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 South Carolina, and our COUNTRIES are Cabo Verde 🇨🇻, Cambodia 🇰🇭, Cameroon 🇨🇲, and Canada 🇨🇦. (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 waning — 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 avis, which means bird. Write it on your homeschool blackboard and send your students to your family dictionary to see how many related English words they can find. (Avian, aviary, aviculture, avifauna, 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 (20 October 2024) — Today is the 294th day of 2024; there are 72 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 architect Sir Christopher Wren (1632–1732), who rebuilt much of central London after the Great Fire of 1666. 🏛 And on this day in the year 1803, the United States Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase. 🇺🇸
Monday (21 October 2024) — Today is the birthday of the great English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834). 🖋 And since we talked a lot about apples this past week, it’s only fitting to note that today is celebrated as Apple Day in the United Kingdom. 🍎
Tuesday (22 October 2024) — Today is the birthday of the great Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt (1811–1886). 🎹 On this day in 1879, Thomas Edison tested his design for the first practical and long-lasting incandescent light bulb. 💡 And our homeschool poem-of-the-week, as October grows thin, is a song for the coming cold by the great Maine folk artist Gordon Bok. Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar and follow along with us throughout the year. 🌅
Wednesday (23 October 2024) — Sometime between 6:02 a.m. and 6:02 p.m. today, homeschool chemistry students will want offer a toast in honor of National Mole Day (6.02 × 10²³). ⚗️ On this day in 1739, England declared war on Spain in the conflict memorably known as the War of Jenkins’ Ear. 👂 Today is the birthday of the popular naturalist and children’s author Neltje Blanchan (1865–1918). 🐦 And our Wednesday tour of American Heritage Sites this week will take you to Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park in South Carolina. 🇺🇸
Thursday (24 October 2024) — One of the most famous buildings in the world, Chartres Cathedral, was consecrated on this day in the year 1260. 🇫🇷 Today is also the birthday of the pioneering Dutch microscopist Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1732). 🔬 On this day in 1861, the first North American transcontinental telegraph line was completed. ⚡️ And, to-morrow is Saint Crispin’s. 🍻
Friday (25 October 2024) — On this day in the year 285 (or perhaps 286), the early Christian saints Crispin and Crispinian, patrons of cobblers and leather workers, were executed in Rome by the emperor Diocletian. 👞 And on this day in 1415, the feast day of Saints Crispin and Crispinian, King Henry V of England, significantly outnumbered, defeated the armies of France in the Battle of Agincourt. 🏹 And Crispin-Crispian shall ne’er go by, from this day to the ending of the world, but they in it shall be rememberèd. 🎭 Our Friday Bird Families lesson this week will introduce you to the aerial and acrobatic Swifts and Hummingbirds. Print your own River Houses Calendar of American Birds and follow the flyways with us throughout the year. 🦅
Saturday (26 October 2024) — The Erie Canal connecting New York City to the Great Lakes opened on this day in 1825. 🚢 And today is the birthday of the great American gospel singer Mahalia Jackson (1911–1972). 🎵
Sunday (27 October 2024) — Today is the birthday of the great Welsh poet and playwright Dylan Thomas (1914–1953). 🖋 And our Sunday States & Countries for next week will be New Hampshire 🇺🇸, the Central African Republic 🇨🇫, Chad 🇹🇩, Chile 🇨🇱, and China 🇨🇳.
🥂 👑 OUR WEEKLY TOAST, to be offered this Thursday and on the 24th of every October to the ending of the world, is from Shakespeare: “To-morrow is Saint Crispin’s.”
❡ 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: Cambodia in southeastern Asia is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the Sangkae River, the principal river of Cambodia’s Battambang Province. You can find its location in your recommended homeschool atlas, and you can read more about it in the Sangkae 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. 🏡