Our homeschool review of the educational wonders that you and your students can watch for in the northern hemisphere night sky during the month of March 2023.
🖋 🌨 WONDERFUL WORDS: An Unexpected “Snow-Storm”
“All friends shut out, the housemates sit / Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed / In a tumultuous privacy of storm.” (A bonus homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Ralph Waldo Emerson, for unexpected blizzards.)
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Tyrant Flycatchers and Becards
Come along on our homeschool tour of North American bird families and pick up some great science and natural history teaching tips along the way. This week: the Tyrant Flycatchers and the Becards.
🖋 🏔 WONDERFUL WORDS: Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
“The river is moving. / The blackbird must be flying.” (Our homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Wallace Stevens, for the earliest migrants of spring.)
🌍 🇲🇬 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: The Royal Hill of Ambohimanga in Madagascar
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 Royal Hill of Ambohimanga in Madagascar.
🗓 🌱 🐰 HAPPY HOMESCHOOL MARCH from the River Houses!
Happy homeschool March! Here are some little lessons, teaching traditions, and wonderful educational opportunities you and your students can watch for this month.
🗓 🦁 LEO TERM and the River Houses Homeschool Year
We divide the homeschool year into four three-month terms in the River Houses. Today is the first day of Leo Term, our spring term, named for the Great Lion of the Heavens. Leo Term runs from March through May.
🏡 WELCOME! (Pinned Post)
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 add your name to our free mailing list! (Just one message a week and 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: Happy Dord Day!
“Lexicógrapher. n.s. [λεξικὸν and γράφω; lexicographe, French.] A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words.” (A humorous homeschool holiday, for all lovers of words and dictionaries.)
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 26 February 2023
Great homeschool teaching tips and little lessons for the week ahead, including: Leonine terms, lexicographical lapses, marvelous mapmakers, thirteen ways, American poets, tyrannical birds, Madagascan rivers, a toast to homecoming, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Michigan, Liechtenstein, Madagascar, and More
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Michigan, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, and Madagascar.
📚 LEARNING THE LIBRARY: Dewey Detectives at Home
Did you know there are secret Dewey Decimal numbers hidden in the books on your very own bookshelves? It’s true! Send your homeschool students on a treasure hunt to find them.
🦜 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Parrots
Come along on our homeschool tour of North American bird families and pick up some great science and natural history teaching ideas along the way. This week: the Old World Parrots, and the African and New World Parrots.
🖋 🔭 WONDERFUL WORDS: Watchers of the Skies
“Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes / He star’d at the Pacific — and all his men / Look’d at each other with a wild surmise — / Silent, upon a peak in Darien.” (Our homeschool poem-of-the-week, from John Keats, for all homeschool stargazers.)
🌍 🇱🇧 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: Ancient Tyre in Lebanon
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 city of Tyre in Lebanon.
🔎 HOMESCHOOL RESEARCH & NEWS – February 2023
Our February 2023 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 five items this month: Derman & Gürlen (2023), Gilpin (2022), Johnson (2022), Lyalikova & Antonov (2022), and Stewart & McCracken (2023).
☀️ 🌍 HOMESCHOOL SCIENCE & HISTORY: Copernicus and His Revolutions
On Copernicus’ birthday, introduce your homeschool students to one of the most important books ever published: “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres” (1543).
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 19 February 2023
Great homeschool teaching tips and little lessons for the week ahead, including: Backyard birds, amazing astronomers, splendid sonnets, ancient cities, dead parrots, Liechtenstein rivers, a toast to The General, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Arkansas, Lebanon, Libya, and More
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Arkansas, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, and Libya.
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Caracaras and Falcons
Come along on our homeschool tour of North American bird families and pick up some great science and natural history teaching tips along the way. This week: the predatory and fast-flying Falcons and Caracaras.
🖋 ☄️ WONDERFUL WORDS: The Truly Great
“Born of the sun, they travelled a short while toward the sun / And left the vivid air signed with their honour.” (Our homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Stephen Spender, for the great birthdays of February.)
🔭 HOMESCHOOL SCIENCE & HISTORY: The Starry Messenger
Remembering one of the great minds of history, the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), on the anniversary of his birth.
🌏 🇰🇬 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: The Silk Road Network in Kyrgyzstan
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 Silk Road Network of the Chang’an–Tianshan Corridor in Kyrgyzstan.
🇺🇸 🦋 HOMESCHOOL HISTORY: Lincoln and Darwin (and Horace)
Our recommended homeschool history encyclopedia is just the thing you need on a notable anniversary like today: the birthday of both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin (in the same year, 1809).
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 12 February 2023
Great homeschool teaching tips and little lessons for the week ahead, including: Bird counts, coloring books, great artists, great scientists, great poems, ancient tombs, Kyrgyz rivers, a toast to love, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Missouri, Kuwait, Latvia, and More
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Missouri, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, and Latvia.
🌟 STAR BRIGHT: Betelgeuse for February
Make the acquaintance of the red giant Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion the Hunter this month — a strange, irregular, enormous variable star — and make it your homeschool friend for life.
