The River Houses Homeschool Network

🎥 MOVIES & LIBRARIES: Apollo 11 at the National Archives

9 July 2019 by Bob O'Hara

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-apollo-11-film

The 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing is this month (Saturday the 20th), and one of the best commemorations that has so far appeared is a full-length documentary called simply Apollo 11. It’s showing in some theaters and can be purchased online — I’ve seen it, and I recommend it highly to all homeschool families.

This documentary is based almost entirely on never-before-seen footage of the Apollo 11 mission that is stored in the U.S. National Archives. For this Homeschool Books & Libraries post, here’s a three-minute background video from the National Archives that shows some of the materials that went into the creation of the full-length film, and how the Archives staff cares for and processes those materials:

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Every homeschool student should know the story of the Apollo 11 mission (and of manned spaceflight in general), and this 50th anniversary documentary is an excellent way to teach about it.

“Crafted from previously unseen 70mm film footage and more than 11,000 hours of uncatalogued audio recordings, [this] new documentary transports moviegoers to the heart of NASA’s most celebrated mission — Apollo 11, the one that first put men on the Moon and forever made Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin into American icons.

“Newly digitized footage discovered at the National Archives and Records Administration plays a major role in the new documentary that allows viewers to experience the perspectives of the astronauts, the Mission Control team, and the millions of spectators on the ground. The film showcases the days and hours in 1969 when American astronauts took “a giant leap for mankind” into the future.“ (National Archives)

Here’s the commercial trailer for the full-length documentary itself:

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Do you have a moon party planned for the 20th? 🌕

What educational discoveries have you made at your library lately? 😊

❡ Dukedoms large enough: Have you found all the local libraries in your area? There may be more than you realize, and there’s no better homeschool field trip than a field trip to a new library! The WorldCat Library Finder will help you find all the library collections near you — public and private, large and small — and the WorldCat catalog itself will help you locate the closest copy of almost any book in the world. 😊

❡ When in doubt, go to the library: This is one of our regular Homeschool Books & Libraries posts. Add your name to our weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 📚

🕊 WONDERFUL WORDS: “Liberty and Peace”

8 July 2019 by Bob O'Hara

The Independence Day weekend has just passed, and our homeschool poem-of-the-week for this second week of July is a poem written just after the Revolution itself had passed and America was looking forward to a time of peace and prosperity: Phillis Wheatley’s “Liberty and Peace” (1784). This is a somewhat difficult poem for modern students because it’s written in a classical style that, while popular in the eighteenth century, is out of fashion today. But that makes it a good decoding challenge for high-school-age homeschoolers.

Liberty and Peace

Lo! Freedom comes. Th’ prescient Muse foretold,
All Eyes th’ accomplish’d Prophecy behold:

Her Port describ’d, “She moves divinely fair,
“Olive and Laurel bind her golden Hair.”
She, the bright Progeny of Heaven, descends,
And every Grace her sovereign Step attends;
For now kind Heaven, indulgent to our Prayer,
In smiling Peace resolves the Din of War.
Fix’d in Columbia her illustrious Line,
And bids in thee her future Councils shine.
To every Realm her Portals open’d wide,
Receives from each the full commercial Tide.
Each Art and Science now with rising Charms,
Th’ expanding Heart with Emulation warms.
E’en great Britannia sees with dread Surprize,
And from the dazzling Splendor turns her Eyes!
Britain, whose Navies swept th’ Atlantic o’er,
And Thunder sent to every distant Shore:
E’en thou, in Manners cruel as thou art,
The Sword resign’d, resume the friendly Part!
For Galia’s Power espous’d Columbia’s Cause,
And new-born Rome shall give Britannia Law,
Nor unremember’d in the grateful Strain,
Shall princely Louis’ friendly Deeds remain;
The generous Prince th’ impending Vengeance eye’s,
Sees the fierce Wrong, and to the rescue flies.
Perish that Thirst of boundless Power, that drew
On Albion’s Head the Curse to Tyrants due.
But thou appeas’d submit to Heaven’s decree,
That bids this Realm of Freedom rival thee!
Now sheathe the Sword that bade the Brave attone
With guiltless Blood for Madness not their own.
Sent from th’ Enjoyment of their native Shore
Ill-fated — never to behold her more!
From every Kingdom on Europa’s Coast
Throng’d various Troops, their Glory, Strength and Boast.
With heart-felt pity fair Hibernia saw
Columbia menac’d by the Tyrant’s Law:
On hostile Fields fraternal Arms engage,
And mutual Deaths, all dealt with mutual Rage;
The Muse’s Ear hears mother Earth deplore
Her ample Surface smoak with kindred Gore:
The hostile Field destroys the social Ties,
And ever-lasting Slumber seals their Eyes.
Columbia mourns, the haughty Foes deride,
Her Treasures plunder’d, and her Towns destroy’d:
Witness how Charlestown’s curling Smoaks arise,
In sable Columns to the clouded Skies!
The ample Dome, high-wrought with curious Toil,
In one sad Hour the savage Troops despoil.
Descending Peace the Power of War confounds;
From every Tongue coelestial Peace resounds:
As from the East th’ illustrious King of Day,
With rising Radiance drives the Shades away,
So Freedom comes array’d with Charms divine,
And in her Train Commerce and Plenty shine.
Britannia owns her Independent Reign,
Hibernia, Scotia, and the Realms of Spain;
And great Germania’s ample Coast admires
The generous Spirit that Columbia fires.
Auspicious Heaven shall fill with fav’ring Gales,
Where e’er Columbia spreads her swelling Sails:
To every Realm shall Peace her Charms display,
And Heavenly Freedom spread her golden Ray.

Phillis Wheatley commemorative stamp from Senegal (1971)

Phillis Wheatley (ca. 1753–1784) is one of the most fascinating figures in American literature. She was born in western Africa and was sold into slavery as a small child. She was later purchased by a Boston merchant named John Wheatley, whose wife provided her with remarkable educational advantages for the time. Young Phillis evinced a talent for poetry and had her first verses published while she was still in her teens. She visited England in 1773 with John Wheatley’s son Nathaniel, and was emancipated by her master shortly after. She married and had three children during the 1770s, but all three died young, and during the great economic depression that followed the war, Wheatley herself also died, sadly at the age of only 31.

When you introduce your students to a complex historical poem like “Liberty and Peace,” don’t worry about “getting” everything right away — just make an introduction that will prepare your students to learn more about the work when they see it a second or a third time at some point in the future.

Taken as a whole, “Liberty and Peace” recounts the terrible experiences of the war, and then expresses joy because “smiling Peace resolves [clears up] the Din of War” and America’s future of prosperity and freedom will be bright.

A great five-minute introductory lesson for this poem would be simply to have your students understand Wheatley’s national references, which are given in a personified classical style — understand those, and you’re better prepared to understand the poem as a whole. Columbia is of course America. (Take your pick of Italian explorers — Christopher Columbus or Amerigo Vespucci — and construct a feminine personification from the name, and voilà! you have named a continent.) Britannia is Britain and Albion is England, just as Galia (or Gallia) is France (ancient Gaul), Germania is Germany, Hibernia is Ireland, and Scotia is Scotland.

Those stylized national names appear often in literature and history, and if your students learn to recognize them here, they will be able to recognize them everywhere. (What can you now tell us about the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, or the Catholic men’s organization called the Ancient Order of Hibernians?)

Large understandings develop when many little lessons are all put together. Find an appealing little lesson in this poem and make it into a five-minute educational message in your homeschool today.

What wonderful words have you found and what literary discoveries have you made in your homeschool this month? 😊

❡ Celestial Peace resounds: If a special line or turn of phrase happens to strike you in one of our weekly poems, just copy it onto your homeschool bulletin board for a few days and invite your students to speak it aloud — that’s all it takes to begin a new poetical friendship and learn a few lovely words that will stay with you for life. 😊

❡ Explore more: The Poetry Foundation’s website includes biographical notes and examples of the work of many important poets (including Phillis Wheatley) that are suitable for high school students and homeschool teachers.

❡ Here, said the year: This post is one of our regular homeschool poems-of-the-week. Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us as we visit forty-eight of our favorite friends. 📖

🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 7 July 2019

7 July 2019 by Bob O'Hara

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-07-07

Quick Freshes are our regular Sunday notes on the homeschool week ahead. Pick one or two (or more) of the items below each week and use them to enrich your homeschooling schedule! Visit our River Houses calendar page (riverhouses.org/calendars) and print your own homeschool calendars for the entire year.

🇺🇸 OUR STATE-OF-THE-WEEK is Utah, and our COUNTRIES are Tonga 🇹🇴, Trinidad and Tobago 🇹🇹, Tunisia 🇹🇳, and Turkey 🇹🇷. (Our separate Sunday States & Countries post for the week went up just a few minutes ago.)

🌒 THE MOON at the beginning of this week is a waxing crescent — a relatively good time for stargazing! You can dial up this week’s constellations and explore the moon’s features with your homeschool star atlas and world atlas, and you can learn many more stellar and lunar facts on pages 342–357 in your almanac (riverhouses.org/books).

🗓 TODAY (Sunday, 7 July) — Today is the 188th day of 2019; there are 177 days remaining in the year. Learn more about different kinds of modern and historical calendars on pages 358–364 in your River Houses almanac (riverhouses.org/books). ⬩ Today is also the birthday of the great Austrian composer Gustav Mahler (1860–1911). 🎵 And on this day in 1928, sliced bread was sold for the first time by the Chillicothe Baking Company in Missouri — it was the greatest thing since, um, sliced bread! 🍞

Monday (8 July) — Today is the birthday of American businessman and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937), founder of the Standard Oil Company and one of the richest men in the world. 💰 It’s also the birthday of the great English archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans (1851–1941), who rediscovered the ancient Minoan civilization. 🐬 Our homeschool poem-of-the-week for the second week of July is Phillis Wheatley’s “Liberty and Peace,” for the Independence Day weekend just past. 🇺🇸 Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us throughout the year.

Tuesday (9 July) — On this day in 1755, a British-American force under the command of General Edward Braddock was defeated and almost destroyed as they fought to capture Fort Duquesne (modern-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) from its French and Indian defenders. We remember “Braddock’s Defeat” today mainly because of an effective rear-guard defense that saved many lives — a defense led by a 23-year-old colonial colonel named George Washington. ⚔️

Wednesday (10 July) — The highest temperature ever recorded on earth, 134ºF (57ºC), was reached on this day in 1913 in Death Valley, California. 🌡 Today is the birthday of the French-Swiss theologian and religious reformer John Calvin (1509–1564), one of the key figures of the Protestant Reformation. ✝️ And on this day in 1962, the world’s first communications satellite, Telstar, was launched into earth orbit. 🛰

Thursday (11 July) — On this day in 1804, Aaron Burr, Vice President of the United States, mortally wounded Alexander Hamilton, former Secretary of the Treasury, in a pistol duel in Weehawken, New Jersey. Hamilton died the next day. ⚰️ Today is also the birthday of the English physician and home education advocate Thomas Bowdler (1754–1825), whose family editions of Shakespeare, lightly expurgated so they would be suitable for reading aloud to women and children, gave us the English word “bowdlerize.” 🎭 And on this day in 1960, Harper Lee’s popular American novel To Kill a Mockingbird was first published. 📖

Friday (12 July) — Today is the birthday of the great American writer, philosopher, and naturalist Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862). 🖋 It’s also the birthday of the American artist Andrew Wyeth (1917–2009). 🎨

Saturday (13 July) — Today is the generally accepted birthdate of the ancient Roman politician, general, and dictator Julius Caesar (100–44 B.C.). 🏛 It’s also the birthday of the great English nature poet John Clare (1793–1864). 🏞 And since this is the second Saturday of the month we’ll introduce you to another one of the great stars of the northern hemisphere night sky: Arcturus, the brightest star in the constellation Boötes the Herdsman. 🌟

Sunday (14 July) — Today is the birthday of the celebrated composer Gerald Finzi (1901–1956), known for his musical settings of many classic English lyric poems. 🎵 And on this day in 2015, the interplanetary space probe New Horizons made its closest approach to Pluto (less than 8000 miles from the surface). 🚀 ♇

🥂 OUR WEEKLY TOAST: “May we not only read a lesson, but practice the precept it conveys.”

❡ Toasts can be a fun educational tradition for your family table. We offer one each week — you can take it up, or make up one of your own (“To North American dinosaurs!”), or invite a different person to come up with one for each meal (“To variety in toasting!”). Our current set of toasts are mostly taken from an old anthology called Pocock’s Everlasting Songster (Gravesend, 1804). What will you toast this week?

🌍 EVERYTHING FLOWS: Tunisia is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the Medjerda River, the longest River in Tunisia. You can chart its course in your recommended homeschool atlas (riverhouses.org/books), and you can read more about it in the Medjerda River entry in Wikipedia or perhaps on your next visit to your local library.

The Medjerda River, the longest river in the African nation of Tunisia. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

❡ Let the river run: Why not do a homeschool study of world rivers over the course of the year? Take the one we select each week (above), or start with the river lists in your almanac (pages 691–693), and make it a project to look them all up in your atlas, or in a handy encyclopedia either online or on a weekly visit to your local library. A whole world of geographical learning awaits you!

AND DON’T FORGET: Friday the 13th comes on a Saturday this month! 🙀

What do you have planned for your homeschool this week? 😊

❡ Lively springs: This is one of our regular “Quick Freshes” posts looking at the homeschool week ahead. Add your name to our River Houses mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get these weekly messages delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. You can also print your own River Houses calendars of educational events (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us. 🗓

🇺🇸 🌎 SUNDAY STATES: Utah, Tonga, Tunisia, Turkey, and More

7 July 2019 by Bob O'Hara

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-utah

Tour the United States and travel the countries of the world each week with the River Houses. Our Sunday States & Countries posts will point the way.

Many homeschoolers like to review the U.S. states and the nations of the world each year, and our recommended homeschool reference library (riverhouses.org/books) includes a current world almanac, a world atlas, and a history encyclopedia that make these reviews fun and easy. We go through the states in the traditional order of admission to the Union (almanac page 429), so this week’s state is:

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Utah State Quarter
UTAH (the 45th state, 4 January 1896) — The Beehive State. Capital: Salt Lake City. Utah can be found on page 587 in your almanac and on plates 38 and 142 in your atlas. Name origin: “From a Navajo word meaning ‘upper,’ or ‘higher up,’ as applied to Shoshone tribe called Ute. Proposed name Deseret, ‘land of honeybees,’ from Book of Mormon, was rejected by Congress” (almanac page 430). State bird: California Gull (bird guide page 190). Website: utah.gov.

❡ Little lessons: You can teach a hundred little lessons with the state-of-the-week, using your reference library (riverhouses.org/books) as a starting point. Find the location of the state capital in your atlas each week. Look up the state bird in your bird guide. Read the almanac’s one-paragraph history aloud each week. Using each state’s official website (above), find and copy the preamble to that state’s constitution into a commonplace book over the course of the year. Practice math skills by graphing each state’s population and area. Look up the famous state residents listed in your almanac either online or at your local library. The possibilities are endless and they can be easily adapted to each student’s age and interests. Pick a simple pattern to follow for just a few minutes each week, and your little lesson is done. By the end of the year, without even realizing it, your students will have absorbed a world of new geographical and historical information, as well as a host of valuable reading and research skills. 😊

❡ Explore more: If you’re planning a comprehensive unit study of one or more of the U.S. states, be sure to investigate the primary source materials for teachers available from the Library of Congress.

This week’s countries, with their official websites, are:

🇹🇴 TONGA in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. Population: 106,398. Capital: Nuku’alofa. Government: Constitutional monarchy. Website: www.gov.to (in English).
🇹🇹 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO in the West Indies. Population: 1,215,527. Capital: Port of Spain. Government: Parliamentary republic. Website: www.ttconnect.gov.tt (in English).
🇹🇳 TUNISIA on the northern coast of Africa. Population: 11,516,189. Capital: Tunis. Government: Parliamentary republic. Website: www.tunisie.gov.tn (in Arabic and French).
🇹🇷 TURKEY in western Asia. Population: 81,257,239. Capital: Istanbul. Government: Parliamentary republic. Website: www.turkiye.gov.tr (in Turkish).

These countries all appear in your current almanac, atlas, and history encyclopedia as well (riverhouses.org/books). The almanac, for example, has profiles of all the nations of the world on pages 745–852; the endpapers of the atlas are index maps that will show you where each of the individual national and regional maps can be found; the history encyclopedia includes individual national histories on pages 489–599; and you can find additional illustrations, flags, and other mentions through the indexes in each of these volumes.

What grand geographical discoveries have you made in your homeschool this week? 😊

❡ Read and think critically: The country links above go to official websites, which are not always in English and which may well be propagandistic in one way or another, thus offering older students a good opportunity to practice their critical reading and thinking skills.

❡ Plan an imaginary vacation: Here’s a fun exercise for your students: take one of the countries that we list each week and write out a family travel plan. How would you get there? How much will it cost? Will you need a passport? Where will you stay? Will you have to exchange your currency? How do you say hello the local language? What cities and attractions and landmarks will you visit? What foods will you eat? How will you get around (car, train, boat, mule)? Make a simple worksheet with blank spaces for the answers, have your students do the research, and start planning your world tour. ✈️ 🚞 🚗 🛳 🐎 😊

❡ The great globe itself: This is one of our regular Sunday States & Countries posts. Print your own River Houses States & Countries Calendar (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us as we take a homeschool tour of the United States and the whole world over the course of the year. 🇺🇸 🌎

🔭 WATCHERS OF THE SKIES – July 2019

6 July 2019 by Bob O'Hara

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-july-sky

On the first Saturday of every month we post educational skywatching notes for the homeschool month ahead. Here’s the monthly northern hemisphere night-sky review for July from the Hubble Space Telescope’s website:

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This July 20th is a very important anniversary: the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing in 1969. Here’s another July night-sky review, courtesy of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, which features some special facts about the moon that you can share with your students during this anniversary month:

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For serious homeschool skywatchers, the weekly updates from Sky & Telescope magazine provide a wealth of additional detail. Here’s the latest one:

➔ This Week’s Sky at a Glance, 3–13 July 2019

The best stargazing nights in July will be toward the beginning and the end of the month: the moon was new (and the sky darkest) on the 2nd, and it will be new again on the 31st. As always, you can look up the moon’s phases in your River Houses almanac (riverhouses.org/books) and also at the excellent timeanddate.com website.

July is the middle month of Hercules Term, the last of the four three-month terms that make up the River Houses year. Our great star for the month of July is Arcturus, which we’ll be writing about next week. Print your own River Houses Star Calendar (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us through the year as we learn about twelve high lights of the northern hemisphere night sky.

What celestial observations will you and your students be making in your homeschool this month? 😊

❡ Watchers of the skies: Teaching your students to recognize the constellations is one of the simplest and most enduring gifts you can give them. The planisphere on the front of your River Houses star atlas (riverhouses.org/books) will let you dial up the northern hemisphere sky for any night of the year, and the descriptions and maps of each constellation will point out the highlights. Find a dark-sky spot near you this month and spend some quality homeschool time beneath the starry vault. 🔭

❡ Star bright: This is one of our regular Homeschool Astronomy posts. Add your name to our River Houses mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox every week. 😊

🦆 HOMESCHOOL NATURE NOTES: A Free Art and Wildlife Curriculum

5 July 2019 by Horace the Otter

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-fws-curriculum

Friday is Natural History Day in the River Houses — it’s when we share notes, ideas, observations, and little lessons that you can drop into your own homeschool science schedule. Here’s a great opportunity from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to bring both art and wildlife into your homeschool with their free Conservation Education Curriculum.

The 2017–2018 Junior Duck Stamp, illustrated by Isaac Schreiber, age 12, of Duffield, Virginia. (Image: USFWS.)

The Fish and Wildlife Service runs an annual illustration contest for young artists as part of their Junior Duck Stamp Conservation Program, a youth-oriented program that supplements the long-established Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp program. There are a wide variety of educational resources available to accompany the Junior Duck Stamp program, including special printable materials designed for homeschoolers — take a look at the whole collection:

➔ Conservation Education Curriculum, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The curriculum combines science and art, encouraging students to develop their skills in both areas:

“Are you a student interested in exploring wildlife, habitat conservation and visual arts? Do you want to investigate careers in biology or ornithology? Are you looking for ways to creatively express what you have learned in biology class? Do you have something to share with others about waterfowl and wetlands? Are you looking for educator and student resources?

“Since its inception in 1989, the Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Program has used a science-based art curriculum. Students are involved in hands-on learning opportunities, discovering the wonders of North American waterfowl, habitat characteristics, and conservation principles – all through a visual arts program.

“Among the materials available to support this learning are four curriculum guides that help spark interest in wildlife and habitat conservation through science, art, math and technology focused lessons and activities. The final project or “visual term paper” is the opportunity to enter the Junior Duck Stamp art and conservation message contests.“ (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

If you’re looking for some excellent homeschool materials to inspire your students in both art and science, these resources might be just the thing for you!

What artistically scientific discoveries have you made in your homeschool lately? 😊

❡ Books in the running brooks: Our recommended homeschool reference library (riverhouses.org/books) includes an excellent bird guide that would serve your homeschool well. Many other similar guides are also available — find one that’s a good fit for your family and take it with you on all your outings, whether far afield or just out to the backyard. 🦉

❡ Nature notes: This is one of our regular Homeschool Natural History posts. Add your name to our free weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 😊

🇺🇸 INDEPENDENCE DAY and the Declaration

4 July 2019 by Bob O'Hara

Happy Fourth of July to all our homeschool readers and friends! The Fourth is Independence Day, the Day of the Declaration. What better day is there to take your students on a visit the Declaration itself (online at least) than today! Its home is the National Archives in Washington, as every homeschool student should know:

➔ The Declaration of Independence at the National Archives (archives.gov)

The original Declaration is on view there for all to see — I’ve seen it, and perhaps you have too. To be sure, the original manuscript is much faded — it was not always stored and displayed under ideal conditions, as it is today. What most people recognize as the Declaration is the engraved version of 1823, made from the original:

➔ 1823 William Stone Engraving of the Declaration of Independence

The National Archives has a wide range of educational materials about the Declaration, the Founding Documents as a whole, and the entire Revolutionary War Era — why not bookmark then on this Independence Day and explore them throughout the year.

What other historical events and anniversaries will you studying in your homeschool this month? 😊

❡ Explore more: For a quick homeschool review of American Revolutionary Era and the Declaration of Independence, turn to page 298 in your River Houses history encyclopedia (riverhouses.org/books). 🇺🇸

❡ Let the river run: This is one of our regular Homeschool Holidays & Anniversaries posts. Add your name to our free weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🗓

🇹🇬 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: Koutammakou, the Land of the Batammariba in Togo

3 July 2019 by Bob O'Hara

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-koutammakou

Togo in west-central Africa is one of our homeschool countries-of-the-week, so why not spend a few minutes today learning about one of Togo’s World Heritage Sites: Koutammakou, the land of the Batammariba.

The Koutammakou cultural landscape in northern Togo, “the land of the Batammariba.” (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

The Batammariba people, also known as the Tammari, are a regional ethnic community in the Koutammakou area of northern Togo and adjacent Benin. They are famous for their traditional domestic architecture:

“The Koutammakou landscape in north-eastern Togo, which extends into neighbouring Benin, is home to the Batammariba whose remarkable mud tower-houses (Takienta) have come to be seen as a symbol of Togo. In this landscape, nature is strongly associated with the rituals and beliefs of society. The 50,000-ha cultural landscape is remarkable due to the architecture of its tower-houses which are a reflection of social structure; its farmland and forest; and the associations between people and landscape. Many of the buildings are two storeys high and those with granaries feature an almost spherical form above a cylindrical base. Some of the buildings have flat roofs, others have conical thatched roofs. They are grouped in villages, which also include ceremonial spaces, springs, rocks and sites reserved for initiation ceremonies.“ (UNESCO World Heritage Centre #1140)

World Heritage Sites are cultural or natural landmarks of international significance, selected for recognition by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. More than 1000 such sites have been recognized in over 160 countries, and we post one every Wednesday, drawn from one of our homeschool countries-of-the-week. You can find a complete list online at the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and in Wikipedia.

What world treasures have you explored in your homeschool this week? 😊

❡ Books in the running brooks: You can always turn to your River Houses almanac, atlas, and history encyclopedia (riverhouses.org/books) for more information about any of our countries-of-the-week. The almanac has profiles of all the nations of the world on pages 745–852; the endpapers of the atlas are indexes that will show you where all of the individual national and regional maps may be found; the history encyclopedia includes national histories on pages 489–599; and you can find additional illustrations, flags, and other mentions through the indexes in each of these volumes. For an ideal little lesson, just write the name of the Weekly World Heritage Site on your homeschool bulletin board, find its location in your atlas, read UNESCO’s one-paragraph description aloud, look at a picture or two, and you’re done. Over the course of the year, without even realizing it, your students will absorb a wealth of new historical and geographical information. 🇹🇬

❡ The great globe itself: This is one of our regular Homeschool States & Countries posts. Add your name to our free weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🌍

📸 PHOTO CHALLENGE – July 2019: “Fires and Sparks” and “Fishing”

2 July 2019 by Bob O'Hara

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-july-photos

Calling all homeschool photographers! One of the independent projects we recommend to homeschool students is the monthly Wikimedia Commons Photo Challenge. The July challenge is now open and the announced themes are “Fires, flames, and sparks in science and technology” and “Fishing and aquaculture.” You can see sample photos and learn how to submit an entry here:

➔ Wikimedia Commons Photo Challenge – Open Themes (updated monthly)

The Wikimedia Commons Photo Challenge encourages people to take and submit high-quality images for the public Wikimedia Commons database — the source from which most of the images in Wikipedia are drawn. Once you’ve registered and submitted an entry, you can also participate in the selection of future themes and in the voting for the best entries each month.

A sample entry for the theme “Fires, flames, and sparks in science and technology” from this month’s Wikimedia Commons Photo Challenge. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

If you have talented young photographers in your home academy, why not encourage them to sign up and submit an entry. Working on a specific theme over a period of a few weeks is a great way for students to develop both their technical camera skills and their visual composition skills. And if you submit a number of entries over time you could build up a personal portfolio page to show off your work — that would be good experience in how to create a professional presentation of yourself for future employment or college admissions.

You can find more ideas for independent student projects in a wide range of scientific and scholarly fields on our River Houses Lunar Society page (riverhouses.org/lunar).

What photographic, artistic, and scientific discoveries have you made in your homeschool this week? 😊

❡ Explore more: Your recommended world almanac (riverhouses.org/books) has a long list of famous artists on pages 185–188, and that list includes famous photographers. Why not pick out a name or two to research each month, either online or on your next visit to your local library — it would be a great way to give your students a little extra photographic inspiration! 📸

❡ Stay in the loop: This is one of our regular “Lunar Society” posts about the many independent projects we recommend to homeschool students. Add your name to our free weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🗞

📚 LEARNING THE LIBRARY: The Historical 900s

2 July 2019 by Bob O'Hara

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-dewey-900

Tuesday is our Homeschool Books & Libraries Day in the River Houses, and on the first Tuesday of each month we invite you and your homescholars to explore one of the major Dewey Decimal classes at your local library. If you start at the beginning of the River Houses year in September and run until July (that’s today!), you can “adopt” one major class each month and cover the whole of knowledge (!) in a year.

The class for July is the 900s, which covers History and Geography. (The Dewey system is grouped into hundreds, so “the 900s” means the numbers running from 900 to 999.)

Here’s what you’ll find at your local library in the Historical (and Geographical) 900s:

CLASS 900 – HISTORY & GEOGRAPHY
- 900 – History (General)
- 910 – Geography & Travel
- 920 – Biography & Genealogy
- 930 – History of the Ancient World (to ca. 499)
- 940 – History of Europe
- 950 – History of Asia
- 960 – History of Africa
- 970 – History of North America
- 980 – History of South America
- 990 – History of Other Areas

Each of these “tens” divisions is subdivided further of course. For example, in the 950s (History of Asia) you’ll find works on the history of China (951), the history of Japan (952), the history of India (954), and so on.

When you’re learning the library with your students, be sure they understand that any library collection that uses the Dewey Decimal Classification will be arranged in the same way: the numbers run from 000 to 999 in every Dewey-based library, so if you’re interested in, say, the history of South America, you’ll find it in the 980s in both the small-town library near you and in the big-city library across the country. If you have an opportunity to make field trips to multiple libraries over the course of the year you’ll be able to demonstrate that in practice and get your students accustomed to orienting themselves by reading the numbers aloud as you walk together down the ranges: “920 … 940 … 960 … here it is, 980.”

Learning these library basics will help your students become independent life-long learners and will ensure that they’ll feel right at home in any library they visit.

This concludes our annual homeschool Dewey Decimal survey. We started back in September and October with our initial introduction to the Dewey system and with the General 000s, and now we’ve come all the way to the Historical & Geographical 900s. We’ll have one more post next month — “Beyond Dewey” — but before you leave all these delightful decimals, what’s at the very end? On your next library visit, be sure to drop in on one of my own favorite numbers of all: 999, “Extraterrestrial Worlds.” 🌌 👽 🚀 🔭

What treasures have you discovered in your library lately? 😊

❡ Make it a tradition: Why not spend a few minutes during your first library visit each month and devise a little Dewey tradition of your own. Read the title page of one book in the 900s, one in the 910s, one in the 920s, one in the 930s, and so on. Find the very first book in the class (the lowest 900) and the very last book in the class (the highest 999). Find the thinnest book and the thickest book in each class. Make a list of your three favorite numbers in each class. If you follow a simple pattern like this month-by-month over the course of the year you’ll be surprised how much information your students will absorb and how many skills they will develop without even realizing it. 📚

❡ Planning ahead: If you’d like to map out a custom year-long Dewey project for your homeschool, here’s the first-Tuesday schedule we follow in the River Houses: Introducing Dewey (September); The General 000s (October); The Philosophical 100s (November); The Religious 200s (December); The Social 300s (January); The Linguistic 400s (February); The Scientific 500s (March); The Technological 600s (April); The Artistic 700s (May); The Literary 800s (June); The Historical 900s (July). 🗓

❡ When in doubt, go to the library: This is one of our regular Homeschool Books & Libraries posts. Add your name to our free weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 📚

🇺🇸 WONDERFUL WORDS: William Emerson on “A Nation’s Strength”

1 July 2019 by Bob O'Hara

It’s the first week of July — Fourth-of-July week — and that means our homeschool poem-of-the-week is an American traditional: “A Nation’s Strength” by William Ralph (not Ralph Waldo) Emerson.

A Nation’s Strength

What makes a nation’s pillars high
And its foundations strong?
What makes it mighty to defy
The foes that round it throng?

It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
Go down in battle shock;
Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
Not on abiding rock.

Is it the sword? Ask the red dust
Of empires passed away;
The blood has turned their stones to rust,
Their glory to decay.

And is it pride? Ah, that bright crown
Has seemed to nations sweet;
But God has struck its luster down
In ashes at his feet.

Not gold but only men can make
A people great and strong;
Men who for truth and honor’s sake
Stand fast and suffer long.

Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly, —
They build a nation’s pillars deep
And lift them to the sky.

William Ralph Emerson (1833–1917) was an architect and occasional poet, and this patriotic American verse, often taught in schools in years past, is frequently misattributed to William’s more famous cousin Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882). It’s an easy mistake to make — their styles are similar — but note how William the architect has constructed this whole poem around the architectural metaphor of a nation supported by pillars on a strong foundation. The meter is the familiar eights-and-sixes pattern that we’ve seen before — it’s especially common in the poetry of Emily Dickinson.

What wonderful words have you found and what literary discoveries have you made in your homeschool this week? 😊

❡ A people great and strong: If a special line or turn of phrase happens to strike you in one of our weekly poems, just copy it onto your homeschool bulletin board for a few days and invite your students to speak it aloud — that’s all it takes to begin a new poetical friendship and learn a few lovely words that will stay with you for life. 😊

🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 30 June 2019

30 June 2019 by Bob O'Hara

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-06-30

🇺🇸 OUR STATE-OF-THE-WEEK is Wyoming, and our COUNTRIES are Tanzania 🇹🇿, Thailand 🇹🇭, Timor-Leste 🇹🇱, and Togo 🇹🇬. (Our separate Sunday States & Countries post for the week went up just a few minutes ago.)

🌘 THE MOON at the beginning of this week is a waning crescent, heading toward new on the 2nd — a good time for stargazing! You can dial up this week’s constellations and explore the moon’s features with your homeschool star atlas and world atlas, and you can learn many more stellar and lunar facts on pages 342–357 in your almanac (riverhouses.org/books).

🗓 TODAY (Sunday, 30 June) — Today is the 181st day of 2019; there are 184 days remaining in the year. Learn more about different kinds of modern and historical calendars on pages 358–364 in your River Houses almanac (riverhouses.org/books). ⬩ Today is also International Asteroid Day, marking the anniversary of the 1908 Tunguska Event in Siberia. 🌠

Monday (1 July) — Today is the birthday of the great German mathematician and polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716). ∭ It’s also the birthday of the German–Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis (1818–1865), “the savior of mothers,” who discovered that deaths from childbed fever could be dramatically reduced by requiring physicians delivering babies to wash their hands. 👨‍⚕️ The devastating World War I Battle of the Somme began on this day in 1916. ⚔️ And our homeschool poem-of-the-week for the first week of July is William Ralph Emerson’s American anthem “A Nation’s Strength,” for Independence Day. 🇺🇸 Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us throughout the year.

Tuesday (2 July) — Noon today is the mid-point of the year: 182.5 days have passed, and 182.5 days remain. 🗓 On this day in 1776, the Continental Congress passed the Lee Resolution, declaring the Thirteen Colonies independent of Great Britain. 🇺🇸 Today is also the birthday of Thurgood Marshall (1908–1993), the first African American appointed to the United States Supreme Court. 👨🏾‍⚖️ And since this is the first Tuesday of the month, today we’ll invite you to browse a new Dewey Decimal class with your students on your next visit to your local library. This month: the Historical (and Geographical) 900s. 📚

Wednesday (3 July) — On this day in 1775, on orders from the Continental Congress and a year before Independence was declared, George Washington took command of the thousands of New England militiamen encamped outside of Boston, and the Continental Army was born. 🇺🇸 Today is the birthday of the early American painter John Singleton Copley (1738–1815), who memorialized many prominent figures of the American Revolutionary period. 🎨 And today is also the birthday of the American songwriter, actor, and Yankee Doodle Dandy George M. Cohan (1872–1942). 🎵

Thursday (4 July) — HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY! 🎆 On this day in 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. 🇺🇸 And on this day in 1802, the United States Military Academy opened at West Point, New York. ⚔️ The great American novelist and short-story writer Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on this day in 1804. 🖋 And on this day in 1826, on the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson died in Virginia and John Adams died in Massachusetts. 🇺🇸

Friday (5 July) — One of the most famous books in the history of science, Isaac Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), was published in London on this day in 1687. 📖 And somewhat less sublime: the canned luncheon meat SPAM was first introduced to the American market on this day in 1937. 🍽

Saturday (6 July) — In one of the great setbacks of the early phase of the Revolution, British General John Burgoyne forced American troops to abandon Fort Ticonderoga on the New York–Vermont border on this day in 1777. ⚔️ And since this is the first Saturday of the month, we’ll post our regular monthly preview today of some of the astronomical events you and your students can be on the lookout for over the next few weeks. 🔭

Sunday (7 July) — Today is the birthday of the great Austrian composer Gustav Mahler (1860–1911). 🎵 And on this day in 1928, sliced bread was sold for the first time by the Chillicothe Baking Company in Missouri — it was the greatest thing since, um, sliced bread! 🍞

🥂 OUR WEEKLY TOAST is an old and special favorite we offer each year for Independence Day — why not offer it this Thursday in your homeschool also:

To the memory of the man
That owned the land,
That raised the corn,
That fed the goose,
That bore the quill,
That made the pen,
That wrote the Declaration of Independence.

🌏 EVERYTHING FLOWS: Thailand is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the Chao Phraya River, the principal river of Thailand. You can chart its course in your recommended homeschool atlas (riverhouses.org/books), and you can read more about it in the Chao Phraya River entry in Wikipedia or perhaps on your next visit to your local library.

The Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, Thailand. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

What do you have planned for your homeschool this week? 😊