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.
๐บ๐ธ OUR STATE-OF-THE-WEEK is Montana, and our COUNTRIES are Somaliaย ๐ธ๐ด, South Africaย ๐ฟ๐ฆ, South Sudanย ๐ธ๐ธ, and Spainย ๐ช๐ธ. (Our separate Sunday Statesย & Countries post for the week went up just a few minutes ago.)
๐ THE MOON at the beginning of this week is at its third quarterย โ aย good time for moon watching! You can explore the night sky and the features of the moon in your recommended backyard astronomy guide and your homeschool world atlas, and you can learn a host of stellar and lunar facts on pages 341โ356 in your almanac. Browse through our many homeschool astronomy posts for even more.
๐ TODAY, Sunday (11 June 2023) โ Today is the 162nd day of 2023; there are 203 days remaining in this common year. Learn more about different modern and historical calendars on pages 357โ363 in your River Houses almanac.ย ๐ Alexander the Great, one of the most influential figures in ancient history, died on this day in the year 343 B.C. at the age of only 32. You can read more about him on page 97 of your River Houses history encyclopedia.ย ๐ And on this day in 1776, the Continental Congress appointed Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston a committee of five to draft a declaration of independence.ย ๐ย ๐ย ๐บ๐ธ
Monday (12 June 2023) โ The Baseball Hall of Fame was dedicated on this day in 1939 in Cooperstown, New York.ย โพ๏ธ
Tuesday (13 June 2023) โ Today is the birthday of the great Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell (1831โ1939).ย โ๏ธ It’s also the birthday of the great Irish poet William Butler Yeats (1865โ1939).ย ๐
Wednesday (14 June 2023) โ Today is Flag Day! ๐บ๐ธ On this day in 1775, the Continental Congress authorized the creation of the Continental Army.ย โ๏ธ And on this day in 1777, the United States Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as the United States national flag.ย ๐บ๐ธ Our Wednesday tour of World Heritage Sites this week will take you to Burgos Cathedral in Spain.ย ๐ช๐ธ
Thursday (15 June 2023) โ Assyrian scribes recorded the occurrence of a total solar eclipse on this day in the year 763ย B.C. The date of that eclipse serves a fixed reference point for much of ancient Mesopotamian chronology.ย ๐โ๐โ๐ And on this day in 1215, King John of England set his seal to Magna Carta, the Great Charter that is the historical foundation of English (and so American) law.ย โ๏ธ Our homeschool poem-of-the-week for the third week of June is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “The Children’s Hour,” for Father’s Day, observed each year on the third Sunday in June. Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar and follow along with us throughout the year.ย ๐ฐ
Friday (16 June 2023) โ Today is the birthday of the American geneticist and Nobel laureate Barbara McClintock (1902โ1992).ย ๐ฝ And on this day in 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova (b.ย 1937) became the first woman in space.ย ๐ฉโ๐ Our Friday Bird Families post this week will introduce you to the Wood-Warblers! Print your own River Houses Calendar of American Birds and follow the flyways with us throughout the year.ย ๐ฆ
Saturday (17 June 2023) โ The Battle of Bunker Hill, the first coordinated encounter between opposing armies during the American Revolution, took place on this day in 1775 across the river from Boston. (See page 298 in your River Houses history encyclopedia for a Revolutionary review, and make your own scale model of the Bunker Hill Monument courtesy of the National Park Service.)ย โ๏ธ Today is also the birthday of one of the giants of American, nay, of world history, to wit, Ruth Graves Wakefield (1903โ1977), the inventor of the chocolate chip cookie!ย ๐ช
Sunday (18 June 2023) โ HAPPY FATHER’S DAY to all homeschool dads everywhere! What would the world do without you?ย ๐ฐ On this day in 1812, the United States declared war on Great Britain.ย โ๏ธ And on this day in 1873, Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for attempting to vote in the presidential election of 1872.ย ๐ณ Our Sunday Statesย & Countries for next week will be Washingtonย ๐บ๐ธ, Sri Lankaย ๐ฑ๐ฐ, Sudanย ๐ธ๐ฉ, Surinameย ๐ธ๐ท, and Swedenย ๐ธ๐ช.
๐ฅ ๐บ๐ธ THIS WEEK’S TOAST is our traditional offering for Flag Day, June 14th: “To the Star-Spangled Banner: long may it wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
โกโ Toasts can be a fun educational tradition for your family table. We offer one each week โ 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?ย ๐ฅ
๐ ๐ธ๐ด EVERYTHING FLOWS: Somalia in eastern Africa is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the Jubba River, which flows from the Ethiopian border south through Somalia and into the Indian Ocean. You can find its location in your recommended homeschool atlas, and you can read more about it in the Jubba River entry in Wikipedia or perhaps on your next visit to your local library.
โกโ 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 your almanac (pages 695โ697), 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. Aย whole world of geographical learning awaits you.ย ๐โ๐โ๐
๐ AND DON’T FORGET: Friday the 13th comes on a Tuesday this month!
What do you have planned for your homeschool this week?ย ๐
โกโ 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. You can also print your own River Houses calendars of educational events and follow along with us.ย ๐
โกโ 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!ย ๐
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โกโ Join us! The aim of the River Houses project is to create a network of friendly local homeschool support groupsย โ local chapters that we call โHouses.โ 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.ย ๐ก