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On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
—Emerson
Great homeschool teaching ideas and little lessons on museums, collections, and historical monuments from the River Houses Homeschool Network. Add your name to our River Houses homeschool mailing list and get posts like these delivered right to your mailbox every week! 😊
Today is National Fossil Day! Since 2009, the U.S. National Park Service has celebrated National Fossil Day during international Earth Science Week “to highlight the scientific and educational value of paleontology and the importance of preserving fossils for future generations.”
Depending on where you live you may or may not be able to get out and examine fossils easily in the field, but thanks to the Smithsonian Institution and the wonderful online Biodiversity Heritage Library, you and your students can explore a wealth of books and other published materials on paleontology right from the comfort of your little home academy. Many of these materials are quite rare and valuable, and as recently as a few years ago they would have been accessible only to professional researchers in the largest institutions. Here’s an introduction to these online materials from the Smithsonian Libraries:
“In celebration of the opening of the David H. Koch Hall of Fossils opening at the National Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian Libraries has curated an online collection of important and beautiful selections from the Libraries’ Paleobiology literature. The digitized books are hosted on the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. As part of this celebration, we have invited renowned scientists and librarians to discuss the collection and identify their favorite books in a series of blog posts highlighting their picks (coming soon!). Check out the more than 400 volumes here!
“Our online volumes are drawn from a much larger collection of monographs and journals curated by Smithsonian Libraries. Smithsonian Libraries’ Vertebrate Paleontology Library holds over 1,800 volumes focusing on physical geography, stratigraphy and systematic paleontology, and paleozoology of chordates and vertebrates of the Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Tertiary, and Quaternary periods. The Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History holds the Smithsonian’s collection of rare books in anthropology and the natural sciences. Its world-class collection contains approximately 20,000 volumes published before 1840 in fields that include physical and cultural anthropology, Native American linguistics, and archeology; botany; ornithology, mammalogy, herpetology, ichthyology, entomology, and other zoological fields; paleontology; and geology and mineralogy. View the collection now on BHL!
“All Smithsonian Libraries make our books available to researchers on site. For the first time, many of these important paleontological works are now gathered digitally in one online collection for anyone with internet access, through our partnership with the Biodiversity Heritage Library.“ (Smithsonian Libraries)
What natural discoveries have you made in your homeschool lately — inside the library or out in the field? 😊
The great American writer Herman Melville was born 200 years ago this Thursday — his name is one every homeschool student should know — so we’re having a kind of informal Melville week here in the River Houses.
Herman Melville’s house, “Arrowhead,” in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)
During the 1850s, Herman and his wife Elizabeth lived in a farmhouse in rural western Massachusetts that Melville named “Arrowhead.” It was in a second-floor room there, with a view of the rolling Berkshire Hills, that Melville finished Moby-Dick and wrote many of his other well-known works. Arrowhead is now a museum open to the public, and a site on the National Register of Historic Places. You and your homescholars can visit it someday, perhaps in person, but certainly online:
How does a professional writer go about his work? Here’s Melville describing his daily routine at Arrowhead in a letter to his publisher in New York City:
“I rise at eight — thereabouts — & go to my barn — say good-morning to the horse, & give him his breakfast. (It goes to my heart to give him a cold one, but it can’t be helped.) Then, pay a visit to my cow — cut up a pumpkin or two for her, & stand by to see her eat it — for it’s a pleasant sight to see a cow move her jaws — she does it so mildly and with such a sanctity. — My own breakfast over, I go to my work-room & light my fire—then spread my M.S.S. [manuscript] on the table — take one business squint at it, & fall to with a will. At 2 ½ P.M. I hear a preconcerted knock at my door, which (by request) continues till I rise & go to the door, which serves to wean me effectively from my writing, however interested I may be. My friends the horse & cow now demand their dinner — & I go & give it to them.“ (Melville to Evert Duyckinck, August 1850)
Sounds like a good life to me.
What museums, parks, or monuments have you studied or visited in your homeschool this month? 😊
❡ Come, here’s the map: If you turn to plate 44 in your recommended homeschool atlas (riverhouses.org/books) you’ll be able to locate the town of Pittsfield in western Massachusetts — far away from the ocean — and also the coastal town of New Bedford and the island of Nantucket where Melville’s famous whaling novel Moby-Dick begins. 🐳
Happy Fourth of July to all our homeschool readers and friends! The Fourth is Independence Day, the Day of the Declaration. What better day is there to take your students on a visit the Declaration itself (online at least) than today! Its home is the National Archives in Washington, as every homeschool student should know:
The original Declaration is on view there for all to see — I’ve seen it, and perhaps you have too. To be sure, the original manuscript is much faded — it was not always stored and displayed under ideal conditions, as it is today. What most people recognize as the Declaration is the engraved version of 1823, made from the original:
The National Archives has a wide range of educational materials about the Declaration, the Founding Documents as a whole, and the entire Revolutionary War Era — why not bookmark then on this Independence Day and explore them throughout the year.
What other historical events and anniversaries will you studying in your homeschool this month? 😊
“On view now until December 1 – William Steig’s Sylvester and the Magic Pebble: A Golden Anniversary.” (Image: Carle Museum.)
Writer and illustrator Eric Carle is the author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and many other popular children’s books — today happens to be his 90th birthday. The Carle Museum was established as a national center for the public exhibition and academic study of children’s book art:
“The mission of The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, a non-profit organization in Amherst, Massachusetts, is to inspire a love of art and reading through picture books. A leading advocate in its field, The Carle collects, preserves, presents, and celebrates picture books and picture book illustrations from around the world. In addition to underscoring the cultural, historical, and artistic significance of picture books and their art form, The Carle offers educational programs that provide a foundation for arts integration and literacy.
“The Carle houses more than 11,000 objects, including 7,300 permanent collection illustrations, three art galleries, an art studio, a theater, picture book and scholarly libraries, and educational programs for families, scholars, educators, and schoolchildren. Educational offerings include professional training for educators around the country and four onsite graduate programs in Children’s Literature in collaboration with Simmons College.“ (Carle Museum)
The Carle Museum has a full schedule of exhibitions and special programs for members. Alas, not many of the exhibitions are available online, but there are quite a few educational resources available through the museum’s online shop. If you and your students love picture books, the Carle Museum is a great place to bookmark and explore.
What illustrated treasures have you discovered in your library lately? 😊
❡ Dukedoms large enough: Have you found all the local libraries in your area? There may be more than you realize, and there’s no better homeschool field trip than a field trip to a new library! The WorldCat Library Finder will help you find all the library collections near you — public and private, large and small — and the WorldCat catalog itself will help you locate the closest copy of almost any book in the world. 😊
The American Revolution began on this day, the 19th of April, in 1775. One of the great symbols of the Revolution and of that day is the Minuteman monument that stands beside the North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts. With one hand holding his musket and the other the handle of his plow, the Concord Minuteman represents the thousands of men, most of them farmers, who left their homes and fields on this April morning to engage the British troops that had been sent to confiscate colonial stores of arms and ammunition just a few miles west of Boston. The elite companies of local militia were trained to respond “at a minute’s warning” and so were called Minutemen.
Daniel Chester French’s Minuteman as he stands today at the North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)
The Concord Minuteman was sculpted the great American artist (and Concord resident) Daniel Chester French (1850–1931), who later designed the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln memorial, among many other famous landmarks. It was dedicated on the 19th of April in 1875 on the 100th anniversary of the Lexington and Concord battles, with President Ulysses Grant in attendance, and it carries on its base the first stanza of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous “Concord Hymn”:
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.
Learning to recognize and interpret significant cultural symbols is something every homeschool student should be able to do, so here’s a gallery of images to share with your students this week. You can start by checking your pocket for a Massachusetts state quarter to make this into a hands-on history lesson.
Massachusetts state quarter (2000) featuring the Concord Minuteman monument. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)
That quarter wasn’t the first time the Concord Minuteman had appeared on an American coin or stamp. In 1925, for the 150th anniversary of the Revolution, he was featured on both a commemorative half-dollar and a general issue five-cent stamp.
Lexington–Concord postage stamp (1925), marking the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the American Revolution. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)Lexington–Concord commemorative half dollar (1925), featuring the Concord Minuteman. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)
The Minuteman is the symbol of the National Guard, who are his genuine successors, and you’ll see him on their insignia around the country.
Seal of the Army National Guard featuring the Concord Minuteman. The individual state National Guard insignia commonly feature the Minuteman as well.
The Concord Minuteman is such an American icon that your students may run into him just about anywhere — even in a pizza parlor in Oklahoma.
The Minuteman Pizza Parlor in Sand Springs, Oklahoma.
Every society in the world, at every point in history, has iconic images and symbols, and the Concord Minuteman has been one of ours for almost 150 years. What other historical icons and artistic images have you studied with your homeschool students lately? 😊
❡ Explore more: Your recommended world almanac (riverhouses.org/books) has a long list of famous artists on pages 185–188, and that list includes famous sculptors — you’ll find Daniel Chester French right there with the Concord Minuteman and the Lincoln Memorial listed as his most famous works, just as we noted above. 😊 If you have an art-minded student, why not pick out a name or two from that list to research each month, either online or on your next visit to your local library. 🎨
Calling all homeschool artists, scribblers, painters, colorists, daubers, and illuminators: this week is Color Our Collections Week! Dozens of leading museums and libraries around the world are posting beautiful black-and-white engravings, woodcuts, and illustrations from their rare book collections that you can color to your heart’s content.
Color Our Collections Week is a fun, creative, educational, international project that was started by the library of the New York Academy of Medicine, and it now involves more than a hundred major libraries and museums around the world. These institutions have scanned historic black-and-white images from their collections of rare books and have assembled these images into coloring booklets that you and your students can illuminate as you see fit.
You can find a complete listing of all the available coloring books on the New York Academy of Medicine’s website:
These wonderful free booklets include everything from science to Shakespeare, architecture to medieval art, natural history to engineering, and much more. There are enough pages available for you to download a year’s worth of coloring opportunities for your young artists. And they are not only fun, they are full of educational value as well. Don’t miss this great opportunity for creativity and learning.
What artistic discoveries have you made in your homeschool this week? 😊
Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States, and in honor of the occasion, why not pay a (virtual) homeschool visit to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta, Georgia, operated by the U.S. National Park Service.
The Ebenezer Baptist Church, now part of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta, Georgia. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)
The King National Historical Park includes a modern visitor center and a collection of adjacent sites that were important in the life of the great American civil rights leader, including King’s birth home, the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church where King and his father both preached, and the gravesite of King and his wife Coretta Scott King:
Browse the National Park Service’s website to learn more, and maybe make plans for a future visit in person!
What other notable museums and historical sites have you visited in your homeschool lately? 😊
❡ A mighty stream: The riverine title of today’s post comes from King’s famous “I have a dream” speech, delivered 28 August 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington: “We cannot be satisfied so long as the Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and the Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied and will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” King was quoting the Old Testament book of Amos (5:23–24): “Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let justice roll down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.”
❡ Explore more: Your River Houses history encyclopedia (riverhouses.org/books) has an excellent illustrated summary of the life and work of Martin Luther King on pages 432–433 — just what you need to teach a excellent homeschool history lesson this week. 😊
The American Red Cross was established on this day in 1881 by Civil War nurse Clara Barton (1821–1912). If you ever make a homeschool trip to Washington you can visit the Red Cross Museum for a free guided tour (by reservation). Or if you prefer, you and your students can explore some of their online exhibits right from the comfort of your home:
Clara Barton is a name every American student should know:
Clarissa Harlowe Barton, known as Clara, is one of the most honored women in American history. Barton risked her life to bring supplies and support to soldiers in the field during the Civil War. She founded the American Red Cross in 1881, at age 60, and led it for the next 23 years. Her understanding of the ways she could provide help to people in distress guided her throughout her life. By the force of her personal example, she opened paths to the new field of volunteer service. Her intense devotion to serving others resulted in enough achievements to fill several ordinary lifetimes. (redcross.org)
Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, ca. 1870. (Image: redcross.org.)
What museums or historical sites have you visited with your homeschool students lately? 😊
Monday is Museums & Monuments Day at the River Houses: spend a few homeschool minutes exploring a notable cultural or historical site, learn a new name or a new date, find a new location on a map, and your little lesson is done.
On this day in 1789, George Washington took the oath of office as the first President of the United States. That important event took place on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City, now the Federal Hall National Memorial and a place you and your homeschoolers can visit online or in person:
Their website provides many details on this important building:
Here on Wall Street, George Washington took the oath of office as our first President, and this site was home to the first Congress, Supreme Court, and Executive Branch offices. The current structure, a Customs House, later served as part of the US Sub-Treasury. Now, the building serves as a museum and memorial to our first President and the beginnings of the United States of America. (nps.gov/feha)
George Washington statue at Federal Hall, New York. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)
What museum or historical monument have you visited with your homeschool students lately? 😊
❡ Little lessons: If your homeschoolers are studying American history this month, here’s a tricky question you can ask them: “If the United States became a country in 1776 (with the Declaration of Independence), how come the first president (Washington) wasn’t inaugurated until 1789?” Answer: Because the country was first governed under the Articles of Confederation, not the Constitution, and the Articles of Confederation included no provision for a national president! For a read-aloudable five-paragraph account of how we got from the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution, turn to pages 473–474 on your River Houses almanac (riverhouses.org/books).
Today is Shakespeare’s birthday! It’s also our regular Museums and Monuments Day, so we’re going to pay a quick homeschool visit to some suitably Shakespearean monuments.
What museum or historical monument have you visited with your homeschool students lately? 😊
❡ Explore more: Your River Houses history encyclopedia (riverhouses.org/books) has a beautifully illustrated overview of the Elizabethan period, within which Shakespeare lived and worked, on pages 260–261. It’s just the background you need to do a wonderful homeschool history lesson.
Every Monday we pay a homeschool visit a notable museum or historical monument, and since this week is the week the American Revolution began in 1775, we’re going to visit a monument every American student should know: the Concord Minuteman.
The Minuteman monument stands today at the North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts, and it represents the thousands of men, most of them farmers, who left their homes and fields on the morning of 19 April 1775 to engage a regiment of British troops sent to confiscate colonial stores of arms and ammunition in the towns of Lexington and Concord, just a few miles west of Boston. (The elite companies of local militia were trained to respond “at a minute’s warning” and so were called Minutemen.) Many of the battle sites of that day are now included within the Minute Man National Historical Park, which should be on your list of places to visit someday in your homeschool travels:
The Concord Minuteman was sculpted the great American artist (and Concord native) Daniel Chester French, who later designed the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln memorial. It was dedicated in 1875 on the 100th anniversary of the Lexington and Concord battles, and it carries on its base the first stanza of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous “Concord Hymn”:
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.
In one hand, the Minuteman holds his musket, and in the other, the handle of his plow. Here’s a gallery of images to share with your students this week — and be sure check your pocket for a Massachusetts quarter so you can give a little hands-on history lesson, too.
Daniel Chester French’s Minuteman as he stands today at the North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)Massachusetts state quarter (2000) featuring the Minuteman monument. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)Lexington–Concord postage stamp (1925), marking the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the American Revolution. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)Lexington–Concord commemorative half dollar (1925), featuring the Concord Minuteman. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)
Monday is Museums & Monuments Day at the River Houses: spend a few homeschool minutes exploring a notable cultural or historical site, learn a new name or a new date, find a new location on a map, and your little lesson is done.
On this day in 1820, a Greek farmer scavenging in the ruins of the ancient city of Milos, on the tiny Aegean island of the same name, came across a fine marble statue, broken in half and missing its arms, but otherwise in excellent condition. That statue is today one of the world’s most famous works of art, the Venus de Milo (Venus of Milos). It is now housed in the Louvre Museum in Paris, where you and your homeschool students can pay it a visit and read about it online:
The Louvre Museum (www.louvre.fr/en) is the world’s largest art museum, and it’s a name your students should know. It’s so old and famous that the building it occupies, the Louvre Palace, is even mentioned in Shakespeare.
There is an excellent 3-D image of the Venus de Milo available online (made from a plaster cast, not the original) that can be turned and viewed from all sides, giving a complete picture of what the statue looks like:
The Venus de Milo (or the Aphrodite of Milos, to use the Greek rather than Roman name of the goddess) is now usually dated to about 100 B.C. and is attributed to a sculptor named Alexandros of Antioch. In its day, like most ancient sculptures, it would have probably been painted in life-like colors or polychromed, not left as white marble.
The Venus de Milo (Aphrodite of Milos), on display in the Louvre Museum, Paris. (Image: Wikimedia Commons.)
What museum or historical monument have you visited with your homeschool students lately? 😊
❡ Explore more:Your River Houses history encyclopedia (riverhouses.org/books) has a beautifully illustrated introduction to Classical (Greek and Roman) art on pages 116–117 that will give you just the background you need for a wonderful homeschool history lesson. And you can find the little island of Milos on plate 72 in your atlas.
❡ Make it a tradition: Why not make a weekly visit to a museum or historical monument a regular homeschool tradition in your family. You can visit the one we select each week (above), or make a selection of your own, perhaps from your almanac (riverhouses.org/books) or from the riverhouses.org sidebar — art museums one year, science museums the next, historical monuments the next again. Don’t worry about making a comprehensive study: just look up its location your atlas, learn the name of a new artist or scientist or historical period or event, and your little lesson is done. Over the course of a year, without even realizing it, your students will absorb a wealth of new cultural, historical, and geographical information — and so will you!
![[Concord Minuteman]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/Minuteman_statue_1_-_Old_North_Bridge.jpg/477px-Minuteman_statue_1_-_Old_North_Bridge.jpg)
![[Massachusetts Quarter]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/Massachusetts_quarter%2C_reverse_side%2C_2000.jpg/480px-Massachusetts_quarter%2C_reverse_side%2C_2000.jpg)
![[Ebenezer Baptist Church]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Ebenezer-Baptist-from-pulpit.jpg)
![[Clara Barton]](https://embed.widencdn.net/img/americanredcross/3ocwrvklse/exact/clara-barton-slide-show-1.jpg)
![[George Washington statue]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/45/Statue_of_George_Washington_Federal_Hall_New_York_City%2C_May_2014_-_051.jpg/640px-Statue_of_George_Washington_Federal_Hall_New_York_City%2C_May_2014_-_051.jpg)
![[Central Park Shakespeare]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d2/William_Shakespeare_Statue%2C_Central_Park%2C_NYC.JPG/576px-William_Shakespeare_Statue%2C_Central_Park%2C_NYC.JPG)
![[Weimar Shakespeare]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Fotothek_df_roe-neg_0006011_004_Shakespeare-Denkmal.jpg)
![[Shakespeare action figure]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91a2knSsVpL._SL1500_.jpg)
![[Minuteman stamp]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d8/Lexington_Concord-5c.jpg/640px-Lexington_Concord-5c.jpg)
![[Minuteman half dollar]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Lexington-concord_sesquicentennial_half_dollar_commemorative_obverse.jpg)
![[Venus de Milo]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c2/Front_views_of_the_Venus_de_Milo.jpg/408px-Front_views_of_the_Venus_de_Milo.jpg)
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