![[The River Houses]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/arms-icon-100x100.png "The River Houses"){kind=icon}
We divide the homeschool year into four three-month terms, and the midpoint of each term (following old calendrical tradition) is called the “cross-quarter day.” Today is the cross-quarter day of Orion Term, our winter term in the River Houses. How are things going in your homeschool?
🗓 The Homeschool Year: Seasons, Months, Terms, & Calendars
Here — said the Year —
Homeschool teaching tips and wonderful little lessons about the months, the seasons, and the four terms that make up the River Houses year (Cygnus, Orion, Leo, and Hercules). Download and print your own educational calendars and planners on our main homeschool calendars page, and subscribe to our free homeschool newsletter to get more great teaching tips delivered right to your mailbox every week. 📫
🗓 🎉 ❄️ HAPPY HOMESCHOOL JANUARY from the River Houses!
Happy January and Happy New Year! Here’s our monthly review of all the wonderful educational opportunities, little lessons, and teaching traditions you can look for in the homeschool month ahead.
🖋 🔔 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 in your homeschool.)
🖋 🍻 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 celebratory homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Robert Burns, for auld lang syne.)
🎵 ❄️ HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: In the Bleak Midwinter
![[Holiday Music]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/holiday-music-150x100.jpg)
“Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; / Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, / In the bleak midwinter, long ago.” (A frosty carol from Christina Rossetti and Gustav Holst, for Homeschool Holiday Music Month and the winter solstice.)
🗓 ⛄️ WINTER IS HERE! (Astronomically Speaking)
![[Equinoxes & Solstices]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/equinox-solstice-150x100.png)
Winter is here! If you’re in the northern hemisphere, that is. If you’re in the southern hemisphere, summer is here! Happy December solstice to homeschoolers everywhere!
🖋 🍂 WONDERFUL WORDS: The End of a Season
“The leaves are all dead on the ground, / Save those that the oak is keeping / To ravel them one by one / And let them go scraping and creeping / Out over the crusted snow, / When others are sleeping.” (Our pensive homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Robert Frost, for the end of fall.)
🗓 🎄 🎅 HAPPY HOMESCHOOL DECEMBER from the River Houses!
Happy homeschool December! Here are some little lessons, teaching traditions, and wonderful educational opportunities you and your students can watch for this month.
🗓 🗡 ORION TERM and the River Houses Homeschool Year
![[Orion Constellation Chart (1822)]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/orion-jamieson-1822-150x133.jpg)
We divide the homeschool year into four three-month terms in the River Houses. Today is the first day of Orion Term, our winter term, named for the Great Hunter of the Heavens. Orion Term runs from December through February.
🗓 🥧 🦃 HAPPY HOMESCHOOL NOVEMBER from the River Houses!
Happy homeschool November! Here are some little lessons, teaching traditions, and wonderful educational opportunities you and your students can watch for this month.
🗓 🦢 HAPPY CROSS-QUARTER DAY of Cygnus Term
We divide the homeschool year into four three-month terms, and the midpoint of each term (following old calendrical tradition) is called the “cross-quarter day.” Today, October 16th, is the cross-quarter day of Cygnus Term, our fall term in the River Houses. How are things going in your homeschool?
🗓 🍁 🎃 HAPPY HOMESCHOOL OCTOBER from the River Houses!
Happy homeschool October! Here are some little lessons, teaching traditions, and wonderful educational opportunities you and your students can watch for this month.
🗓 HOMESCHOOL CALENDARS: “Thirty days hath September . . .”
“. . . April, June, and November.” (There’s no better week than this to teach your students the ancient calendrical verse that every young homeschooler should know.)
🖋 🍃 WONDERFUL WORDS: “Our Summer made her light escape”
![[Emily Dickinson Homestead]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/dickinson-homestead-150x113.jpg)
“And thus, without a Wing / Or service of a Keel / Our Summer made her light escape / Into the Beautiful.” (Our wistful homeschool poem-of-the-week, from Emily Dickinson, for the end of summer.)
🗓 🍂 FALL IS HERE! (Astronomically Speaking)
Fall is here! If you’re in the northern hemisphere, that is. If you’re in the southern hemisphere, spring is here! Happy September equinox to homeschoolers everywhere!
🗓 📓 ✏️ HAPPY HOMESCHOOL SEPTEMBER from the River Houses!
Happy homeschool September and happy new homeschool year! Here are some little lessons, teaching traditions, and wonderful educational opportunities you and your students can watch for this month.
🗓 🦢 CYGNUS TERM and the New River Houses Homeschool Year
![[Cygnus Constellation Chart (1822)]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/cygnus-jamieson-1822-150x124.jpg)
We divide the homeschool year into four three-month terms in the River Houses. Today is the first day of Cygnus Term, our fall term, named for the Great Swan of the Heavens. Cygnus Term runs from September through November.
🏡 🎉 A NEW HOMESCHOOL YEAR BEGINS: Let the River Run!
Welcome to a beautiful brand new homeschool year in the River Houses! Let all the dreamers wake the nation.
🌬 THE RIVER and the World
As the 2023–2024 homeschool year comes to an end, we offer one final toast to students all around the world who are embarking on new voyages: “Fair winds and following seas.” 🥂
A new River Houses homeschool year begins tomorrow, September 1st, the first day of Cygnus Term 2024–2025.
🖋 🏡 ENVOY: A Living River by the Door (To Close the Homeschool Year)
“Go, little book, and wish to all / Flowers in the garden, meat in the hall, / A living river by the door, / A nightingale in the sycamore.” (Our farewell poem-of-the-week, from Robert Louis Stevenson, for the end of the River Houses homeschool year.)
🗓 😎 ☀️ HAPPY HOMESCHOOL AUGUST from the River Houses!
Happy homeschool August! Here are some little lessons, teaching traditions, and wonderful educational opportunities you and your students can watch for this month.
🗓 💪 HAPPY CROSS-QUARTER DAY of Hercules Term
We divide the homeschool year into four three-month terms, and the midpoint of each term (following old calendrical tradition) is called the “cross-quarter day.” Today, July 16th, is the cross-quarter day of Hercules Term, our summer term in the River Houses. How are things going in your homeschool?
🌝 KNOW YOUR MOONS 🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑
![[Full Moon Stamp]](https://riverhouses.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/us-moon-stamp-2016-150x150.jpg)
Celebrate the anniversary of the first moon landing in 1969 by teaching your homeschool students the phases of the moon. You can even use emojis to do it!
🗓 🎆 🇺🇸 HAPPY HOMESCHOOL JULY from the River Houses!
Happy homeschool July! Here are some little lessons, teaching traditions, and wonderful educational opportunities you and your students can watch for this month.
🗓 ⛱ SUMMER IS HERE! (Astronomically Speaking)
Summer is here! If you’re in the northern hemisphere, that is. If you’re in the southern hemisphere, winter is here! Happy June solstice to homeschoolers everywhere!
🌅 HOMESCHOOL SEASONS: Watch the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge
Follow a live broadcast of the summer-solstice sunset and sunrise at Stonehenge, the ancient astronomical landmark in southern England.
🗓 🍃 🏸 HAPPY HOMESCHOOL JUNE from the River Houses!
Happy homeschool June! Here are some little lessons, teaching traditions, and wonderful educational opportunities you and your students can watch for this month.
