Subject: St Aiden's Homeschool Newsletter 24-07-2007


Hello again Everyone

Today is Heritage Day here in S Africa, and it is also National Braai Day.  For those of you not from SA who aren't familiar with the term "braai" it's simply a bbq over hot coals.  There was an appeal by Thabo Mbeki that worldwide everyone has a family braai today.  Bit difficult if you hail from KZN as it has been coming down in buckets since yesterday - not good for laundry!  So I am doing this newsletter wrapped up to the 9's, the heater going full.  Frozen fingers will necessitate a short newsletter this week :)

We have had a lot of fun gearing up for Halloween.  Although not really celebrated here in S Africa, we as a family have always had a traditional "trick or treat" in the neighbourhood - much to neighbours' horror - a new concept to a lot of them :) 

Last year my girls and I really enjoyed surfing the net for Halloween themed goodies and activities - this year we have spent the last week or so making our own, the girls test-driving my gift bags and boxes, we have had a lot of fun and it will be seen on the website pages, with 100's of free printables and downloads.

A bit about the history.  Behind the name... Halloween, or the Hallow E'en as they call it in Ireland , means All Hallows Eve, or the night before the 'All Hallows', also called 'All Hallowmas', or 'All Saints', or 'All Souls' Day, observed on November 1.  I was surprised to find out actually that although said to be the biggest holiday in USA next to Christmas, Halloween actually originated in Ireland.  There is some awesome information & even more activities at http://www.theholidayspot.com/halloween/history.htm

On our home front we have Halloween phonics, basic printables, letter & word tracing, match the pictures and matching words at http://www.staidenshomeschool.com/activities/halloween/phonics.html - in fact just go to the printables page at http://www.staidenshomeschool.com/activities/halloween/printables.html to get access to all the printables - so far everything uploaded is available for free download.  This includes lacing cards, themed stationery, frames, stickers and frames - ideal for a Halloween Scrapbook Craft for kids.  There are also pre-printed Halloween gift tags, bags, labels and bookmarks, story starters, printable fingerplays and poems, quizzes, mazes and so much more.  As I mail this I will be uploading the next instalment of Witch stationery, which includes envelopes and matching gift bags and paper crafts.  I particularly like all the different frames.  

Pumpkin Carving is a great family tradition in the USA I discovered :) (I learn something new every day) and so I decided to include videos on how to carve a pumpkin.  It's amazing what people can do... :0 http://www.staidenshomeschool.com/activities/halloween/howtocarveapumpkin.html

In keeping with the spirit of things there is also an awesome free activity book for you to download, compliments from Supercrayon on http://www.staidenshomeschool.com/activities/halloween/halloween.html and some online games at http://www.staidenshomeschool.com/activities/halloween/halloween.html my favourite being Skeleton Ragdoll... what a fun but exceptionally simple game - excellent for mouse skills for little ones...  All in all with all those free printables, it's enough to bring the spirit of Halloween to life in our country and to keep the little ones entertained for hours and hours... :)  As always I stress the importance of safety and adult supervision with children when doing paper crafts involving cutting and pasting.

That's it for today.  I will probably send out a newsletter later in the week (won't be halloween themed I promise) featuring some great sites I have come across. so until then be safe, have a fantastic and blessed week.  Remember if there is anything you would like to see on the website that you are not seeing quick enough please mail me and I will do my best to get it uploaded for you.

God Bless
Donnette