“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
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
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
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
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!
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
“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
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)
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).
🎵 🎄 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: I Wonder as I Wander
Introduce your homeschool students to an American folk tune that has now become an internationally famous Christmas carol, and invite them to think about how a single piece of music can sound very different under different vocal and instrumental arrangements.
🎵 🎄 A CHRISTMAS EVE INVITATION: Carols from King’s College
The beautiful Festival of Lessons and Carols from King’s College at Cambridge University is broadcast every year on Christmas Eve to millions of people around the world. You and your homeschool students can join them.
🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Shiloh National Military Park in Tennessee
For America’s 250th anniversary, discover the history and landscape of the United States. This week: Shiloh National Military Park in Tennessee.
🔎 HOMESCHOOL RESEARCH & NEWS – December 2024
Our December 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 four items this month, on online homeschooling; homeschooling in India; homeschool politics in Brazil; and homeschooling in the Philippines.
🎵 MARVELOUS MUSIC: It’s Beethoven’s Birthday!
Take a few minutes out of your homeschool schedule today to celebrate an annual international musical milestone, to wit, Beethoven’s Birthday!
🎵 🎄 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: Christmas with William Billings
“Methinks I see an heavenly host / Of angels on the wing; / Methinks I hear their cheerful notes, / So merrily they sing.” (Discover what Christmas sounded like at the time of the American Revolution.)
🖋 🍂 WONDERFUL WORDS: The End of a Season
“The leaves are all dead on the ground, / Save those that the oak is keeping / To ravel them one by one / And let them go scraping and creeping / Out over the crusted snow, / When others are sleeping.” (Our pensive homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Robert Frost, for the end of fall.)