Sent: 02 October 2007 09:46 AM



Hello Everyone

I cannot believe how quickly this year has gone by.  We are not yet over Halloween and the kids are gearing up to make Christmas "goodies" for their workbooks.  They are a little ahead of me as I have not quite finished putting the fun preschool activities in the Halloween pages - well I actually haven't finished making them yet :)  I did publish a Fun Halloween eBook which includes recipes, paper crafts, Halloween phonics, maths, masks, stationery, scrapbooking pages and you can preview this at http://www.lulu.com/content/1237482.  It's quite a large file (117 pages of graphics and activities) so I created a preview of a few of the pages.  Most of the content can be found individually on the halloween pages, as well as some really awesome free eBooks for mums and dads on the nutritional value of the pumpkin, how to grow a pumpkin, a really great recipe book, fun facts and so much more. 
This really has been a fun experience.  :)

Visit http://www.staidenshomeschool.com/activities/halloween/halloween.html for all these free downloads.

October is a very busy but fun month for educators and homeschooling families with loads of themed activities to choose from. Aside from Halloween there are many other important dates to remember.  14 October is National Children's Day in USA (we should adopt that here as well)  7-13 October is National Fire Prevention Week, and October is Fire Prevention Month and Family Health Month.  It also hosts
- Computer Learning Month
– Diversity Awareness Month
– Hunger Awareness Month
– Hispanic Heritage Month (9/15 - 10/15) – International Dinosaur Month – Learning Disabilities Month – Youth Against Tobacco Month – Pet Wellness Month – School Safety Month

Links to activities for many of these events can be found at http://www.staidenshomeschool.com/calendars/2007/2007_EDUCATORS_CALENDAR_OCThtml.html

From St Aiden's side I have been focused on African Animals and creating mini fact/work books on the A to Z listing of African Animals. October/November/Dec are popular months for overseas visitors to African Game Parks and I thought this would be a helpful source of information as well as a fun activity for kids.  I will post lesson plans later today as a guideline for creating a full fun project on a specific animal.

 Not all pages are yet uploaded as I am endeavouring to include videos, photo galleries and links to animal-specific conservation organisations.  By later today we should have most of the pages up and I will add to them as I receive permissions to post videos.  At the end of it all I will compile a comprehensive eBook on African animals incorporating all of this information.  I will post links to that later.  In the meantime if you want to check out some really great videos and download the Mini Fact Books with African themed notepages they can be found at http://www.staidenshomeschool.com/africa/african_animals.html

I need to mention a really fantastic site that I came across.  It is the A to Z of Homeschooling and has literally thousands of pages of helpful - in fact necessary -  resources for wherever you are in the world, including South Africa.  Pop along to http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com Home's Cool.  Grab a cup of coffee.  Be prepared to be there for a while :)

That's it for today, keeping it short and sweet.  As always, if you have a homeschooling/education site that you would like to share with us please feel free to mail me for inclusion both in this newsletter and on the website.  If there is anything you would like to see on the site that isn't going up quickly enough, contact me and I will do my best to upload it.

Have a safe and blessed week
Donnette