🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 5 May 2024

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. Add your name to our free mailing list 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.

🦅 🦆 🐦 MAY is Bird Migration Month in the River Houses, and throughout the month we’re sharing an assortment of extra homeschool notes on one of the world’s most wonderful natural phenomena.

🇺🇸 OUR STATE-OF-THE-WEEK is Nevada, and our COUNTRIES are Portugal 🇵🇹, Qatar 🇶🇦, Romania 🇷🇴, and Russia 🇷🇺. (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 a waning crescent — a good time for stargazing! 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 (5 May 2024) — Today is the 126th day of 2024; there are 240 days remaining in this leap year. Learn more about different modern and historical calendars in the Science & Technology section of your recommended world almanac. 📚 The famous performance venue known today as Carnegie Hall opened in New York City on this day in 1891, with the great Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) as guest conductor. (Tourist in New York: “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?” New Yorker: “Practice, young man! Practice!”) 🎵

Monday (6 May 2024) — Today is the birthday of the American admiral and polar explorer Robert Peary (1856–1920). 🎿 And on this day in 1954, British athlete Roger Bannister (1929–2018) ran history’s first four-minute mile. 👟

Tuesday (7 May 2024) — Two great “B’s” were born on this day: the English poet Robert Browning (1812–1889) and the German composer Johannes Brahms (1833–1897). 🖋 🎼 And on this day in 1915, a German U-boat sank the passenger liner R.M.S. Lusitania, killing nearly 1200 civilians. It was one of the principal events that drew the United States into World War I. 🚢 And since this is the first Tuesday of the month, today we’ll invite you to browse a new Dewey Decimal class with your students on your next visit to your local library. This month: the Artistic 700s. 📚

Wednesday (8 May 2024) — Today is the birthday of the great Austrian-British economist and Nobel laureate Friedrich Hayek (1899–1992). 💰 Today in 1945 was V-E Day, the end of World War II in Europe. ✌️ And our Wednesday tour of World Heritage Sites this week will take you to the Historic Elvas Fortifications in Portugal. 🇵🇹

Thursday (9 May 2024) — Lincoln Cathedral in England was consecrated on this day in the year 1092. When its spire was added in the 1300s it became the first building to surpass the Great Pyramid of Giza in height and was the tallest building in the world for more than 200 years. ⛪️

Friday (10 May 2024) — On this day in 1775, in one of the great early successes of the American Revolution, a small group of colonial militia under the command of Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold (not yet a traitor) seized British-held Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain “in the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!” ⚔️ 🇺🇸 And on this day in 1869 at Promontory Summit, Utah, a golden spike joined east and west and completed the First Transcontinental Railroad across the United States. 🚂 Our Friday Bird Families lesson this week will introduce you to the voluble Mockingbirds and Thrashers. Print your own River Houses Calendar of American Birds and follow the flyways with us throughout the year. 🦅

Saturday (11 May 2024) — Today is the birthday or two great American composers: Irving Berlin (1888–1989) and William Grant Still (1895–1978). 🎼 And since this is the second Saturday of the month, we’ll introduce you to one of the Great Stars of the northern hemisphere night sky. This month: the pole star Polaris, the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor, the Little Bear (which includes the Little Dipper). 🌟

Sunday (12 May 2024) — Happy Mother’s Day! ❤️ Today is the birthday of famed nurse and social reformer Florence Nightingale (1820–1910). ⚕ It’s also the birthday of legendary American actress Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003). 🎭 And our Sunday States & Countries for next week will be Nebraska 🇺🇸, Rwanda 🇷🇼, Saint Kitts and Nevis 🇰🇳, Saint Lucia 🇱🇨, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 🇻🇨.

🥂 🐦 OUR WEEKLY TOAST is for the beginning of Bird Migration Month: “To the early bird that catches the worm.”

❡ 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: Russia is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the mighty Don River, one of the great rivers of Europe. You can find its location in your recommended homeschool atlas, and you can read more about it in the Don River 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, 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 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! 🗓

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❡ Join us! The aim of the River Houses project is to create a network of friendly local homeschool support groups — local chapters that we call “Houses.” Our first at-large chapter, Headwaters House, is now forming and is open to homeschoolers everywhere. Find out how to become one of our founding members on the Headwaters House membership page. 🏡