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.
๐บ๐ธ OUR STATE-OF-THE-WEEK is South Carolina, and our COUNTRIES are Cabo Verdeย ๐จ๐ป, Cambodiaย ๐ฐ๐ญ, Cameroonย ๐จ๐ฒ, and Canadaย ๐จ๐ฆ. (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 at its first quarterย โ aย good time for moon watching! You can explore the night sky 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 on pages 341โ356 in your current world almanac. Browse through our regular homeschool astronomy posts for even more.
๐ TODAY, Sunday (22 October 2023) โ Today is the 295th day of 2023; there are 70 days remaining in this common year. Learn more about different modern and historical calendars on pages 357โ363 in your recommended world almanac.ย ๐ Today is the birthday of the great Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt (1811โ1886).ย ๐น And on this day in 1879, Thomas Edison tested his design for the first practical and long-lasting incandescent light bulb.ย ๐ก 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.ย ๐
Monday (23 October 2023) โ Sometime between 6:02 a.m. and 6:02 p.m. today, homeschool chemistry students will want offer aย toast in honor of National Mole Day (6.02ย รย 10ยฒยณ).ย โ๏ธ On this day in 1739, England declared war on Spain in the conflict memorably known as the War of Jenkins’ Ear.ย ๐ And today is the birthday of the popular naturalist and children’s author Neltje Blanchan (1865โ1918).ย ๐ฆ
Tuesday (24 October 2023) โ One of the most famous buildings in the world, Chartres Cathedral, was consecrated on this day in the year 1260.ย ๐ซ๐ท Today is the birthday of the pioneering Dutch microscopist Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632โ1732).ย ๐ฌ On this day in 1861, the first North American transcontinental telegraph line was completed.ย โก๏ธ And, to-morrow is Saint Crispin’s.ย ๐ป
Wednesday (25 October 2023) โ 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.ย ๐ And on this day in 1415, the feast day of Saints Crispin and Crispinian, King Henryย V of England, significantly outnumbered, defeated the armies of France in the Battle of Agincourt.ย ๐น And Crispin-Crispian shall ne’er go by, from this day to the ending of the world, but they in it shall be rememberรจd.ย ๐ญ Our Wednesday tour of World Heritage Sites this week will take you to Cidade Velha in Cabo Verde.ย ๐จ๐ป
Thursday (26 October 2023) โ The Erie Canal connecting New York City to the Great Lakes opened on this day in 1825.ย ๐ข And today is the birthday of the great American gospel singer Mahalia Jackson (1911โ1972).ย ๐ต
Friday (27 October 2023) โ Today is the birthday of the great Welsh poet and playwright Dylan Thomas (1914โ1953).ย ๐ And our Friday Bird Families post 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.ย ๐ฆ
Saturday (28 October 2023) โ 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.ย ๐ The great Dutch Renaissance philosopher Erasmus of Rotterdam was born on this day in 1466.ย ๐ On this day in 1886, President Grover Cleveland dedicated the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.ย ๐ฝ And, there’s a full moon tonight, so that means weโll have a report from the Lunar Society of the River Houses on the many independent “citizen science” projects that are available to homeschool students.ย ๐
Sunday (29 October 2023) โ 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.ย ๐ And our Sunday Statesย & Countries for next week will be New Hampshireย ๐บ๐ธ, the Central African Republic ๐จ๐ซ, Chad ๐น๐ฉ, Chile ๐จ๐ฑ, and China ๐จ๐ณ.
๐ฅ ๐ OUR WEEKLY TOAST, to be offered this Tuesday and on the 24th of every October to the ending of the world, is from Shakespeare: “Tomorrow is Saint Crispin’s.”
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 ๐จ๐ป EVERYTHING FLOWS: The rocky island nation of Cabo Verde is one of our countries-of-the-week, so our Weekly World River is the Ribeira do Rabil, which, like many rivers on volcanic islands, is a seasonal stream dependent on occasional heavy rainfall. You can find its location in your recommended homeschool atlas, and you can read more about it in the Ribeira do Rabil 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
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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