![[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-owls-150x95.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 Barn Owls and the Typical Owls.
🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site
![[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: Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site in Alabama.
🖍 HOMESCHOOL ARTS: Color Our Collections Week!
![[Color Our Collections]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Color_Our_Collections_web-scaled-150x103.jpeg)
Download a whole year’s worth of free educational coloring booklets from libraries and museums all around the world. It’s one of the best educational art opportunities you can find for your homeschool.
🎵 HOMESCHOOL MUSIC: Happy Birthday Mozart!
Happy birthday to one of the greatest musical composers of all time, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born on this day in 1756 in Salzburg, Austria. Here are some little Mozart lessons that you can share with your homeschool music students this week.
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 26 January 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: Classical composers, winter poems, groundhog days, wise birds, American voices, eponymous founders, Kenyan rivers, a toast to bravery, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Alabama, Japan, Kenya, and More
![[Alabama State Bird & Flower]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/alabama-stamp-1982b-97x150.png)
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Alabama, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, and Kenya. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
🖋 🌹 WONDERFUL WORDS: Happy Birthday to Robert Burns!
![[Robert Burns Stamp]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/burns-rose-stamp-1996-150x150.jpg)
“Till all the seas gang dry, my dear, / And the rocks melt wi’ the sun; / I will love thee still, my dear, / While the sands of life shall run.” (Happy birthday to Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland, born on this day in 1759.)
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Vultures, Ospreys, Hawks, Kites, & Eagles
![[Homeschool Science & Nature Study]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/birds-vultures-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: New World Vultures, Ospreys, Hawks, Kites, and Eagles.
🖋 🌊 HOMESCHOOL HISTORY & LITERATURE: Remembering Challenger
“I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, / And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.” (Our commemorative homeschool poem-of-the-week, from John Masefield, for the Challenger Seven of 1986.)
🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Chicago Portage National Historic Site
For America’s 250th anniversary, discover the history and landscape of the United States. This week: Chicago Portage National Historic Site in Illinois.
🔎 HOMESCHOOL RESEARCH & NEWS – January 2025
![[Homeschool Research Icon]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/research-150x80.jpg)
Our January 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 four items this month, on Islamic homeschooling; homeschool alumni in Czechia; Christian homeschooling; and homeschool science education.
🖋 ❄️ WONDERFUL WORDS: An Unexpected “Snow-Storm”
“All friends shut out, the housemates sit / Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed / In a tumultuous privacy of storm.” (An extra wintry homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Ralph Waldo Emerson, for unexpected blizzards.)
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 19 January 2025
Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: Tall ships, gold mines, great poets, hopeful dreams, Rocky Mountains, majestic birds, Israeli rivers, a toast to lucky labor, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Illinois, Ireland, Jamaica, and More
![[Illinois State Bird & Flower]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/illinois-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: Illinois, Ireland, Israel, Italy, and Jamaica. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
🚀 HOMESCHOOL SCIENCE: The Webb Telescope & Other NASA Missions
![[Webb Space Telescope]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/webb-telescope-logo-150x83.png){kind=logo}
Homeschool scientists can discover a world of wonder by keeping track of a NASA mission or two each month, including the James Webb Space Telescope as it explores the early universe.
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Herons, Bitterns, Ibises, & Spoonbills
![[Homeschool Science & Nature Study]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/birds-herons-150x105.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 Herons, Bitterns, Ibises, and Spoonbills, all long-legged wading birds.
🖋 🇺🇸 WONDERFUL WORDS (and Music!): Lift Every Voice and Sing
“Let our rejoicing rise / High as the listening skies, / Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.” (Our patriotic homeschool poem-of-the-week, from James Weldon Johnson, for the Martin Luther King holiday.)
🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Vicksburg National Military Park
For America’s 250th anniversary, discover the history and landscape of the United States. This week: Vicksburg National Military Park in Mississippi.
🗓 🗡 HAPPY CROSS-QUARTER DAY of Orion 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 is the cross-quarter day of Orion Term, our winter term in the River Houses. How are things going in your homeschool?
🌕 HOMESCHOOL CITIZEN-SCIENCE PROJECTS for January
Our January 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!
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 12 January 2025
Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: Cross-quarter days, patriotic songs, American originals, student projects, imperial accessions, first fleets, Iraqi rivers, a toast to freedom, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Mississippi, India, Iraq, and More
![[Mississippi State Bird & Flower]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/mississippi-stamp-1982a-97x150.png)
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Mississippi, India, Indonesia, Iran, and Iraq. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
🌟 STAR BRIGHT: Capella and Auriga for January
![[Auriga Star Chart]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/auriga-capella-chart-150x141.png)
Make the acquaintance of Capella in the constellation Auriga the Charioteer this month — a nearby four-star system and one of the brightest lights in the northern hemisphere night sky — and make it your homeschool friend for life.
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Storks, Frigatebirds, Gannets, Pelicans, & More
![[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
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.
