🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 16 June 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. Subscribe to our free homeschool newsletter to get posts like these delivered right to your mailbox once each week. Visit our River Houses calendar page to print your own homeschool calendars and planners for the entire year.

🇺🇸 OUR STATE-OF-THE-WEEK is Washington, and our COUNTRIES are Sri Lanka 🇱🇰, Sudan 🇸🇩, Suriname 🇸🇷, and Sweden 🇸🇪. (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 gibbous and waxing — 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 (16 June 2024) — HAPPY FATHER’S DAY to all homeschool dads everywhere! What would the world do without you? 🏰 Today is the 168th day of 2024; there are 198 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 also the birthday of the American geneticist and Nobel laureate Barbara McClintock (1902–1992). 🌽

Monday (17 June 2024) — The Battle of Bunker Hill, the first coordinated encounter between opposing armies during the American Revolution, took place on this day in 1775 (249 years ago) 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. ⚔️ Today is also the birthday of one of the giants of American, nay, of world history, to wit, Ruth Graves Wakefield (1903–1977), the inventor of the chocolate chip cookie! 🍪

Tuesday (18 June 2024) — On this day in 1812, the United States declared war on Great Britain. ⚔️ And on this day in 1873, Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for having attempted to vote in the presidential election of 1872. 🗳

Wednesday (19 June 2024) — On this day in 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, Union troops announced to slaves still living in Galveston, Texas, that they were free. The date was long celebrated in Texas as Juneteenth, and in 2021 it was recognized by Congress as a federal holiday. 🎉 Our Wednesday tour of World Heritage Sites this week will take you to the Golden Temple of Dambulla in Sri Lanka. 🇱🇰

Thursday (20 June 2024) — The University of Oxford, the oldest university in the English-speaking world, received its royal charter on this day in the year 1248. 🎓 And the United States Congress approved the design of the Great Seal of the United States on this day in 1782. (You may have a copy of it in your pocket right now.) 💵

Friday (21 June 2024) — Happy First Day of (Astronomical) Summer! ⛱ Today is the June Solstice, known as the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere and the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere (where today is the first day of astronomical winter). 🗓 Today is also the birthday of American painter and illustrator Rockwell Kent (1882–1971). 🎨 Our Friday Bird Families lesson this week will introduce you to the colorful Wood-Warblers (Part II). Print your own River Houses Calendar of American Birds and follow the flyways with us throughout the year. 🦅

Saturday (22 June 2024) — On this day in 1633, the Catholic Church forced Italian scientist Galileo Galilei to “abjure, curse, and detest” the view he formerly supported, namely that the earth revolved around the sun and was not fixed at the center of the universe. 🔭 And our homeschool poem-of-the-week for the last week of June is a tiny audiovisual gem by Edward Thomas, for the birds of summer. Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar and follow along with us throughout the year. 🚂

Sunday (23 June 2024) — The great English mathematician Alan Turing was born on this day in 1912. His pioneering work in computer science and cryptanalysis was instrumental in the breaking of German codes during World War II. 🖥 And our Sunday States & Countries for next week will be Idaho 🇺🇸, Switzerland 🇨🇭, Syria 🇸🇾, Taiwan 🇹🇼, and Tajikistan 🇹🇯.

🥂 ⛱ OUR WEEKLY TOAST is an old happy offering, for the arrival of summer: “To full stomachs and merry hearts.”

❡ 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 Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the Malwathu River, one of the longest rivers in Sri Lanka. You can find its location in your recommended homeschool atlas, and you can read more about it in the Malvathu 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 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! 🗓

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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. 🏡