🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 13 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 Maryland, and our COUNTRIES are Brunei 🇧🇳, Bulgaria 🇧🇬, Burkina Faso 🇧🇫, and Burundi 🇧🇮. (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.

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

🗓 TODAY, Sunday (13 October 2024) — Today is the 287th day of 2024; there are 79 days remaining in this leap year. Learn more about different modern and historical calendars in the Science & Technology section of your recommended world almanac. 📚 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. 🇺🇸 And 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). 🌐

Monday (14 October 2024) — Today is Columbus Day in the United States, the federal holiday commemorating the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas on the 12th of October in 1492. Italy, Spain, and almost all the countries in Latin America have an equivalent holiday. 🌎 On this day in 1066, French forces commanded by William of Normandy defeated the English army of King Harold II in the Battle of Hastings. ⚔️ Today is the birthday of American poet E.E. Cummings (1894–1962). 🖋 And on this day in 1926, the much-loved children’s book Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne was published. 🐻

Tuesday (15 October 2024) — On this day in 1783 at Faubourg Saint-Antoine near Paris, Étienne Montgolfier (1745–1799) became the first human being to ascend from the surface of the earth in a hot-air balloon. 🎈 And our homeschool poem-of-the-week for the third week of October is Robert Frost’s “After Apple-Picking,” for the fall harvest. Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar and follow along with us throughout the year. 🍎

Wednesday (16 October 2024) — Today is the midpoint of Cygnus Term and thus one of the four cross-quarter days of the River Houses year. How are things going in your homeschool? 🦢 Today is also National Fossil Day! ⛏ The American lexicographer and education pioneer Noah Webster, of dictionary fame, was born on this day in 1758. 📖 On this day in 1859, in one of the precipitating events of the American Civil War, the abolitionist John Brown (1800–1859) led an armed raid on the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. 🌠 And our Wednesday tour of American Heritage Sites this week will take you to Fort McHenry National Monument in Maryland. 🇺🇸

Thursday (17 October 2024) — On this day in 1777, one of the most important days in the course of the American Revolution, British General John Burgoyne surrendered his entire army at Saratoga, New York. 🏳 And, there’s a full moon tonight, so that means we’ll have a report from the Lunar Society of the River Houses on the many wonderful citizen-science projects that are available to homeschool students. 🌕

Friday (18 October 2024) — The great American novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville was first published on this day in 1851 in London (sic). 🐳 Today is also the birthday of the great rock-and-roll pioneer Chuck Berry (1926–2017). 🎸 And our Friday Bird Families lesson this week will introduce you to the Cuckoos. Print your own River Houses Calendar of American Birds and follow the flyways with us throughout the year. 🦅

Saturday (19 October 2024) — Today is the birthday of Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682), author of some of the most luminous prose in the English language. ⚱️ And on this day in 1781 at Yorktown, Virginia, British forces under the command of Lord Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau, effectively ending the American Revolution. 🕊

Sunday (20 October 2024) — Today is the birthday of the architect Sir Christopher Wren (1632–1732), who rebuilt much of central London after the Great Fire of 1666. 🏛 On this day in the year 1803, the United States Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase. 🇺🇸 And our Sunday States & Countries for next week will be South Carolina 🇺🇸, Cabo Verde 🇨🇻, Cambodia 🇰🇭, Cameroon 🇨🇲, and Canada 🇨🇦.

🥂 🕊 OUR WEEKLY TOAST is for the anniversary of Yorktown: “May the miseries of war never more have existence amongst enlightened nations.”

❡ 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: Bulgaria in eastern Europe is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the Iskar River, one of the principal tributaries of the great Danube. You can find its location in your recommended homeschool atlas, and you can read more about it in the Iskar 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. 🏡