🗓 QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 27 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 New Hampshire, and our COUNTRIES are the Central African Republic 🇨🇫, Chad 🇹🇩, Chile 🇨🇱, and China 🇨🇳. (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 waning 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 words for the week are the two nouns argentum and aurum, which mean silver and gold. Write them on your homeschool blackboard and send your students to your family dictionary to see how many related English words they can find. (Argentina, argent, aureus, auriferous, and the chemical element symbols Ag and Au in the Periodic Table.) (★ 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 (27 October 2024) — Today is the 301st day of 2024; there are 65 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 Welsh poet and playwright Dylan Thomas (1914–1953). 🖋

Monday (28 October 2024) — On this day in the year 312, the armies of the rival Roman emperors Constantine and Maxentius fought one another in the Battle of Milvian Bridge north of Rome. Tradition says that Constantine secured victory after having had a vision of the Christian cross the night before, which led to his conversion and the eventual adoption of Christianity as an official religion of the Roman Empire. For a quick homeschool review of this important historical turning point, make your way to page 148 in your River Houses history encyclopedia. ✝️ The great Dutch Renaissance philosopher Erasmus of Rotterdam was born on this day in 1466. 📖 On this day in 1886, President Grover Cleveland dedicated the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. 🗽 And today is the birthday of the American medical researcher Jonas Salk (1914–1995), developer of the polio vaccine. 💉

Tuesday (29 October 2024) — On this day (or night) in 1964, three men broke into the American Museum of Natural History in New York and executed the largest jewel theft in American history, netting more than $400,000 worth of gems. The thieves were soon caught and most of the gems were recovered, including the Star of India, one of the world’s largest sapphires, which had been hidden in a bus station locker in Miami. 💎

Wednesday (30 October 2024) — Today is the birthday of the influential American modernist poet Ezra Pound (1885–1972). 🖋 On this day in 1938, Orson Welles broadcast his famous radio version of H.G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds,” leading many people across the United States to believe that a Martian invasion of the earth had begun. 👽 And our Wednesday tour of American Heritage Sites this week will take you to Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park in New Hampshire. 🇺🇸

Thursday (31 October 2024) — Happy Halloween! 🎃 👻 🦇 🕷️ ⚰ The Protestant Reformation began on this day in 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany. For a quick homeschool review of the Reformation and its consequences, turn to pages 197 and 256–259 in your recommended River Houses history encyclopedia. 📜 Today is the birthday of the great English poet John Keats (1795–1821). 🖋 And it’s also the birthday of Juliette Gordon Low (1860–1927), founder of the Girl Scouts of America. 🍪

Friday (1 November 2024) — Project FeederWatch begins today and runs all the way through April. Feed the birds in your homeschool this winter! 🐦 William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest was first performed on this day in 1611. 🎭 And today is the birthday of the German geophysicist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener (1880–1930), who developed the theory of continental drift. 🌍 Our Friday Bird Families lesson this week will introduce you to the Limpkins, Rails, Gallinules, Coots, and Cranes. Print your own River Houses Calendar of American Birds and follow the flyways with us throughout the year. 🦅 And our homeschool poem-of-the-week for the first week of November is Robert Frost’s “A Leaf-Treader,” for the falling leaves. Print your own River Houses Poetry Calendar and follow along with us throughout the year. 🍂

Saturday (2 November 2024) — Today is the birthday of the American frontiersman and folk-hero Daniel Boone (1734–1820). 🐻 And since this is the first Saturday of the month, we’ll post our regular monthly preview today of some of the astronomical events you and your students can watch for over the next few weeks. 🔭

Sunday (3 November 2024) — Today is the birthday of the great Italian artist and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini (1500–1571). 🎨 On this day in 1534, the English Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy, declaring King Henry VIII (rather than the Pope) to be the head of the English church. 👑 And our Sunday States & Countries for next week will be Virginia 🇺🇸, Colombia 🇨🇴, Comoros 🇰🇲, Congo (Kinshasa) 🇨🇩, and Congo Republic (Brazzaville) 🇨🇬.

🥂 🎃 OUR WEEKLY TOAST is an old Halloween wish, for all the cheerful young trick-or-treaters who will be out on the town this week:

May witches, fays, and grinning cats,
Owls and sprites and sable bats,
Have good cheer on Hallowe’en,
And add enchantment to the scene,
With revels wild and free.

❡ 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: China in eastern Asia is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the mighty Yangtze, the third longest river in the world. You can find its location in your recommended homeschool atlas, and you can read more about it in the Yangtze 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. 🏡