The River Houses Homeschool Network

🎨 ENTER AN ART CONTEST for National Fossil Day (Deadline 4 October 2019)

2 September 2019 by Bob O'Hara

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

National Fossil Day is coming on October 16th! The U.S. National Park Service sponsors National Fossil Day every year at this time, and this is in fact its 10th Anniversary!

“Join paleontologists, educators, and students in fossil-related events and activities across the country in parks, classrooms, and online during National Fossil Day. National Fossil Day is an annual celebration held to highlight the scientific and educational value of paleontology and the importance of preserving fossils for future generations.“ (National Park Service)

If you have a talented young artist in your homeschool, you should definitely look into the art contest that the Park Service sponsors for National Fossil Day. It’s open to all, with judging by age categories. The theme for this year’s contest is “Extinct Giants and Survivors of the Last Ice Age”:

➢ 2019 National Fossil Day Art Contest for All Ages (U.S. National Park Service)

The contest website has all the information you’ll need, and an entry form to fill out and send in with your submission. Entries must be received by October 4th, so you have just a month to plan, paint, package, and post.

What splendidly fossiliferous artistic creations will you be making in your homeschool this month? 😊

❡ Stay in the loop: This is one of our occasional posts on Homeschool Natural History and Homeschool Arts. Add your name to our free River Houses mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🗞

🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 1 September 2019

1 September 2019 by Bob O'Hara

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-09-01

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.

The 2019–2020 River Houses Year Begins. Let the river run!

✦ This is the first week of CYGNUS TERM, our fall term in the River Houses (riverhouses.org/2019-cygnus).

🇺🇸 OUR STATE-OF-THE-WEEK is Delaware, and our COUNTRIES are Afghanistan 🇦🇫, Albania 🇦🇱, Algeria 🇩🇿, and Andorra 🇦🇩. (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 good time for stargazing! You can explore the constellations and the features of the moon in your recommended backyard star guide and your homeschool world atlas, and you can learn many more stellar and lunar facts on pages 342–357 in your almanac (riverhouses.org/books).

🗓 TODAY (Sunday, 1 September 2019) — Welcome to a New River Houses Year! 🎉 Today is the 244th day of 2019; there are 121 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). 📚 For this first week of September, this first week of Cygnus Term, and this first week of the 2019–2020 River Houses year, our homeschool poem-of-the-week will be our traditional extract from Jonathan Swift’s adaptation of the Roman poet Horace (65–8 B.C.): “A handsome house to lodge a friend, / A river at my garden’s end.” 📜 Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us throughout the 2019–2020 homeschool year as we visit forty-eight of our favorite literary friends. 😊

Monday (2 September 2019) — On this day in 1752, nearly two centuries after the countries of Continental Europe, Great Britain and her American colonies adopted the Gregorian Calendar: Wednesday, September 2nd, 1752, was followed by Thursday, September 14th, 1752. 🗓

Tuesday (3 September 2019) — The American Revolution came to a formal end on this day in 1783 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris between Great Britain and the new United States of America. 🇬🇧🕊🇺🇸 And since this is the first Tuesday of the month and of the new school year, we’ll invite you today to join our annual library exploration of the whole of knowledge (really!) with an introduction to the Dewey Decimal Classification. 📚

Wednesday (4 September 2019) — On this day in the year 476, Emperor Romulus Augustulus was deposed by the provincial warlord Odoacer who declared himself King of Italy, bringing to an end the Western Roman Empire, which had lasted for nearly 500 years. 🏛 Today is also the birthday of the great Austrian composer Anton Bruckner (1824–1896). 🎵

Thursday (5 September 2019) — In response to the Intolerable Acts, the First Continental Congress assembled on this day in Philadelphia in 1774. 🇺🇸 On this day in 1836, Sam Houston was elected the first President of the Republic of Texas. 🌵 (That’s 🌵 what I get when I request an emoji for Texas.) 😊

Friday (6 September 2019) — On this day in 1522, the ship Victoria, the only survivor of the Magellan expedition, arrived back in Spain having completed history’s first circumnavigation of the world. 🌍 Today is also the birthday of the great English scientist John Dalton (1766–1844), one of the founders of modern chemistry. ⚗️

Saturday (7 September 2019) — Today is the birthday of Queen Elizabeth I of England (1533–1603), who gave her name to the Elizabethan Era. 👑 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 watch for over the next few weeks. 🔭

Sunday (8 September 2019) — Today is one of the most important anniversaries in world cultural history: on this day in 1966, the first episode of Star Trek, “The Man Trap,” was broadcast on NBC television. 🚀🖖😊

🥂 OUR TRADITIONAL TOAST for the first week of every River Houses year is this ancient offering, which we invite you to share around your family dinner table: “A little health, a little wealth, a little house, and freedom.”

❡ 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!”). What will you toast this week? 🥂

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

The Drin River near Shkodër, Albania. (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. 🌍

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: Delaware, Afghanistan, Andorra, and More

1 September 2019 by Bob O'Hara

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

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:

🇺🇸
Delaware State Bird and Flower
DELAWARE (7 December 1787) — The First State. Capital: Dover. Delaware can be found on page 567 in your almanac and on plates 43 and 142 in your atlas. Name origin: “Named for Lord De La Warr, early governor of Virginia; first applied to river, then to Indian tribe (Lenni-Lenape)” (almanac page 430). State bird: Blue Hen Chicken. Website: delaware.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:

🇦🇫 AFGHANISTAN in southwestern Asia. Population: 34,940,837. Capital: Kabul. Government: Presidential Islamic republic. Website: president.gov.af/en (in English).
🇦🇱 ALBANIA in southeastern Europe. Population: 3,057,220. Capital: Tirana. Government: Parliamentary republic. Website: e-albania.al (in Albanian).
🇩🇿 ALGERIA in northwestern Africa. Population: 41,657,488. Capital: Algiers. Government: Presidential republic. Website: www.premier-ministre.gov.dz (in French and Arabic).
🇦🇩 ANDORRA in southwestern Europe. Population: 85,708. Capital: Andorra la Vella. Government: Parliamentary democracy. Website: govern.ad (in Catalan).

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 an educational tour of the United States and the whole world over the course of the homeschool year. 🇺🇸 🌎

🏡 HAPPY SEPTEMBER to All Our Homeschool Readers and Friends

1 September 2019 by Bob O'Hara

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

Happy September to all our readers and friends! Here are some things to look for in the homeschool month ahead.

September panel from Roman mosaic at El Djem, Tunisia, ca. A.D. 225. (Image: Ad Meskens / Wikimedia Commons.)

September with 30 days is the first month of Cygnus Term, our fall term in the River Houses. Cygnus Term opens our school year and runs from from September through November. Visit our main calendar page (riverhouses.org/calendars) and print out some of our simple educational calendars — they’ll help you create a light and easy structure for your homeschool year. 🗓

The month of September is so named because it was the seventh month (Latin septem, seven) of the ancient Roman calendar, which considered the spring equinox in March to be the beginning of the year. (That’s why next month is October, “Eighth,” followed by November, “Ninth,” and so on.) You can learn more about different kinds of modern and historical calendars on pages 358–364 in your River Houses almanac (riverhouses.org/books). 📚

September is the month of the autumnal equinox in the northern hemisphere — the astronomical beginning of autumn — which falls this year on Monday the 23rd. (In the southern hemisphere the 23rd will be the vernal equinox — the astronomical beginning of spring.) The autumnal and vernal equinoxes each year are the days of “equal night and light,” when the period of darkness and the period of daylight are very nearly the same. 🌞🌚

We’ll have homeschool poems this month from Horace (the Roman, not the otter), Robert Frost (for our common labor), Elizabeth Jennings (for approaching fall), and Emily Dickinson (for departing summer). Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar and join us as we visit with forty-eight of our favorite friends over the course of the year. 🖋

Our monthly Great Star for September is Deneb (alpha Cygni), which we’ll be writing about next week. Print your own River Houses Star Calendar and follow along as we visit twelve high lights of the northern hemisphere night sky and make them friends for life. 🌟

Our Sunday states-of-the-week for September will be Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut (and our countries will run from Afghanistan to Bhutan). Print your own River Houses States & Countries Calendar and tour the whole world with us over the course of the year. 🇺🇸 🌏

We’ll also be visiting World Heritage Sites in Afghanistan, Angola, Australia, and Bahrain this month — our River Houses World Heritage Calendar will point the way. 🗺

Our monthly Learning the Library post for September will introduce our annual tour of the Dewey Decimal system — follow along with us (on the first Tuesday of each month) and invite your students to explore the whole of knowledge (really!) over the course of the school year. 📚

Also coming up this month:

⬩ 1 September (Su): The River Houses Year Begins! 🎉

⬩ 2 September (M): Labor Day (Federal Holiday). 🇺🇸

⬩ 12 September (Th): Traditional date of the Battle of Marathon, 490 B.C. 🏃

⬩ 14 September (Sa): Our monthly full-moon report from the Lunar Society (real research opportunities for homeschool students). 🌕

⬩ 17 September (Tu): Constitution Day / Citizenship Day. 🇺🇸

⬩ 19 September (Th): International Talk-Like-a-Pirate Day! (Arrr!) ☠️

⬩ 23 September (M): Autumnal (September) Equinox. 🌞🌚

What calendrical events will you be marking in your homeschool this month? 😊

❡ Thirty days hath September: This is one of our regular Homeschool Terms & Calendars posts (riverhouses.org/topics/calendars). Print your own River Houses Calendars (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us throughout the year, and add your name to our free mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) to get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox every week. 🗞

🦢 CYGNUS TERM 2019 and the New River Houses Year

1 September 2019 by Bob O'Hara

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

Today marks the beginning of the River Houses year and the beginning of our Fall Term — Cygnus Term — which runs from September through November.

We put great stock in the educational value of the calendar in the River Houses. The calendar is the framework on which we human beings hang a great many of the facts we know about the world: historical events, natural phenomena, personal reminiscences, the seasons, blooming flowers, migrating birds, the sun and moon, the planets, the stars. A key part of every student’s intellectual development is the development of “calendar sense” — a sense of time and history.

Our annual River Houses calendar divides the homeschool year into four three-month terms (quarters) that roughly correspond to the seasons, and these terms are named after prominent seasonal constellations of the northern hemisphere:

✦ Fall or Cygnus Term (September–November)
✦ Winter or Orion Term (December–February)
✦ Spring or Leo Term (March–May)
✦ Summer or Hercules Term (June–August)

This calendrical division is a new and open-ended idea that we’re developing for the River Houses, and we think has a great deal of educational potential. We’re looking forward to its elaboration as time goes on.

As you think about your own homeschool year, think about how different parts of it — curricular, co-curricular, social, or recreational — might be informally arranged into these three-month terms. You could have a different decorating theme in your classroom each term, for example, or you could schedule a regular trip to a special place at the beginning of each term to see how the seasons change. You could group your curricular work by term, or set goals at the beginning of each term that you want your students to meet. You could have your students measure their height and weight at the beginning of each term, or take their penny-jar to the bank for a quarterly deposit. At the end of each term you could assemble a portfolio of student accomplishments. With a little imagination you will be able to come up with a clever and comfortable arrangement and a new way to think about the structure of your educational year.

[The constellation Cygnus] — The constellation Cygnus, the Great Swan of the Heavens, making its nightly flight to the western horizon. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

Today is the first day of Cygnus Term, named for the Great Swan of the Heavens that is high in the east at sunset now each evening, and that will be passing overhead to the west as the fall comes on. Your students’ vocabulary word for the day is “cygnet.” 😊 And be sure to take note of the scientific names of the earthly swans on page 22 in your homeschool bird guide.

If you want to make a special astronomical study this Cygnus Term, your River Houses reference library (riverhouses.org/books) includes an excellent little guide to the night sky that will show you the location of Cygnus and its most prominent stars:

“Cygnus lies in what for observers is a dense and fascinating part of the sky. The bird’s wings span the Milky Way at a location packed with stars and an assortment of deep-sky objects. Owing to the positions of its brightest stars it is sometimes called the Northern Cross — the northern parallel to the Southern Cross constellation in the Southern Hemisphere. You will see Cygnus highest in the sky in late summer and early fall, with its head pointing south like a bird on its migratory path toward warmer climates.

“A thick band of dust lies within Cygnus, creating a dark space in the Milky Way that is easily visible to the naked eye under good conditions. This part of the Milky Way is known as the Cygnus Rift or the Northern Coalsack, a name borrowed from a similar dark spot found in the Southern Cross.“ (National Geographic Backyard Guide to the Night Sky, page 216)

Why not spend a little time out after dark with your students over the next three months and locate the Great Swan as it makes its nightly migratory flight to the west. Once you learn to spot him, you’ll have a friend for life.

[Chart of the constellation Cygnus] — Star chart of the constellation Cygnus. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)

What educational adventures do you and your homescholars have planned for this Cygnus Term? 🦢

❡ Quarter days and cross-quarter days: Dividing the year into quarters is an ancient and natural practice: the annual movement of the sun across the sky automatically gives us two equinoxes, two solstices, and four seasons. Our four terms are just a simple modification of that natural arrangement so that our River Houses calendar will align more conveniently with the ordinary months and with the more-or-less customary American school year. In many traditional calendrical systems, going back into the Middle Ages, the first day of each quarter is called a quarter day and the midpoint of each quarter is called a cross-quarter day. That means the quarter days of the River Houses year are 1 September, 1 December, 1 March, and 1 June, and the cross-quarter days are 15 October, 15 January, 15 April, and 15 July. (Fun fact: a vestige of the old system of quarter and cross-quarter days is Groundhog Day, also known as Candlemas on the Christian calendar: it’s the cross-quarter day between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.) Quarter days have for centuries been the traditional days on which school terms began, so homeschoolers who follow our River Houses calendar are participating in a very ancient tradition indeed. 😊

❡ Watchers of the skies: Teaching your students to recognize the constellations is one of the simplest and most enduring gifts you can give them. Your recommended River Houses astronomy guide (riverhouses.org/books) has descriptions and maps of each constellation that point out the highlights, and the astronomical section of your recommended world atlas has beautiful large charts of both celestial spheres. Find a dark-sky spot near you this term and spend some quality homeschool time beneath the starry vault. 🔭

❡ Choose something like a star: If you’d like some more easy and comfortable homeschool astronomy lessons, download and print a copy of our annual River Houses Star Calendar (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us month by month as we make twelve heavenly friends-for-life over the course of the year. 🌟

🎉 THE 2019–2020 HOMESCHOOL YEAR BEGINS: Let the River Run!

1 September 2019 by Bob O'Hara

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-2020-year

Welcome to the 2019–2020 River Houses year! Let all the dreamers wake the nation.

➢

“Let the River Run” performed by Conspirare (Simon/arr. Johnson).

The River Houses project is a big and wonderful plan to create a new type of friendly, neighborhood, homeschool network. For the past year we’ve been constructing a wide range of educational materials, and over the coming year we’re going to be developing structural and organizational ideas for the local groups — the “houses” of our name — that will be the key components of our plan.

Please add your name to our free weekly mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) to get great homeschool teaching ideas all through the coming year and to follow along with us as we grow. And be sure to print out your own River Houses calendars for the upcoming year (riverhouses.org/calendars) — they will help to give a light and easy structure to your educational year.

Let The River Run

Carly Simon

We’re coming to the edge,
Running on the water.

Let the river run,
Let all the dreamers
Wake the nation.
Come, the New Jerusalem.

Silver cities rise,
The morning lights
The streets that meet them,
And sirens call them on
With a song.

It’s asking for the taking.
Trembling, shaking.
Oh, my heart is aching.

We’re coming to the edge,
Running on the water,
Coming through the fog,
Your sons and daughters.

Let the river run,
Let all the dreamers
Wake the nation.
Come, the New Jerusalem.

Silver cities rise,
The morning lights
The streets that meet them,
And sirens call them on
With a song.

We’re coming to the edge,
Running on the water.

What works of art will you be creating, what astronomical alignments will you be examining, what calendrical events will you be marking, what geographical excursions will you be taking, what historical anniversaries will you be remembering, what holidays will you be celebrating, what museums will you be visiting, what music will you be playing, what poems will you be reciting, what scientific experiments will you be conducting, what stellar spectacles will you be observing, what wonderful words will you be reading, and what worlds will you be discovering your homeschool in the year ahead? 😊

❡ Let the river run: This is one of our occasional Homeschool Terms & Calendars posts. Print your own River Houses Calendars (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us throughout the year, and add your name to our free mailing list (riverhouses.org/newsletter) to get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox every week. 🗞

🏞 AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL: San Antonio Missions National Park

28 August 2019 by Bob O'Hara

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-san-antonio-quarter

Calling all homeschool historians, geographers, artists, and treasure hunters! Here’s something new for you to search for this month: the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park “America the Beautiful” quarter from the U.S. Mint:

[Click for image: riverhouses.org/2019-san-antonio-quarter]

The San Antonio Missions National Historical Park “America the Beautiful” quarter, 2019. (Image: U.S. Mint.)

If you’re looking for a fun and easy way to include some interesting geographical and historical facts in your homeschool schedule (as well as a little treasure hunting), you can’t do better than to keep an eye on the “America the Beautiful” quarters series. This commemorative series began in 2010 and each year five new designs are issued featuring national parks and other historic sites in the U.S. states and territories.

The latest quarter commemorates the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park in Texas, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it has just gone into circulation:

“The San Antonio Missions were among the largest concentrations of Spanish missions in North America, established in the 1700s, and helped create the foundation for the City of San Antonio, TX. The construction of aqueducts and irrigation canals (acequias) brought water to the missions sustaining farming and ranching. The missions’ toolmaking, carpentry, looming, spinning, and masonry also contributed to the community’s ability to be self-sustaining.“ (U.S. Mint)

The Mint has a remarkably comprehensive set of free lesson plans available for the whole America the Beautiful series — you could make quite an American history course out of them. And the Mint also has a very nice simple album for this series (amzn.to/2D2A3dO) — just the thing to get some educational treasure hunting under way.

(And next up, if you want to look ahead: a quarter for the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho, scheduled for November.)

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

❡ Come, here’s the map: The America the Beautiful quarters are a great tool for teaching about geography. Locate each park and each historic site in your homeschool atlas (riverhouses.org/books), and spread out your whole collection on atlas plate 35, the map of the entire United States. 🇺🇸

❡ Make it a tradition: Why not pick up an old roll of circulated quarters at your local grocery store or bank each week and invite your students to go through it around the kitchen table. A whole world of historical and geographical discovery awaits them. 💰

❡ Cabinets of wonder: This is one of our occasional posts on the educational value of collections and collecting for homeschoolers. 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. 🔎

🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 25 August 2019

25 August 2019 by Bob O'Hara

For live links, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-08-25

✦ This is the last week of HERCULES TERM, our Summer Term in the River Houses, and the last week of the 2018–2019 River Houses year. CYGNUS TERM and the new 2019–2020 academic year begin on Sunday, the 1st of September!

🌎 OUR “STATE” OF THE WEEK, wrapping up our year-long tour, is the planet Earth itself, and our “COUNTRIES” are the Solar System and the Universe beyond! (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 waning crescent — 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, 25 August) — Today is the 237th day of 2019; there are 127 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). 📚 On this second day of the burning of Washington in 1814, the U.S. Treasury, the Library of Congress, and other public buildings were destroyed by British Troops. 🇬🇧⚔️🇺🇸 Today is also the birthday of American illustrator Walt Kelly (1913–1973), the creator of the comic strip Pogo. 🎨 And it’s also the birthday of the great American conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990). 🎵

Monday (26 August) — Today is the birthday of one of the founders of modern chemistry, the great French scientist Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794), who coined the names “oxygen” and “hydrogen.” ⚗️

Tuesday (27 August) — One of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history took place on this day in 1883 in the Krakatoa archipelago in Indonesia. Over the course of the previous day an ash cloud seventeen miles high had developed over the islands, and on the 27th four massive explosions occurred, the largest of which was heard 3000 miles away in the Indian Ocean. The ash injected into the atmosphere by the Krakatoa eruption produced vivid sunsets all around the world for many months. 🌋

Wednesday (28 August) — Today is the birthday of the American naturalist and artist Roger Tory Peterson (1908–1996), whose series of compact field guides helped to make amateur bird study popular around the world. 🦆 And on this day in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. 🕊

Thursday (29 August) — Today is the birthday of the great philosopher of liberty John Locke (1632–1704), whose works influenced the framing of the American system of government. 📖

Friday (30 August) — Today is the birthday of English novelist Mary Shelley (1797–1851), the author of Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). 🌭🍺 It’s also the birthday of baseball great Ted Williams (1918–2002), the last major league player to bat over .400 in a season (1941). ⚾️

Saturday (31 August) — Italian educator and physician Maria Montessori was born on this day in 1870. Her approach to early childhood education remains popular in homeschools as well as in public and private schools around the world today. 👩🏼‍🏫

The 2019–2020 River Houses Year Begins. Let the river run!

Sunday (1 September) — Welcome to a New River Houses Year! 🎉 For this first week of September, this first week of Cygnus Term, and this first week of the 2019–2020 River Houses year, our homeschool poem-of-the-week will be our traditional extract from Jonathan Swift’s adaptation of the Roman poet Horace (65–8 B.C.): “A handsome house to lodge a friend, / A river at my garden’s end.” 📜 Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us throughout the 2019–2020 homeschool year. 😊

🥂 OUR WEEKLY TOAST, for the old school year just ending and the new school year about to begin, is a new-year wish that is probably modern but is often attributed (like many other wise sayings) to Benjamin Franklin: “Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.”

🌌 EVERYTHING FLOWS: The Universe is our “country” of the week for this last week of the River Houses year, so our Weekly World River is the constellation Eridanus, the Great River of the Heavens. You can chart its course in the astronomical section of your recommended homeschool atlas (riverhouses.org/books), and you can read more about it in the comprehensive Eridanus entry in Wikipedia or perhaps on your next visit to your local library.

The constellation Eridanus, the Great River of the Heavens, flowing from beside the feet of Orion (upper left) down below the celestial equator into the southern hemisphere. (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, 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!

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

🌎 🌌 SUNDAY STATES: The Earth, the Solar System, and Beyond

25 August 2019 by Bob O'Hara

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

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’ve spent the entire past school year completing our States & Countries review, and this week we conclude with the whole Earth itself and the wonderful Universe beyond:

🌎 THE EARTH — The Blue Planet, Third Rock from the Sun. Capitals: 196 of them, listed here over the entire past year. The Earth as a whole can be found on plates 3–25 in your recommended homeschool atlas (riverhouses.org/books) — don’t miss the opportunity to go through that wonderful set of thematic maps with your students, covering everything from topography to population to vegetation to climate to transportation to Internet connectivity. Your almanac, too, has facts and figures about the physical Earth on pages 355–357 and in many other locations throughout the volume.

A new River Houses tour of the world will begin next week with the new school year! Print out your own States & Countries Calendar on our main calendar page (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us. 😊

❡ Little lessons: You can teach a hundred little lessons with the states-of-the-week that we post each Sunday all through the year, 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. 😊

And now that you’ve spent a year touring everything on the entire Earth 😲, the whole rest of the Universe awaits you!

🌌 THE UNIVERSE is beautifully illustrated in your recommended homeschool atlas (riverhouses.org/books) on plates 120–127. You’ll find star-maps for the northern and southern hemispheres, detailed maps of the moon and Mars, a beautiful chart of the solar system and all the planets, and two amazing illustrations of the Milky Way and the scope of everything that is known. Those few plates are enough to teach an entire year of homeschool astronomy — don’t miss the opportunity to share them with your young scholars today. 🔭

We hope you’ve enjoyed our geographical explorations over the 2018–2019 academic year. What grand geographical discoveries will you be making in the wonderful homeschool year ahead? 😊

🦅 NATURE NOTES: The Beginning of Fall Migration

23 August 2019 by Horace the Otter

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

It may still feel like summer, but the signs of approaching autumn are all around. Have your students seen them? They vary from region to region, but if you keep your eyes open they’re unmistakeable.

In my part of the world, one of the first signs of fall is the migration of Common Nighthawks high overhead, hawking their way to the south.

[For images, click to: riverhouses.org/2019-nighthawks]

Nighthawks are not hawks — they belong to the goatsucker family along with Whip-poor-wills and Chuck-will’s-widows (see page 84 in your homeschool bird guide for a gallery of goatsuckers). Although they are not hawks, they do hawk — for insects in flight. Their obligatory insectivorous habit tends to make them early migrants, because if they get caught in a cold snap that kills off their flying food supply, they could themselves starve.

Common Nighthawks are daytime (or evening) migrants, and they often travel in groups, so they’re a conspicuous sign of fall for people who keep their eyes on the sky. Many smaller songbirds, however, migrate at night, and their direct movements are generally invisible to the ordinary observer. Those movements aren’t invisible to radar, however, and one of the most remarkable real-time science websites you can share with the young naturalists in your household is the BirdCast.info site sponsored by Cornell University:

➢ BirdCast Nightly Migration Forecasts

BirdCast is a bird-migration forecasting and monitoring service that documents the nightly migratory movements of millions birds across the United States hour by hour. It includes both forecasts, just like weather forecasts — how heavy is the nightly migration expected to be over the next three days — as well as real-time radar reports, beginning at sunset on the east coast and continuing through the night across the country, tracking the actual volume of bird traffic in the air.

Sample real-time radar image of migrating birds across the United States in May 2019. Visit the BirdCast website for current forecasts and tracking during the spring and fall. (Image: birdcast.info.)

We’ll have more nature notes to follow as the season progresses. Keep your eyes on the sky. 👓

What signs of fall have you seen in your homeschool this week? 😊

❡ 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. 🦉

❡ Homeschool birds: We think bird study is one of the best subjects you can take up in a homeschool environment. It’s suitable for all ages, it can be made as elementary or as advanced as you wish, and birds can be found just about anywhere at any season of the year. Why not track your own homeschool bird observations on the free eBird website, also sponsored by Cornell University. It’s a great way to learn more about what’s in your local area and about how bird populations change from season to season. 🐦

❡ 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. 😊

🏡 ENVOY: “A Living River by the Door”

22 August 2019 by Bob O'Hara

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

The River Houses year is coming to a close and this is our very last homeschool poem-of-the-week for 2018–2019. We hope you and your students have enjoyed visiting with forty-eight of our favorite friends. 😊 The new school year will begin in a few days, but in the mean time, Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) gives the departing year a perfect River Houses send-off:

Envoy

Go, little book, and wish to all
Flowers in the garden, meat in the hall,
A bin of wine, a spice of wit,
A house with lawns enclosing it,
A living river by the door,
A nightingale in the sycamore!

“Envoy” (or its French form, “Envoi”) is a generic title, not a specific one — like “Appendix” or “Afterword.” An “Envoy” in the poetic sense is a note of departure: a short verse that appears at the end of a longer work and that wraps up the whole and sends readers on their way.

Homeschooling, Robert Louis Stevenson style: illustration by Dorothy O’Reilly from a 1908 edition of *A Child’s Garden of Verses*. (Image: Library of Congress via the Internet Archive.)

As this school year comes to a close, our little blog wishes all our homeschool readers, by way of envoy, “Flowers in the garden, meat in the hall, / A bin of wine, a spice of wit, / A house with lawns enclosing it, / A living river by the door, / A nightingale in the sycamore!”

What wonderful words will you and your students discover in the homeschool year ahead? 😊

❡ A living river by the door: 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 Robert Louis Stevenson) 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. 📖

🗺 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: A (Nearly) Free World Heritage Wall Map

21 August 2019 by Bob O'Hara

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

Every Wednesday we’ve been paying a homeschool visit to a World Heritage Site, drawn from one of our countries-of-the-week. The 2018–2019 River Houses year is coming to a close (and the 2019–2020 year will begin next month), so we’re going to wrap up our current grand World Heritage tour by inviting you to order a copy of the lovely full-color World Heritage Map that’s available from UNESCO for just the price of shipping (US$3.00).

Front of World Heritage Map, 31 × 20 inches. (Image: UNESCO World Heritage Centre.)

I ordered my own copy this week and will give you a report when it arrives. It sounds like just the thing for your homeschool bulletin board, and it can double as a general-purpose world wall map as well:

“This large format full-colour map features World Heritage sites and brief explanations of the World Heritage Convention and the World Heritage conservation programmes. It is available in English, French and Spanish, [and has] superb photos of World Heritage sites with explanatory captions. The dimensions of the map are 78 cm by 50 cm (31 in. by 20 in.).“ (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)

Back of World Heritage Map showing complete list of sites. (Image: UNESCO World Heritage Centre.)

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, and you can order your copy of the World Heritage Map right here:

➢ UNESCO World Heritage Map

We’ll be starting up a new World Heritage tour next month as the new River Houses year begins. Download a copy of our printable World Heritage Calendar (riverhouses.org/calendars) and follow along with us!

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, geographical, and cultural 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. 🌎