🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 6 October 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 Massachusetts, and our COUNTRIES are Bolivia 🇧🇴, Bosnia & Herzegovina 🇧🇦, Botswana 🇧🇼, and Brazil 🇧🇷. (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.

🦦 HORACE THE OTTER says your LATIN word for the week is the noun aqua, which means water. Write it on your homeschool blackboard and send your students to your family dictionary to see how many related English words they can find. (Aquaculture, aquamarine, aquarium, aquatic, and more!) (★ This is a new Quick Freshes feature we’re trying out this week. Follow along to strengthen your students’ language skills all through the year.)

🗓 TODAY, Sunday (6 October 2024) — Today is the 280th day of 2024; there are 86 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 Norwegian explorer, ethnographer, and ocean-voyager Thor Heyerdahl (1914–2002). 🌊

Monday (7 October 2024) — On this day in 1571, off the western coast of Greece, warships from Spain and Venice defeated the naval forces of the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Lepanto and prevented further Ottoman expansion into western Europe. For a quick homeschool review of this important historical turning point, make your way to page 248 in your River Houses history encyclopedia. 📚 Today is also the birthday of the early American choral composer William Billings (1746–1800). 🎶 And the great Danish physicist and Nobel laureate Niels Bohr was born on this day in 1885. ⚛️

Tuesday (8 October 2024) — On this day in 1956, New York Yankees pitcher Don Larsen threw the only perfect game in World Series history. ⚾️ And our homeschool poem-of-the-week for the second week of October is Emily Dickinson’s autumnal gem “God made a little Gentian,” for all late-bloomers. Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar and follow along with us throughout the year. 🐚

Wednesday (9 October 2024) — Italian astronomer Lodovico delle Colombe recorded the appearance of a new star in the constellation Ophiuchus on this day in 1604. The subsequent observations of the star made by Johnannes Kepler over the next several weeks gave it the name Kepler’s Supernova. The brightest Milky Way supernova in modern times, it was visible during daylight hours for three weeks. 🌟 Today is also the birthday of American businessman Charles Rudolph Walgreen (1873–1939), founder of the nationwide Walgreens pharmacy chain. 🛒 And our Wednesday tour of American Heritage Sites this week will take you to Minute Man National Historical Park in Massachusetts, where the American Revolution began. 🇺🇸

Thursday (10 October 2024) — Today is the birthday of the great Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901). 🎼 And on this day in 1845 in Annapolis, Maryland, the United States Naval Academy opened with 50 students and seven professors. ⚓️

Friday (11 October 2024) — And speaking of the navy, on this day in 1776, American naval forces on Lake Champlain under the command of Benedict Arnold (not yet a traitor) were defeated by the British in the Battle of Valcour Island. Although it was an American loss, the Battle of Valcour Island successfully delayed the British advance down the Hudson–Champlain corridor for nearly a year and may have saved the cause of the Revolution. ⚓️ 🇺🇸 And our Friday Bird Families lesson this week will introduce you to the familiar Pigeons and Doves. Print your own River Houses Calendar of American Birds and follow the flyways with us throughout the year. 🕊

Saturday (12 October 2024) — The great Athenian orator Demosthenes died on this day in 322 B.C. 🏛 Today also is the birthday of the great English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958). 🎼 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: Alpheratz, the brightest star in the constellation Andromeda. 🌟

Sunday (13 October 2024) — One of the most beautiful objects in the night sky, the Whirlpool Galaxy, was discovered on this day in 1773 by French astronomer Charles Messier. 🌀 The United States Navy was established on this day in 1775 by the Continental Congress, before there was even a United States! ⚓️ The cornerstone of the White House in Washington, D.C., was laid on this day in 1792. 🇺🇸 On this day in 1884, the members of the International Meridian Conference voted to designate a line passing from the north pole through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England, to be our planet’s Prime Meridian (the line of 0° longitude). 🌐 And our Sunday States & Countries for next week will be Maryland 🇺🇸, Brunei 🇧🇳, Bulgaria 🇧🇬, Burkina Faso 🇧🇫, and Burundi 🇧🇮.

🥂 ⚓️ THIS WEEK’S TOAST is a traditional offering in honor of the many naval anniversaries taking place this week: “To the wind that blows, and the ship that goes, and the lass that loves a sailor.” (Female sailors are welcome to substitute “lad” for “lass.”)

❡ 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: Bosnia & Herzegovina in eastern Europe is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the Bosna River, from which Bosnia take its name. You can find its location in your recommended homeschool atlas, and you can read more about it in the Bosna 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 (above), 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. 🏡