🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 7 July 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.

🌕 JULY is our special MOON MONTH in the River Houses! Why not go outside this evening and start learning the phases of the moon over the next two weeks.

🇺🇸 OUR STATE-OF-THE-WEEK is Utah, and our COUNTRIES are Tonga 🇹🇴, Trinidad & Tobago 🇹🇹, Tunisia 🇹🇳, and Turkey 🇹🇷. (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 and 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 (7 July 2024) — Today is the 189th day of 2024; there are 177 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 great Austrian composer Gustav Mahler (1860–1911). 🎼 And on this day in 1928, sliced bread was sold for the first time by the Chillicothe Baking Company in Missouri. It was the greatest thing since, um, sliced bread! 🍞

Monday (8 July 2024) — Today is the birthday of the great British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans (1851–1941), who rediscovered the ancient Minoan civilization on the island of Crete. 🐬 Our homeschool poem-of-the-week for the second week of July is Phillis Wheatley’s “Liberty and Peace,” for the new American republic that was born on the Fourth of July. Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar and follow along with us throughout the year. 🇺🇸

Tuesday (9 July 2024) — On this day in 1755, a British-American force under the command of General Edward Braddock was defeated and almost destroyed as they fought to capture Fort Duquesne (modern-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) from its French and Indian defenders. We remember “Braddock’s Defeat” today mainly because of an effective rear-guard defense that saved many lives — a defense mounted by a 23-year-old colonial colonel named George Washington. ⚔️

Wednesday (10 July 2024) — Today is the birthday of the French-Swiss theologian and religious reformer John Calvin (1509–1564), one of the key figures of the Protestant Reformation. ✝️ The highest temperature ever recorded on earth, 134ºF (57ºC), was reached on this day in 1913 in Death Valley, California. 🌡 On this day in 1962, the world’s first communications satellite, Telstar, was launched into earth orbit from Cape Canaveral in Florida. 🛰 And our Wednesday tour of World Heritage Sites this week will take you to the Historic Areas of Istanbul in Turkey. 🇹🇷

Thursday (11 July 2024) — On this day in 1804, Aaron Burr, Vice President of the United States, mortally wounded Alexander Hamilton, former Secretary of the Treasury, in a pistol duel in Weehawken, New Jersey. Hamilton died the next day. ⚔️ Today is also the birthday of the English physician and home education advocate Thomas Bowdler (1754–1825), whose family editions of Shakespeare, lightly expurgated so they would be suitable for reading aloud to women and children, gave us the English word “bowdlerize.” 🎭 And on this day in 1960, Harper Lee’s popular American novel To Kill a Mockingbird was first published. 📖

Friday (12 July 2024) — Today is the birthday of the great American writer, philosopher, and naturalist Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862). 🌳 It’s also the birthday of the American artist Andrew Wyeth (1917–2009). 🎨 Our Friday Bird Families lesson this week will introduce you to the diverse and widespread Emberizid Sparrows (Part II). Print your own River Houses Calendar of American Birds and follow the flyways with us throughout the year. 🦅

Saturday (13 July 2024) — Today is the generally accepted birthdate of the ancient Roman politician, general, and dictator Julius Caesar (100–44 B.C.). 🏛 It’s also the birthday of the great English nature poet John Clare (1793–1864). 🏞 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: Arcturus, the brightest star in the constellation Boötes the Herdsman. 🌟

Sunday (14 July 2024) — Today is the birthday of the celebrated composer Gerald Finzi (1901–1956), known for his musical settings of many classic English lyric poems. 🎼 On this day in 2015, the interplanetary space probe New Horizons made its closest approach to Pluto (less than 8000 miles from the surface). ♇ And our Sunday States & Countries for next week will be Oklahoma 🇺🇸, Turkmenistan 🇹🇲, Tuvalu 🇹🇻, Uganda 🇺🇬, and Ukraine 🇺🇦.

🥂 🎩 OUR WEEKLY TOAST is an old wish for summer wisdom: “May our hearts never be oppressed by the follies of fashion.”

❡ 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: Tunisia in northern Africa is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the Medjerda River, the longest River in Tunisia. You can find its location in your recommended homeschool atlas, and you can read more about it in the Medjerda 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. 🌎 🌍 🌏

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

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. 🏡