Take two minutes this week to introduce your homeschool students to a beautiful four-hundred-year-old Dutch folk tune that has become an American Thanksgiving classic.
🦃 THANKSGIVING at the LIBRARY: Franklin Roosevelt Talks Turkey
President Franklin Roosevelt offers a stern admonition on how to prepare your turkey. (Oh, the things you can find in the library!)
📚 HOMESCHOOL LIBRARIES: Happy Birthday to Andrew Carnegie!
If you love libraries as much as we do, be thankful this Thanksgiving week for the life of Andrew Carnegie, born on this day in 1835. His philanthropy built more than 2500 libraries in cities and towns across the United States and around the world.
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 24 November 2024
Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: Thanksgiving Days, American novelists, Alabama meteorites, shore birds, phamous philanthropists, Dominican rivers, a toast to two great fowls, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Rhode Island, Dominica, Egypt, and More
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Rhode Island, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Egypt. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
🎵 MUSICAL INTRODUCTIONS: Thomas Tallis, Master of Polyphony
Why not give thanks in your homeschool this Thanksgiving week for the life of Thomas Tallis, the grand master of early polyphonic music, who died on this day in 1585.
🖋 🦃 WONDERFUL WORDS: Delicious “Thanksgiving Magic”
“Oh, some like magic made by wands, / And some read magic out of books, / And some like fairy spells and charms / But I like magic made by cooks!” (Our delicious homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Rowena Bastin Bennett, for Thanksgiving!)
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Sandpipers (Part I)
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 long-legged Sandpipers (Part I), familiar shorebirds all around the world.
🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Guilford Courthouse National Military Park
For America’s 250th anniversary, discover the history and landscape of the United States. This week: Guilford Courthouse National Military Park in North Carolina.
🔎 HOMESCHOOL RESEARCH & NEWS – November 2024
Our November 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 homeschooling in the Czech Republic; Christian homeschooling in Britain; government regulation of homeschooling; and on a special collection of homeschool research papers in the Journal of School Choice.
🇺🇸 HOMESCHOOL HISTORY: Eight Score and One Year Ago
“What place is this? Where are we now?” (Marking the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, with help from Ken Burns and Carl Sandburg.)
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 17 November 2024
Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: Leonid meteors, Gettysburg Addresses, amazing astronomers, legendary lyricists, excellent equations, ethereal music, Cypriot rivers, a toast to freedom, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: North Carolina, Cyprus, Djibouti, and More
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: North Carolina, Cyprus, Czechia (Czech Republic), Denmark, and Djibouti. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
🖋 🌠 WONDERFUL WORDS: Of Poems and Meteors
“Stars, I have seen them fall, / But when they drop and die / No star is lost at all / From all the star-sown sky.” (Our sublunary homeschool poem-of-the-week, from A.E. Housman, for the annual Leonid meteor shower.)
🌕 HOMESCHOOL CITIZEN-SCIENCE PROJECTS for November
Our November 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!
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Lapwings, Plovers, & Jacanas
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 leggy Lapwings, Plovers, and Jacanas.
🌠 🦁 HOMESCHOOL ASTRONOMY: Leonid Meteors for November
Take your young astronomers outside this week and look to the constellation Leo for the annual Leonid meteor shower.
🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Saratoga National Historical Park
For America’s 250th anniversary, discover the history and landscape of the United States. This week: Saratoga National Historical Park in New York.
📚 🇺🇸 HOMESCHOOL HISTORY: The Veterans History Project
You and your homeschool students can contribute to an important historical documentary project by interviewing American veterans in your family or community for the Library of Congress.
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 10 November 2024
Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: Veterans Days, eleventh hours, magical movies, Mayflower Compacts, artistic birthdays, wading birds, Cuban rivers, a toast to remembrance, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: New York, Costa Rica, Cuba, and More
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: New York, Costa Rica, Cote d’Ivoire, Croatia, and Cuba. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
🌟 STAR BRIGHT: Algol and Perseus for November
Make the acquaintance of the strange variable star Algol this month — “the demon star” in the constellation Perseus the Hero and one of the brightest stars in the northern hemisphere sky — and make it your homeschool friend for life.
🖋 🕊 THE ELEVENTH DAY of the Eleventh Month: We Will Remember Them
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: / Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. / At the going down of the sun and in the morning / We will remember them.” (Our commemorative homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Laurence Binyon, for Veterans Day and Armistice Day.)
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Stilts, Avocets, & Oystercatchers
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 long-legged Stilts, Avocets, and Oystercatchers.
⚗️ HOMESCHOOL SCIENCE & HISTORY: Happy Birthday to Marie Curie!
Happy birthday to the great Polish-French physicist, chemist, and two-time Nobel laureate Marie Skłodowska Curie, born on this day in 1867.
🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Jamestown National Historic Site
For America’s 250th anniversary, discover the history and landscape of the United States. This week: Jamestown National Historic Site in Virginia.
📚 LEARNING THE LIBRARY: The Philosophical 100s
Explore your local library and the whole universe of knowledge with our homeschool tour of the Dewey Decimal system. This month: the Philosophical 100s.