🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 12 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.

💐 HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all homeschool moms everywhere! What would the world do without you? ❤️

🦅 🦆 🐦 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. Do you know how to find out what birds are migrating through your neighborhood this month?

🇺🇸 OUR STATE-OF-THE-WEEK is Nebraska, and our COUNTRIES are Rwanda 🇷🇼, Saint Kitts & Nevis 🇰🇳, Saint Lucia 🇱🇨, and Saint Vincent & the Grenadines 🇻🇨. (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 waxing 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 (12 May 2024) — Today is the 133rd day of 2024; there are 233 days remaining in this leap year. Learn more about different modern and historical calendars in the Science & Technology section of your recommended world almanac. 📚 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). 🎭

Monday (13 May 2024) — On this day in 1861, astronomer John Tebbutt of Windsor, Australia, discovered C/1861 J1, better known as the Great Comet of 1861. ☄️

Tuesday (14 May 2024) — On this day in 1973, the United States’ first space station, Skylab, was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 🚀

Wednesday (15 May 2024) — Today is the birthday of American children’s author L. Frank Baum (1856–1919), the creator of the Wizard of Oz. ✍️ And on this day in 1928, the Walt Disney character Mickey Mouse made his first appearance in a silent short called “Plane Crazy.” 🐭 Our homeschool poem-of-the-week for the third week of May is Robert Frost’s “Birches,” for springtime play and growing up. Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar and follow along with us throughout the year. 🍃 And our Wednesday tour of World Heritage Sites this week will take you to the Pitons Management Area in Saint Lucia. 🇱🇨

Thursday (16 May 2024) — Today is the birthday of American educator Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (1804–1894), who established the first public kindergarten in the United States. 🏫 The Kengir Uprising began on this day in 1954. It was the longest and most significant prisoner revolt in the Gulag forced-labor camps of the communist Soviet Union. ⚒

Friday (17 May 2024) — Today is the birthday of the English physician Edward Jenner (1749–1823), developer of the smallpox vaccine. 💉 The first Kentucky Derby was run on this day in 1875. (The winning horse was named Aristides.) 🏇 And on this day in 1902, Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais first recognized the significance of the object now called the Antikythera mechanism, one of the most remarkable artifacts the ancient world ever produced. You can read more about science in the ancient Greek world on page 104 in River Houses history encyclopedia. 🏛 Our Friday Bird Families lesson this week will introduce you to the Bulbuls, Starlings, Waxwings, Silky-Flycatchers, Olive Warblers, and Accentors. Print your own River Houses Calendar of American Birds and follow the flyways with us throughout the year. 🦅

Saturday (18 May 2024) — Today is the birthday of Mathew Brady (1822–1896), the famous photographer of the American Civil War. 📷 Today is also the birthday of Italian-American screenwriter and director Frank Capra (1897–1991), producer of such film classics as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and It’s a Wonderful Life (1946). 🎥 And on this day in 1980, Mount St. Helens in Washington state exploded in one of the most destructive volcanic eruptions in U.S. history. 🌋

Sunday (19 May 2024) — On this day in 1780, smoke from major forest fires in Canada drifted south across the northeastern United States, blotting out the sun and leading many to fear that the end of the world was at hand. Candles had to be lit at noon and frogs began croaking as if it were nightfall on New England’s famous “Dark Day.” 🕯 Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin set out from Greenhithe, England, on this day in 1845, hoping to discover and chart the Northwest Passage. Franklin and his ships were never heard from again. The Franklin expedition’s disappearance was one of the great maritime mysteries of the nineteenth century. ⚓️ And our Sunday States & Countries for next week will be Colorado 🇺🇸, Samoa 🇼🇸, San Marino 🇸🇲, São Tomé & Príncipe 🇸🇹, and Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦.

🥂 💐 OUR WEEKLY TOAST, for Mother’s Day, is a Shakespearean traditional that we offer to all the mothers of the world: “May heaven give you many, many merry days.”

❡ 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: The island-nation of Saint Lucia in the West Indies is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the small Dennery River and Dennery Falls, a local tourist attraction. You can find its location in your recommended homeschool atlas, and you can read more about it in the Dennery Falls entry on the World of Waterfalls website 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. 🌎 🌍 🌏

🙀 AND DON’T FORGET: Friday the 13th comes on a Monday this month!

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! 🗓

❡ 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! 🛒

❡ 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. 🏡