🗓️ QUICK FRESHES for Homeschool Families – Week of 26 October 2025

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 each week. Visit our River Houses calendar page to print your own homeschool calendars and planners for the entire year.

🐦 FEED THE BIRDS: If you want a simple way to get started with homeschool bird study why not join Project FeederWatch and have your students make a contribution to science by counting the birds in your own backyard. The FeederWatch season begins on the first of November runs all the way to April.

🇺🇸 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 a waxing crescent — a good time for stargazing and learning the moon’s phases! 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.

🗓 TODAY, Sunday (26 October 2025) — Today is the 299th day of 2025; there are 66 days remaining in this common year. Learn more about different modern and historical calendars in the Science & Technology section of your world almanac. 📚 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). 🎵

Monday (27 October 2025) — Today is the birthday of the great Welsh poet and playwright Dylan Thomas (1914–1953). 🖋

Tuesday (28 October 2025) — 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. 📖 And on this day in 1886, President Grover Cleveland dedicated the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. 🗽

Wednesday (29 October 2025) — 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. 💎 And our Wednesday tour of American Heritage Sites this week will take you to Charles Pinckney National Historic Site in South Carolina. 🇺🇸

Thursday (30 October 2025) — Today is the birthday of the influential American modernist poet Ezra Pound (1885–1972). 🖋 And 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. 👽

Friday (31 October 2025) — 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). 🖋 It’s also the birthday of Juliette Gordon Low (1860–1927), founder of the Girl Scouts of America. 🍪 And 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. 🦅

Saturday (1 November 2025) — 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. 🎭 Today is the birthday of the German geophysicist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener (1880–1930), who developed the theory of continental drift. 🌍 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. 🔭 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. 🍂

Sunday (2 November 2025) — Today is the birthday of the American frontiersman and folk-hero Daniel Boone (1734–1820). 🐻 And our Sunday States & Countries for next week will be New Hampshire 🇺🇸, Central African Republic 🇨🇫, Chad 🇹🇩, Chile 🇨🇱, and China 🇨🇳.

🥂 🎃 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: Canada in North America is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the great Mackenzie River, the longest river system in Canada and the second longest in North America (after the Mississippi). You can find its location in your recommended homeschool atlas, and you can read more about it in the Mackenzie 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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