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.
๐โ๐โ๐ AN ANNULAR SOLAR ECLIPSE will be coming up on Saturday, October 14th, and some part of it will be visible across all of North America. If you live anywhere near the path of annularity it will be worth traveling to see it; people in other areas are guaranteed a partial eclipse (weather permitting). Mark your calendars now and get the details right here.
๐บ๐ธ OUR STATE-OF-THE-WEEK is Massachusetts, and our COUNTRIES are Boliviaย ๐ง๐ด, Bosnia & Herzegovinaย ๐ง๐ฆ, Botswanaย ๐ง๐ผ, and Brazilย ๐ง๐ท. (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 a waning crescentย โ aย good time for stargazing! 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 current world almanac. Browse through our regular homeschool astronomy posts for even more.
๐ TODAY, Sunday (8 October 2023) โ Today is the 281st day of 2023; there are 84 days remaining in this common year. Learn more about different modern and historical calendars on pages 357โ363 in your recommended world almanac.ย ๐ On this day in 1956, New York Yankees pitcher Don Larsen threw the only perfect game in World Series history.ย โพ๏ธ 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.ย ๐
Monday (9 October 2023) โ 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.ย ๐ Speaking of famous Italians, the 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.ย ๐ Today is also the birthday of American businessman Charles Rudolph Walgreen (1873โ1939), founder of the nationwide Walgreens pharmacy chain.ย ๐
Tuesday (10 October 2023) โ Today is the birthday of the great Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi (1813โ1901). (It seems we have an accidental theme this week.)ย ๐ฎ๐น And on this day in 1845 in Annapolis, Maryland, the United States Naval Academy opened with 50 students and seven professors.ย โ๏ธ
Wednesday (11 October 2023) โ It’s National Fossil Day!ย โย 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 HudsonโChamplain corridor for nearly a year and may have saved the cause of the Revolution.ย โ๏ธย ๐บ๐ธ And our Wednesday tour of World Heritage Sites this week will take you to the Historic City of Sucre in Bolivia.ย ๐ง๐ด
Thursday (12 October 2023) โ The great Athenian orator Demosthenes died on this day in 322 B.C.ย ๐ Today also is the birthday of the great English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872โ1958).ย ๐ผ
Friday (13 October 2023) โ It’s Friday the 13th!ย ๐ 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.ย ๐ The United States Navy was established on this day in 1775 by the Continental Congress, before there was even a United States!ย โ๏ธ The cornerstone of the White House in Washington, D.C., was laid on this day in 1792.ย ๐บ๐ธ 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 0ยบ longitude).ย ๐ And our Friday Bird Families post this week will introduce you to the Cuckoos, Roadrunners, Anis, and Goatsuckers. (All birds with funny names!) Print your own River Houses Calendar of American Birds and follow the flyways with us throughout the year.ย ๐ฆ
Saturday (14 October 2023) โ A SOLAR ECLIPSE will be visible today across all of North America. Don’t miss it! ๐โ๐โ๐ 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.ย โ๏ธ Today is the birthday of American poet E.E. Cummings (1894โ1962).ย ๐ On this day in 1926, the much-loved children’s book Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne was published.ย ๐ป 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.ย ๐
Sunday (15 October 2023) โ On this day in 1783 at Faubourg Saint-Antoine near Paris, รtienne Montgolfier (1745โ1799) became the first human being to ascend from the surface of the earth in a hot-air balloon.ย ๐ Our homeschool poem-of-the-week for the third week of October will be 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.ย ๐ And our Sunday Statesย & Countries for next week will be Marylandย ๐บ๐ธ, Bruneiย ๐ง๐ณ, Bulgariaย ๐ง๐ฌ, Burkina Fasoย ๐ง๐ซ, and Burundiย ๐ง๐ฎ.
๐ฅ โ๏ธ OUR WEEKLY TOAST is one of our traditional offerings, for the birthday of the United States Navy: “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.”)
โกโ Toasts can be a wonderful educational tradition for your homeschool lunch or dinner table. We offer one each weekย 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 (“Toย unpredictability in toasting!”). What will you toast in your homeschool this week?ย ๐ฅ
๐ ๐ง๐ท EVERYTHING FLOWS: Brazil in South America is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the mighty Amazon, the world’s largest river (by volume, and perhaps by length). You can find its location in your recommended homeschool atlas, and you can read more about it in the Amazon 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, or start with the river lists in your world 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
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.ย ๐ซ
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
โกโ Support our work: If you enjoy our educational materials, please support us by starting your regular Amazon shopping from our very own homeschool teaching supplies page. When you click through from our page, any purchase you make earns us a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for helping us to keep going and growing!ย ๐
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