For America’s 250th anniversary, discover the history and landscape of the United States with your homeschool students. This week: Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio.
🖊️ 🔔 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.)
🗡 ⛪ 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.
🗓️ QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 28 December 2025
Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: New Years, new calendars, missing planets, close approaches, pelagic birds, winter poems, German rivers, a toast to perpetual betterment, 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: 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.)
🎵 🌹 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.)
🦅 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: 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.
🌎 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.
🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: The Hermitage in Tennessee
For America’s 250th anniversary, discover the history and landscape of the United States with your homeschool students. This week: The Hermitage in Tennessee.
🎵 🎄 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.
🦦 🎄 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.
🖊️ 🎅 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!)
🎵 ❄️ 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!
🗓️ QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 21 December 2025
Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: Musical festivals, winter solstices, Santa trackers, earth rises, celebrated crossings, amazing astronomers, French rivers, a toast to Christmas, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Tennessee, France, Georgia, and More
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Tennessee, France, Gabon, The Gambia, and Georgia. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
📡 🎅 🦌 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.)
🎵 🎄 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.
🦅 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).
🎵 🎄 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.
🎵 🎄 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.)
🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Fort Boonesborough in Kentucky
For America’s 250th anniversary, discover the history and landscape of the United States with your homeschool students. This week: Fort Boonesborough in Kentucky.
🎵 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!
![[Homeschool American Heritage]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/america-250-150x120.jpg)
![[Bells]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/new-year-bells-150x94.jpg)
![[Auld Lang Syne Stamp]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/auld-lang-syne-stamp-1996-147x150.jpg)
![[Canterbury Cathedral Stamp]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/canterbury-stamp-1969-150x88.jpg)
![[Weekly Homeschool Almanac]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/calendar-2-150x85.jpg)
![[Ohio State Seal]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Seal_of_Ohio-150x150.jpg)
![[Holiday Music]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/holiday-music-150x100.jpg)
![[Homeschool Science & Nature Study]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/birds-tropicbirds-150x90.png)
![[Christmas Shepherd Stamp]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/shepherd-canada-stamp-1973-91x150.jpg)
![[Melville Stamp]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/melville-stamp-1984-99x150.jpg)
![[Earthrise, 24 December 1968]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/NASA-Apollo8-Dec24-Earthrise-150x150.jpg)
![[Christmas with Horace and Friends]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/horace-christmas-150x96.jpg)
![[Santa Stamp]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/santa-stamp-1972-96x150.jpg)
![[Equinoxes & Solstices]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/equinox-solstice-150x100.png)
![[Tennessee State Seal]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Seal_of_Tennessee-150x150.jpg)
![[Christmas Stamp]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/santa-sleigh-stamp-1989-150x121.jpg)

![[King's College]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/kings-arms-132x150.jpg)
