“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.)
🗓 🗡 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?
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 14 January 2024
Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: Patriotic songs, imperial accessions, romantic prophecies, American originals, majestic birds, first fleets, Indian rivers, a toast to freedom, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Mississippi, India, Iraq, and More
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
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: Herons, Bitterns, Ibises, and Spoonbills
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.
🌎 🇭🇹 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: Haiti’s National History Park
Pay a homeschool visit to a World Heritage Site from one of our countries-of-the-week and learn some great history and geography along the way. This week: the National History Park and Sans-Souci Palace in Haiti.
🇺🇸 LIBRARY LESSONS: The 118th Congress at the Library of Congress
If your homeschool students want to learn about the operations of the U.S. Congress, there’s no better place to look than on the website of the Library of Congress itself.
🖋 ⛸ 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 homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Gail Mazur, for all homeschool fathers.)
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 7 January 2023 2024!
Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: Galilean moons, consequential crossings, fairy tales, notable naturalists, paternal poems, great stars, leggy birds, Honduran rivers, a toast to new joys, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Indiana, Haiti, Iceland, and More
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Indiana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, and Iceland. Open up your atlas and almanac and follow along with us!
🖋 🌨 WONDERFUL WORDS: An Unexpected “Snow-Storm”
“All friends shut out, the housemates sit / Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed / In a tumultuous privacy of storm.” (A bonus homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Ralph Waldo Emerson, for unexpected blizzards.)
🔭 WATCHERS OF THE SKIES: Homeschool Astronomy for January
Our homeschool review of the educational wonders that you and your students can watch for in the northern hemisphere night sky during the month of January.
🎵 🎭 TWELFTH NIGHT and the End of Homeschool Holiday Music Month
“Long long ago the world begun, / With a hey, ho, the wind and the rain. / But that’s all one, our play is done, / And we’ll strive to please you every day.” (Shakespeare helps us bring the Christmas Season, and our own Homeschool Holiday Music Month, to a close.)
🎵 🎄 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: A Partridge in a 🍐🌳
One of the deepest purposes of a liberal education is to enable people to get jokes. David Chase’s brilliant arrangement of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” illustrates that happy principle for us as we approach the end of our Homeschool Holiday Music Month.
🦅 FRIDAY BIRD FAMILIES: Storks, Frigatebirds, Gannets, Pelicans, & More
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.
📸 PHOTO CHALLENGE for January: “Silos” and “Masks”
Calling all homeschool photographers! The Wikimedia Commons Photo Challenge is a great way for enthusiastic homeschool photography students to develop their skills and gain some recognition for their work. This month’s themes are “Silos” and “Masks.” Take a look!
🎵 🌟 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: Star in the East
For Homeschool Holiday Music Month, introduce your students to the early American tradition of shape-note music by way of the beautiful carol “Star in the East,” first published in the Southern Harmony collection in 1835.
🌎 🇬🇹 WEEKLY WORLD HERITAGE: Tikal National Park in Guatemala
Pay a homeschool visit to a World Heritage Site from one of our countries-of-the-week and learn some great history and geography along the way. This week: Tikal National Park in Guatemala.
📚 LEARNING THE LIBRARY: The Social 300s
Explore your local library and the whole universe of knowledge with our annual homeschool tour of the Dewey Decimal System. This month: the Social 300s.
🖋 ❄️ WONDERFUL WORDS: “What so soon will wake and grow”
“They could not grasp it if they knew, / What so soon will wake and grow / Utterly unlike the snow.” (Our hopeful homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Philip Larkin, for all things born in January.)
🎵 🎉 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: The Old Year Now Away is Fled
“Let’s merry be this day, / And let us now both sport and play, / Hang grief, cast care away, / God send you a happy new year!” (An ancient new-year carol sung to the tune “Greensleeves,” by the great countertenor Alfred Deller, for Homeschool Holiday Music Month.)
🗓 🎉 ❄️ HAPPY HOMESCHOOL JANUARY from the River Houses!
Happy January and Happy New Year! Here’s our monthly review of all the wonderful educational opportunities, little lessons, and teaching traditions you can look for in the homeschool month ahead.
🖋 🔔 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.)
🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 31 December 2023
Great homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons for the week ahead, including: New Years, Twelfth Nights, new calendars, new moons, missing planets, winter poems, Dewey decimals, Guatemalan rivers, a toast to war and peace, and more!
🌎 🇺🇸 SUNDAY STATES: Louisiana, Guatemala, Guyana, and More
Take a homeschool tour of the U.S. states and the countries of the world with the River Houses. This week: Louisiana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Guyana. 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.)