📏 ⏱ 🌡 HAPPY WORLD METROLOGY DAY!

It’s World Metrology Day! On this day in 1875 — exactly 150 years ago! — the meter was adopted as the standard for the metric system of measurement, and the rest is history. 📏

Metrology is the science of measurement, and it serves as a foundation for all other branches of science (not to mention commerce, industry, and daily life). Can your students recognize the basic measurement units that comprise the International System of Units (SI), better known informally as the metric system? We measure the universe in seconds (s), meters (m), kilograms (kg), amperes (A), kelvins (K), moles (mol), and candelas (cd) — and any student going on to study science in high school or college should know how these standard metric units (SI units) work.

Take a look at just a few of the places that scientific and engineering measurements interact with your life every day:

You can download and print your very own copy of this year’s World Metrology Day poster at worldmetrologyday.org — it’s just the thing for your homeschool bulletin board. And if you have any serious stamp collectors in your homeschool, there are hundreds of metric-system stamps and SI-system stamps you can explore from countries all around the world.

What scientific measurements have you and your students taken in your homeschool this Leo Term? 😊

❡ Make it personal: Weights and measures may not seem like an engaging topic to some people, but they’ve been central to civilization for thousands of years. (Just ask the ancient Egyptians, Israelites, and Greeks.) We live in a world of inches, miles, meters, and millimeters; grams and pounds; light-years and amperes; seconds, drams, and degrees. If you want to have some fun in your homeschool this World Metrology Week, why not invent your own measurement units and apply them to everything around you. (How many “thumbs” wide is your kitchen table?) If you try this, you’ll be entering into an ancient and honorable tradition. ⚖️

❡ Explore more: For a quick homeschool review of the metric system and other systems of weights and measures, turn to (you guessed it) the “Weights & Measures” section of your recommended River Houses almanac. 📚

❡ Here, said the year: This is one of our regular posts about Homeschool Holidays & History. Add your name to our weekly River Houses mailing list to get more great homeschool history lessons 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. 🏡