![[The River Houses]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/arms-icon-100x100.png "The River Houses"){kind=icon}
Setting up a bird feeder is one of the simplest and most educational homeschool activities you can do at any time of year. And by tracking the birds you see at your backyard feeder your students can make a real contribution to science through Project FeederWatch.
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Swifts and Hummingbirds
![[Homeschool Science & Nature Study]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/birds-swifts-150x96.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 Swifts and Hummingbirds, aerial acrobats all.
⚗️ HOMESCHOOL SCIENCE: Happy National Mole Day!
![[Metric System Stamp]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/metric-system-stamp-korea-2019-150x115.jpg)
Homeschool science students from coast to coast will want to be sure to celebrate National Mole Day today (10/23) from 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m. All hail the Count of Quaregna and Cerreto!
🖋 🌅 WONDERFUL WORDS (and Music!): Turning Toward the Morning
“If I had a thing to give you, / I would tell you one more time / That the world is always turning / Toward the morning.” (Our reassuring homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Gordon Bok, for late October.)
🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Thomas Stone National Historic Site
![[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 with your homeschool students. This week: the Thomas Stone National Historic Site in Maryland.
🔎 HOMESCHOOL RESEARCH & NEWS for October
![[Homeschool Research Icon]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/research-150x80.jpg)
Our October 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 homeschooling and human rights; homeschooling in Brazil; homeschooling in Ukraine; and special needs homeschooling.
🇺🇸 🇫🇷 HOMESCHOOL HISTORY & GEOGRAPHY: Yorktown 1781
![[Yorktown Stamp]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/yorktown-stamp-1931-150x96.jpg)
Invite your American history students to remember the end of the American Revolution with the British surrender at Yorktown, Virginia, on this day in 1781.
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 19 October 2025
![[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: Shakespearean speeches, marvelous microscopists, ingenious inventors, gospel singers, tiny birds, Bruneian rivers, a toast to heroes of olden times, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Maryland, Brunei, Burundi, and More
![[Maryland State Seal]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/seal-maryland-obverse-150x150.png)
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Maryland, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, and Burundi. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Cuckoos, Roadrunners, Anis, & Goatsuckers
![[Homeschool Science & Nature Study]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/birds-cuckoos-150x111.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 Cuckoos, Roadrunners, Anis, and Goatsuckers. (All birds with strange names!)
🗓 🦢 HAPPY CROSS-QUARTER DAY of Cygnus Term
![[Roman Calendar Mosaic]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/cygnus-mosaic-150x73.jpg)
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, October 16th, is the cross-quarter day of Cygnus Term, our fall term in the River Houses. How are things going in your homeschool?
🖋 🍏 🍎 WONDERFUL WORDS: After Apple-Picking
![[Apple Barrels]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/apple-picking-150x100.jpg)
“I am overtired / Of the great harvest I myself desired.” (Our dreamy homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Robert Frost, for apple season.)
⛏ HOMESCHOOL BOOKS & NATURAL HISTORY: National Fossil Day!
![[Smithsonian Stamp]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/smithsonian-stamp-1946-150x98.jpg)
For National Fossil Day, why not explore a big collection of rare and beautiful books on paleontology made available by the Smithsonian Institution and the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Boston National Historical Park
For America’s 250th anniversary, discover the history and landscape of the United States with your homeschool students. This week: Boston National Historical Park in Massachusetts.
🏹 🧵 HOMESCHOOL HISTORY: 1066 and All That
![[Battle of Hastings]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/1066-hastings-stamp-150x91.jpg)
Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Hastings in 1066: the beginning of the Norman Conquest of England. Why not use this occasion to introduce your homeschool students to one of the most famous objects that has survived from the Middle Ages: the Bayeux Tapestry.
📚 HOMESCHOOL LIBRARIES: Classic Illustrated Children’s Books Online
![[Aesop's Fables]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/babys-aesop-150x108.png)
The Library of Congress has put together a great collection of beautifully illustrated classic children’s books, all available free online. They’re ideal for homeschoolers.
🌐 HOMESCHOOL GEOGRAPHY: The Prime Meridian
![[Prime Meridian Stamp 1984]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/greenwich-prime-meridian-stamp-1984-110x150.jpg)
On this day in 1884, the north-south line running through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England, was established as our planet’s Prime Meridian: the line of 0º longitude. Can your homeschoolers locate it on a globe and explain its significance?
🎵 🍎 WONDERFUL WORDS (and Music!): My Orchard in Linden Lea
![[Vaughan Williams Stamp]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/vaughan-williams-stamp-1972-150x109.jpg)
“I be free to go abroad / Or take again my homeward road / To where for me the apple tree / Do lean down low in Linden Lea.” (An extra pomological homeschool poem-of-the-week, from William Barnes and Ralph Vaughan Williams, for apple season and Vaughan Williams’ birthday.)
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 12 October 2025
Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: Prime meridians, cross-quarter days, pomological poems, great whales, extraordinary explorers, splendid surrenders, Bolivian rivers, a toast to peace, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Massachusetts, Bolivia, Brazil, and More
![[Massachusetts State Seal]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Seal_of_Massachusetts-150x150.png)
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Massachusetts, Bolivia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Botswana, and Brazil. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
🌟 STAR BRIGHT: Alpheratz and Andromeda for October
![[Andromeda Star Chart]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/andromeda-chart-150x141.png)
Make the acquaintance of the young double star Alpheratz in the constellation Andromeda this month — one of the brightest stars in the northern hemisphere sky — and make it your homeschool friend for life.
🕊️ FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Pigeons and Doves
![[Homeschool Science & Nature Study]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/birds-pigeons-150x97.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 familiar Pigeons and Doves.
🐚 WONDERFUL WORDS: “The Frosts were her condition”
![[Gentian Stamp]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/gentian-stamp-1992-97x150.png)
“The Tyrian would not come / Until the North — invoke it.” (Our imperial homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Emily Dickinson, for all late bloomers.)
🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Audubon Birdcraft Museum and Sanctuary
For America’s 250th anniversary, discover the history and landscape of the United States with your homeschool students. This week: the Audubon Society Birdcraft Museum and Sanctuary in Connecticut, the oldest private bird sanctuary in the United States.
📚 LEARNING THE LIBRARY: The General 000s
![[Dewey Decimal Classes]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/dewey-decimal-classes-2-150x90.jpg)
Explore your local library and the whole universe of knowledge with our homeschool tour of the Dewey Decimal system. This month: the General 000s.
🌕 HOMESCHOOL CITIZEN-SCIENCE PROJECTS for October
![[Full Moon]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/full-moon-square-150x147.jpeg)
Our October 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!
🚀 HOMESCHOOL SCIENCE: Remembering Space Pioneer Robert Goddard
![[Robert Goddard Stamp]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/goddard-stamp-1964-150x97.jpg)
Robert Hutchings Goddard, the inventor of the liquid-fueled rocket and the father of modern space flight, was born on this day in 1882 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Invite your young homeschool scientists to learn about him this week.