Take a few homeschool minutes to introduce your students to a tiny musical masterpiece by one of the world’s great composers, Johann Sebastian Bach, born on this day in 1685.
๐ Homeschool Holidays & History: Little Lessons for the Whole Year
Great homeschool teaching tips and little lessons on history, holidays, anniversaries, and notable events from the River Houses Homeschool Network. Print your own homeschool calendar for the whole year on our main River Houses calendar page and follow along with us, and add your name to our free River Houses mailing list to get posts like these delivered right to your mailbox every week! ๐
๐ญ HOMESCHOOL HISTORY & LITERATURE: “Lend Me Your Ears!”
Why not wrap up this special Julius Caesar Week in your homeschool by viewing and discussing several versions of a famous Shakespearean speech with your students.
๐ ๐ก HOMESCHOOL HISTORY: โThe Ides of March are comeโ
Remembering the Ides of March, the famous date on which the Roman politician, general, and dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44ย B.C.
๐ก JOIN A โCITIZEN SCIENCEโ PROJECT for Einstein’s Birthday
You and your young science students can join the search for undiscovered pulsars in deep space, right from the comfort of your own homeschool living room. (Really!) How cool is that?
๐ก HOMESCHOOL HISTORY & LITERATURE: โBeware the Ides of Marchโ
Let Shakespeare help you and your students remember one of the most famous dates in ancient history: the Ides of March in 44 B.C.
๐ป HOMESCHOOL MUSIC: Introducing Barberโs Adagio and Agnus Dei
Today is the birthday of the great American classical composer Samuel Barber (1910โ1981). Introduce your homeschool students to one of his most famous works this week and give them a new treasure for life.
๐ ๐ WONDERFUL WORDS: Happy Dord Day!
“Lexicรณgrapher. n.s. [ฮปฮตฮพฮนฮบแฝธฮฝ and ฮณฯฮฌฯฯ; lexicographe, French.] A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words.” (A humorous homeschool holiday, for all lovers of words and dictionaries.)
โ๏ธ ๐ HOMESCHOOL SCIENCE & HISTORY: Copernicus and His Revolutions
On Copernicus’ birthday, introduce your homeschool students to one of the most important books ever published: “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres” (1543).
๐ โ๏ธ WONDERFUL WORDS: The Truly Great
“Born of the sun, they travelled aย short while toward the sunย / And left the vivid air signed with their honour.” (Our homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Stephen Spender, for the great birthdays of February.)
๐ญ HOMESCHOOL SCIENCE & HISTORY: The Starry Messenger
Remembering one of the great minds of history, the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei (1564โ1642), on the anniversary of his birth.
๐บ๐ธ ๐ฆ HOMESCHOOL HISTORY: Lincoln and Darwin (and Horace)
Our recommended homeschool history encyclopedia is just the thing you need on a notable anniversary like today: the birthday of both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin (in the same year, 1809).
๐ โค๏ธ WONDERFUL WORDS: โUnwind the solemn twine, and tie my Valentine!โ
“Awake ye muses nine, sing me a strain divine!” (Our homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Emily Dickinson, for Valentine Week.)
๐ โ๏ธ HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DMITRI! (Mendeleev, that is)
The father of the Periodic Table of Elements, the great Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, was born on this day in 1834 near Tobolsk, Siberia. Here are some clever educational ways to remember him in your homeschool.
โโ๐ HOMESCHOOL CALENDARS: Happy Groundhog Day!
Happy mid-point of astronomical winter to homeschoolers everywhere! In other words, Happy Groundhog Day!
๐ต HOMESCHOOL MUSIC: Happy Birthday Mozart!
Happy birthday to one of the greatest musical composers of all time, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born on this day in 1756 in Salzburg, Austria. Here are some little Mozart lessons that you can share with your homeschool students this week.
๐ ๐ HOMESCHOOL HISTORY & LITERATURE: Remembering Challenger
“I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,ย / And allย I ask isย a tall ship andย a star to steer her by.” (Our homeschool poem-of-the-week, from John Masefield, for the Challenger Seven of 1986.)
๐ ๐บ๐ธ WONDERFUL WORDS (and Music!): Lift Every Voice and Sing
“Let our rejoicing rise / High as the listening skies, / Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.” (Our homeschool poem-of-the-week, from James Weldon Johnson, for Martin Luther King’s birthday.)
๐ต ๐ญ TWELFTH NIGHT and the End of Holiday Music Month 2022โ2023
“Long long ago the world begun,ย / With aย hey, ho, the wind and the rain.ย / But that’s all one, our play is done,ย / And we’ll strive to please you every day.” (Shakespeare helps us bring the Christmas Season, and our own Homeschool Holiday Music Month, to a close.)
๐ต ๐ HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: The Old Year Now Away is Fled
“Let’s merry be this day,ย / And let us now both sport and play,ย / Hang grief, cast care away,ย / God send you aย happy new year!” (An ancient new-year carol sung to the tune “Greensleeves,” by the great countertenor Alfred Deller, for Homeschool Holiday Music Month.)
๐ ๐ WONDERFUL WORDS (and Sounds!): Ring Out, Wild Bells!
“Ring out the old, ring in the new, / Ring, happy bells, across the snow: / The year is going, let him go; / Ring out the false, ring in the true.” (Join Tennyson and some skillful bell-ringers to ring in the new year.)
๐ ๐ป WONDERFUL WORDS (and Music!): Auld Lang Syne
“We two once ran along the hills and picked the daisies fine; / But we’ve wandered many a weary foot since those days of long ago.” (Our homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Robert Burns, for auld lang syne.)
๐กโ HOMESCHOOL HISTORY: Murder in the Cathedral
Take five minutes today to teach your students the story of Archbishop Thomas Becket, whose murder on this day in the year 1170 has loomed large in the Western imagination for nearly a thousand years.
๐ WONDERFUL WORDS: โIt was a short, cold Christmasโ
Herman Melville reminds us that even on Christmas Day, somewhere in the world there are ships and sailors heading out to sea.
๐ ๐ WONDERFUL WORDS: โTwas the Night Before Christmas
“The children were nestled all snug in their beds;ย / While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.” (Our homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Clement Clarke Moore, for Christmas Eve of course!)
๐ก ๐ ๐ฆ HOMESCHOOL HOLIDAYS: NORADโs Santa Tracker is Up!
Want to know when Santa will deliver your Christmas presents? Don’t ask Amazon, ask the North American Air Defense Command! (And maybe even learn a little world geography along the way.)
๐ต ๐ Aย CHRISTMAS EVE INVITATION: Carols from Kingโs College
The beautiful Festival of Lessons and Carols from King’s College at Cambridge University is broadcast every year on Christmas Eve to millions of people around the world. You and your homescholars can join them.
๐ต MARVELOUS MUSIC: It’s Beethoven’s Birthday!
Take a few minutes out of your homeschool schedule today to celebrate an annual international musical milestone, to wit, Beethoven’s Birthday!
