![[The River Houses]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/arms-icon-100x100.png "The River Houses"){kind=icon}
![[Homeschool Science & Nature Study]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/birds-storks-150x98.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 Storks, Frigatebirds, Boobies, Gannets, Cormorants, Darters, and Pelicans.
🖋 ⛸ WONDERFUL WORDS: A Winter Poem for Homeschool Dads
“She thinks she’ll never / be so happy, for who else will find her graceful, / find her perfect, skate with her / in circles outside the emptied rink forever?” (Our paternal homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Gail Mazur, for all homeschool fathers.)
🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: George Rogers Clark 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: George Rogers Clark National Historical Park in Indiana.
📚 LEARNING THE LIBRARY: The Social 300s
![[Dewey Decimal System]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/dewey-decimal-classes-150x79.jpg)
Explore your local library and the whole universe of knowledge with our homeschool tour of the Dewey Decimal System. This month: the Social 300s.
🇺🇸 LIBRARY LESSONS: The 119th Congress at the Library of Congress
If your homeschool students want to learn about the operations of the U.S. Congress, there’s no better place to look than on the website of the Library of Congress itself.
🎵 🎭 TWELFTH NIGHT and the End of Homeschool Holiday Music Month
![[Twelfth Night]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/twelfth-night-stamp-2016-150x100.jpg)
“Long long ago the world begun, / With a hey, ho, the wind and the rain. / But that’s all one, our play is done, / And we’ll strive to please you every day.” (Shakespeare helps us bring the Christmas Season, and our own Homeschool Holiday Music Month, to a close.)
🎵 🎄 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: And a Partridge in a 🍐🌳
![[Isle of Man Christmas Stamps]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/2017-Isle-of-Man-150x112.jpg)
One of the deepest purposes of a liberal education is to enable people to get jokes. David Chase’s brilliant arrangement of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” illustrates that happy principle for us as we approach the end of our Homeschool Holiday Music Month.
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 5 January 2024 2025!
![[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: Galilean moons, consequential crossings, fairy tales, notable naturalists, paternal poems, great stars, leggy birds, Honduran rivers, a toast to new joys, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Indiana, Haiti, Iceland, and More
![[Indiana State Bird & Flower]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/indiana-stamp-1982b-102x150.png)
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Indiana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, and Iceland. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
🔭 WATCHERS OF THE SKIES: Homeschool Astronomy for January
![[Homeschool Astronomy]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/emoji-telescope.png)
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 January.
🎵 🌟 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: Star in the East
For Homeschool Holiday Music Month, introduce your students to the early American tradition of shape-note music by way of the beautiful carol “Star in the East,” first published in the Southern Harmony collection in 1835.
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Shearwaters, Petrels, & Storm-Petrels
![[Homeschool Science & Nature Study]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/birds-shearwaters-petrels-150x92.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 Shearwaters, Petrels, and Storm-Petrels, birds of the open ocean.
📸 PHOTO CHALLENGE for January: “Leatherwork” and “Ovals”
![[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,” from 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
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.
🖋 🔔 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
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.
