Nature Study: Honeybees

By Julie McIntosh, beekeeper and HSOK Trustee Can you imagine having over 20,000 sisters? A honeybee can have that many or more! Almost all bees in a hive are female, and all the eggs they hatched from were laid by the same queen mother. That makes them all sisters!  The honeybee is a fantastic creature … Continue reading Nature Study: Honeybees

Frederic Edwin Church

Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painter and a central figure of the Hudson River School. He was born in Hartford, Connecticut. His father was a successful silversmith and businessman, so Church had time and supplies to pursue art as a career. When he was eighteen, he began … Continue reading Frederic Edwin Church

Johann Pachelbel

Johann Pachelbel lived from 1653-1706 in Germany. He left many compositions, including the very well-known Canon in D, and he instructed many students, including Johann Christoph Bach (older brother and guardian to Johann Sebastian Bach). It may seem strange to include Pachelbel with a group of innovative American composers that we’ll study this year since … Continue reading Johann Pachelbel

Anne Bradstreet

Anne Bradstreet (March 20, 1612 – September 16, 1672) was the first writer in England’s North American colonies to be published. She was born to a wealthy Puritan family in Northampton, England. She was well-educated, reading widely and in several languages. After she was married, she migrated to North America with her husband and children. Much … Continue reading Anne Bradstreet

Gilbert Stuart

If you make it to the Crystal Bridges Homeschool Day on Friday, September 15, 2023, you can see Stuart’s George Washington (Constable-Hamilton Portrait) in person! Biography Gilbert Stuart (December 3, 1755 – July 9, 1828) was born in Rhode Island Colony. He is the most well-known portraitist of his time, producing more than a thousand … Continue reading Gilbert Stuart

Nature Study: Vegetables

Nature study can be as simple as a short walk in the neighborhood or as elaborate as a week in a National Park. Don’t make it complicated. Just go outside. This month, we suggest you spend some time outside every day that is reasonable and observe what is going on with the birds in your … Continue reading Nature Study: Vegetables

Simple Beauty for July Year C

Here are the links to our suggestions for beautiful things for July, with a focus on beautiful words, sounds, and places that are distinctly American. Albert Bierstadt Louis Armstrong Butterflies American Poetry

Poetry: American Poets

These images will take you to the poems on the Poetry Foundation site. One of them is still under copywriter, and treating them all in the same way makes the most sense. The text under each picture is linked to information about each highlighted monument. The Statue of Liberty Dignity of Earth and Sky The … Continue reading Poetry: American Poets

Louis Armstrong

Trumpet player and vocalist Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) was one of the world’s greatest jazz musicians. Born in New Orleans, he spent his youth in a home for trouble children before he made his way to Chicago and New York to play with several different well-know jazz bands. His jazz style and repertoire was unique because … Continue reading Louis Armstrong

Albert Bierstadt

Albert Bierstadt was born in Germany in 1830. He came to the United States with his parents while he was still a baby. He was raised in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He returned to Düsseldorf to study painting as a young adult. When he was twenty-seven, he returned to the United States to travel the western … Continue reading Albert Bierstadt