🗓️ QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 25 January 2026

Quick Freshes is our regular Sunday almanac for the homeschool week ahead. Pick one or two (or more!) of the items below each week and use them to enrich your homeschooling schedule. Subscribe to our free homeschool newsletter to get posts like these delivered right to your mailbox each week. Visit our River Houses calendar page to print your own homeschool calendars and planners for the entire year.

🐦 THE GREAT BACKYARD BIRD COUNT is coming up next month on Washington’s Birthday weekend (13–16 February) all across the country and around the world! It’s one of the best homeschool science activities all year. How many birds will you find in your neighborhood?

🇺🇸 OUR STATE-OF-THE-WEEK is Illinois, and our COUNTRIES are Ireland 🇮🇪, Israel 🇮🇱, Italy 🇮🇹, and Jamaica 🇯🇲. (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 at its first quarter — a good time for moon watching! You can explore the solar system and the features of the moon in your backyard astronomy guide and your homeschool world atlas, and you can learn a host of stellar and lunar facts in the Astronomy section your current world almanac. Browse through our regular homeschool astronomy posts for even more.

🗓️️ TODAY, Sunday (25 January 2026) — Today is the 25th day of 2026; there are 340 days remaining in this common year. Learn more about different modern and historical calendars in the Science & Technology section of your recommended world almanac. 📚 Today is also the birthday of the great Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759–1796), aye. 🌹

Monday (26 January 2026) — The world’s largest diamond, the 3100-carat Cullinan Diamond, was found on this day in 1905 in the Premier mine near Pretoria, South Africa. 💎 And on this day in 1915, Rocky Mountain National Park was established by an act of the U.S. Congress. 🏞️️

Tuesday (27 January 2026) — Today is the birthday of the great classical composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). 🎼

Wednesday (28 January 2026) — On this day in 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds after launch. All seven members of the Challenger crew were lost. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Today is also the birthday of the great choral composer John Taverner (1944–2013). 🎼 And our Wednesday tour of American Heritage Sites this week will take you to the Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Illinois. 🇺🇸

Thursday (29 January 2026) — Today is the birthday of Revolutionary War general Moses Cleaveland (1754–1806), the founder of Cleveland, Ohio. 🏙 It’s also the birthday of the great Russian writer Anton Chekhov (1860–1904). 🖋

Friday (30 January 2026) — Today is the birthday of four-term U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt (1882–1945). 🇺🇸 It’s also the birthday of pioneering computer scientist Douglas Engelbart (1925–2013), inventor of the computer mouse and many other standard features of modern computers. 🖱 And our Friday Bird Families lesson this week will introduce you to the wise old Owls. Print your own River Houses Calendar of American Birds and follow the flyways with us throughout the year. 🦉

Saturday (31 January 2026) — Today is the birthday of the great Austrian pianist and composer Franz Schubert (1797–1828). 🎹 It’s also the birthday of baseball great Jackie Robinson (1919–1972), the first African-American to play in the Major Leagues. ⚾️ And on this day in 1930, Scotch Tape first went on the market! 📦

Sunday (1 February 2026) — On this day in 1942, at the height of World War II, the Voice of America, the official overseas radio service of the U.S. government, began broadcasting to territories in Europe controlled by the Axis powers. 📻 There’s a full moon tonight, so that means we’ll have a report from the Lunar Society of the River Houses on the many wonderful citizen-science projects that are available to homeschool students. 🌕 Our homeschool poem-of-the-week for first week of February is Robert Frost’s wintry classic “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar and follow along with us throughout the year. ❄️ And our Sunday States & Countries for next week will be Alabama 🇺🇸, Japan 🇯🇵, Jordan 🇯🇴, Kazakhstan 🇰🇿, and Kenya 🇰🇪.

🥂 ❄️ OUR WEEKLY TOAST, for deep winter, is one of our old traditional offerings: “Here’s to winter – may it always be coaled.”

❡ Toasts can be a wonderful educational tradition for your homeschool lunch or dinner 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 unpredictability in toasting!”). What will you toast in your homeschool this week? 🥂

🌍 🇮🇪 EVERYTHING FLOWS: Ireland in western Europe is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the peaceful River Shannon, Ireland’s longest river. You can find its location in your recommended homeschool atlas, and you can read more about it in the River Shannon entry in Wikipedia or perhaps on your next visit to your local library.

❡ Children of Ocean: 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 the World Exploration & Geography section of your world almanac, 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 and your students 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 and get these weekly messages delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 📫

❡ Homeschool calendars: We have a whole collection of free, printable, educational homeschool calendars and planners available on our main River Houses calendar page. They will help you create a light and easy structure for your homeschool year. Give them a try today! 🗓️

❡ Support our work: If you enjoy our educational materials, please support us by starting your regular Amazon shopping from our very own homeschool teaching supplies page. When you click through from our page, any purchase you make earns us a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for helping us to keep going and growing! 🛒