![[The River Houses]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/arms-icon-100x100.png "The River Houses"){kind=icon}
![[West Virginia State Bird & Flower]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/west-virginia-stamp-1982a-99x150.png)
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: West Virginia, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, and Poland. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
🐦 HOMESCHOOL NATURE NOTES: MAY is Bird Migration Month!
![[Homeschool Science & Nature Study]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/peak-us-migration-dates-150x91.jpeg)
Bird migration is one of the world’s most wonderful natural phenomena. Don’t miss the chance to teach your homeschool students about it, during May and all through the year.
🌳 HOMESCHOOL HOLIDAYS: Happy Arbor Day Weekend!
![[Arbor Day Stamp 1932]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/arbor-day-stamp-1932-130x150.jpg)
It’s National Arbor Day! Why not celebrate this delightful dendrological occasion by planting a tree in honor of your homeschool this week.
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Gnatcatchers, Dippers, & Kinglets
![[Homeschool Science & Nature Study]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/birds-gnatcatchers-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 tiny Gnatcatchers, Dippers, and Kinglets.
🎂 🎭 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WILL! (Shakespeare, That Is)
Happy birthday to the Bard! Celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday this week with some free teaching materials from Shakespeare’s birthplace itself.
🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve
![[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: Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Kansas.
🖋 🌸 WONDERFUL WORDS: Loveliest of Trees
“And since to look at things in bloom / Fifty springs are little room, / About the woodlands I will go / To see the cherry hung with snow.” (Our flowery homeschool poem-of-the-week, from A.E. Housman, for the loveliest of trees.)
📚 BOOKS & LIBRARIES: A Free Course on Classic Children’s Literature
![[Hillsdale College]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/hillsdale-college-logo-150x150.png){kind=logo}
If you’d like to teach some classic children’s literature in your homeschool and are wondering how to go about it, this free online course from Hillsdale College in Michigan could be just the thing for you!
🎵 HOMESCHOOL MUSIC: Relax With Randall Thompson’s “Alleluia”
Feeling cooped up and stressed out? Calm your homeschool down with the peaceful “Alleluia” of American composer Randall Thompson, born on this day in 1899.
🖋 🕊 WONDERFUL WORDS: George Herbert’s “Easter Wings”
“O let me rise / As larks, harmoniously, / And sing this day thy victories: / Then shall the fall further the flight in me.” (A special soaring homeschool poem-of-the-week, from George Herbert, for Easter.)
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 20 April 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: Shakespearean birthdays, Bostonian sieges, Arbor Days, falling stars, Trojan wars, Roman kings, avian artists, Papuan rivers, a toast to good fortune, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Kansas, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, and More
![[Kansas State Bird & Flower]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/kansas-stamp-1982a-98x150.png)
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Kansas, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, and Papua New Guinea. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Nuthatches, Creepers, & Wrens
![[Homeschool Science & Nature Study]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/birds-nuthatches-150x99.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 small and friendly Nuthatches, Creepers, and Wrens.
🇺🇸 AMERICAN ICON: The Concord Minute Man
Teach your homeschool students to recognize one of the most famous artistic symbols of the American Revolution this week: Daniel Chester French’s “Minute Man” (1874).
🇺🇸 🏇 WONDERFUL WORDS: “The fate of a nation was riding that night”
“A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark, / And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark / Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet: / That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light, / The fate of a nation was riding that night.” (An extra equestrian homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Longfellow, for the beginning of the American Revolution in 1775.)
🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Crater Lake National Park
For America’s 250th anniversary, discover the history and landscape of the United States. This week: Crater Lake National Park in Oregon.
🖋 🇺🇸 WONDERFUL WORDS: “Here once the embattled farmers stood”
“By the rude bridge that arched the flood, / Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled, / Here once the embattled farmers stood / And fired the shot heard round the world.” (Our patriotic homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Ralph Waldo Emerson, for the beginning of the American Revolution in 1775.)
🗓 🦁 HAPPY CROSS-QUARTER DAY of Leo Term
We divide the homeschool year into four three-month terms, and the midpoint of each term (following old calendrical tradition) is called the “cross-quarter day.” Today, April 15th, is the cross-quarter day of Leo Term, our spring term in the River Houses. How are things going in your homeschool?
🔎 HOMESCHOOL RESEARCH & NEWS – April 2025
![[Homeschool Research Icon]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/research-150x80.jpg)
Our April roundup of some recent academic research and news about home education in the United States and around the world, with links to sources. We have six items this month, on government regulation of homeschooling; homeschooling in the Philippines; homeschooling in Canada; alleged maltreatment of homeschool students; U.S. homeschooling trends; and public perceptions of homeschoolers.
🗓 🇺🇸 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 13 April 2025
Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: American Revolutions, patriotic poems, marvelous messengers, cross-quarter days, polymathic painters, little birds, historic rivers, a toast to heroes, & more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Oregon, Nigeria, Oman, and More
![[Oregon State Bird & Flower]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/oregon-stamp-1982a-101x150.png)
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Oregon, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Norway, and Oman. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
🌕 HOMESCHOOL CITIZEN-SCIENCE PROJECTS for April
Our April full-moon report on the many “citizen-science” projects around the world that you and your students can participate in from the comfort of your little home academy. Pick one and get started today!
🌟 STAR BRIGHT: Regulus and Leo for April
![[Leo Star Chart]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/leo-regulus-chart-122x150.png)
Make the acquaintance of “the little king” Regulus in the constellation Leo the Lion this month, one of the brightest stars in the northern hemisphere night sky, and make it your homeschool friend for life.
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Chickadees, Titmice, & Allies
![[Homeschool Science & Nature Study]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/birds-chickadees-150x99.jpg)
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 friendly and familiar Chickadees, Titmice, and their allies.
🐦 HOMESCHOOL NATURE NOTES: Watching Bird Migration with BirdCast
Introduce your young homeschool scientists to the wonderful BirdCast website. Track the birds that are migrating across the United States every night.
🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Voyageurs National Park
For America’s 250th anniversary, discover the history and landscape of the United States. This week: Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota.
🖋 ☀️ WONDERFUL WORDS: Calmly We Walk Through This April’s Day
![[Heraclitus]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/heraclitus-stamp-1961-129x150.jpg)
“May memory restore again and again / The smallest color of the smallest day: / Time is the school in which we learn, / Time is the fire in which we burn.” (Our Heraclitean homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Delmore Schwartz, for April days.)
