 🎉 ❄️ HAPPY HOMESCHOOL JANUARY from the River Houses!
Happy January and Happy New Year! Here’s our monthly review of all the wonderful educational opportunities, little lessons, and teaching traditions you can look for in the homeschool month ahead.
🏡 WELCOME! (Pinned Post)
![[The River Houses]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/emoji-house-with-garden-150x150.png)
First time visitor? We post a wide range of easy-to-use educational ideas and “little lessons” that will enrich your homeschooling schedule all through the year. Please subscribe to our free homeschool newsletter! (It’s just one message a week with no spam.)
There’s a wealth of wonderful material here on our website — everything from homeschool astronomy to books and libraries to language and literature to geography, natural history, homeschool calendars, and more. The materials we’re developing are going to become the foundation for a new type of homeschool network made up of friendly local groups called “Houses” (just like in Harry Potter). Make yourself at home! 😊
🖋 🔔 WONDERFUL WORDS (and Sounds!): Ring Out, Wild Bells!
“Ring out the old, ring in the new, / Ring, happy bells, across the snow: / The year is going, let him go; / Ring out the false, ring in the true.” (Join Tennyson and some skillful bell-ringers to ring in the new year in your homeschool.)
🖋 🍻 WONDERFUL WORDS (and Music!): Auld Lang Syne
“We two once ran along the hills and picked the daisies fine; / But we’ve wandered many a weary foot since those days of long ago.” (Our celebratory homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Robert Burns, for auld lang syne.)
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 29 December 2024
![[Weekly Homeschool Almanac]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/calendar-generic-150x88.png)
Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: New Years, Twelfth Nights, new calendars, missing planets, close approaches, pelagic birds, winter poems, Guinean rivers, a toast to war and peace, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Louisiana, Guatemala, Guyana, and More
![[Louisiana State Bird & Flower]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/louisiana-stamp-1982b-99x150.png)
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Louisiana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Guyana. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
🗡♗ HOMESCHOOL HISTORY: Murder in the Cathedral
Take ten minutes today to teach your students the story of Archbishop Thomas Becket, whose murder on the 29th of December in the year 1170 has loomed large in the Western imagination for nearly a thousand years.
🎵 🎄 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: The Sussex Mummers’ Carol
“God bless your house, your children too, / Your cattle and your store; / The Lord increase you day by day / And send you more and more.” (The Sussex Mummers’ Carol, from Percy Grainger and others, for Homeschool Holiday Music Month.)
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Tropicbirds, Loons, & Albatrosses
![[Homeschool Science & Nature Study]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/birds-tropicbirds-150x90.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 water-loving Tropicbirds, Loons, and Albatrosses.
🎵 🌹 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming
“It came, a flow’ret bright, / Amid the cold of winter, / When half spent was the night.” (An ancient German carol that has been translated into many languages, for Homeschool Holiday Music Month.)
🎵 🌟 🐑 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: The Shepherd’s Carol
“We stood on the hills, Lady, / Our day’s work done, / Watching the frosted meadows / That winter had won.” (A Christmas night carol, from Bob Chilcott and Clive Sansom, for Homeschool Holiday Music Month.)
🌊 WONDERFUL WORDS: “It was a short, cold Christmas”
Herman Melville reminds us that even on Christmas Day, somewhere in the world there are ships and sailors heading out to sea.
🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Hopewell Culture National Historical Park
For America’s 250th anniversary, discover the history and landscape of the United States. This week: Hopewell Culture National Historical Park in Ohio.
🌎 HOMESCHOOL SCIENCE & HISTORY: Earthrise
![[Earthrise, 24 December 1968]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/NASA-Apollo8-Dec24-Earthrise-150x150.jpg)
Every smart homeschool student should be able to recognize one of the most famous photographs in history, taken from lunar orbit on this day in 1968.
🦦 🎄 HAVE YOURSELF AN OTTERIFIC CHRISTMAS!
![[Christmas with Horace and Friends]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/horace-christmas-150x96.jpg)
Our mascot Horace the River Otter wishes you and yours, and homeschoolers everywhere, a merry, peaceful, and positively otterific Christmas.
🎵 🎄 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: Hallelujah!
Introduce your homescholars (in just five minutes) to one of the world’s most famous pieces of classical music, from George Frideric Handel, for our Homeschool Holiday Music Month.
🖋 🎅 WONDERFUL WORDS: ’Twas the Night Before Christmas
![[Santa]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/santa-stamp-1972-96x150.jpg)
“The children were nestled all snug in their beds; / While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.” (Our festive homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Clement Clarke Moore, for Christmas Eve of course!)
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 22 December 2024
Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: Christmas days, Christmas carols, Delaware crossings, splendid scientists, remarkable remonstrances, Earth rises, Greek rivers, a toast to Christmas, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Ohio, Germany, Grenada, and More
![[Ohio State Bird & Flower]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ohio-stamp-1982a-105x150.png)
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Ohio, Germany, Ghana, Greece, and Grenada. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
🎵 ❄️ HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: In the Bleak Midwinter
“Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; / Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, / In the bleak midwinter, long ago.” (A frosty carol from Christina Rossetti and Gustav Holst, for Homeschool Holiday Music Month and the winter solstice.)
🗓 ⛄️ WINTER IS HERE! (Astronomically Speaking)
![[Equinoxes & Solstices]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/equinox-solstice-150x100.png)
Winter is here! If you’re in the northern hemisphere, that is. If you’re in the southern hemisphere, summer is here! Happy December solstice to homeschoolers everywhere!
📡 🎅 🦌 HOMESCHOOL HOLIDAYS: NORAD’s Santa Tracker is Up!
Want to know when Santa will deliver your Christmas presents? Don’t ask Amazon, ask the North American Air Defense Command! (And maybe even learn a little world geography along the way.)
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Gulls, Terns, & Skimmers (Part II)
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 strong-flying Gulls, Terns, and Skimmers (Part II).
