Hello Everyone, hope you all had a fabulous weekend and feel well rested.

I have had a busy time searching out and reviewing some really great websites in the last days and would love to share them with you.  You'll find links and desciptions at the end of this very short newsletter.

A number of additions have been made to our site, most significantly in Dolch Words.  I have re-done the page and it now contains great printable mini activity books for free download, which include tracing, word walls and sight word cards of the 220 most frequently used Dolch Words, (GrR to Gr3), the 150 Most common Dolch Phrases and words tracing and picture recognition of the Dolch Nouns - Santa and Christmas feature predominantly :o)  They can be accessed at http://staidenshomeschool.com/phonics/DOLCH_WORDS.html

Of course the other Dolch printables are still there and I will be adding a few more Dolch printables this week with tracing/writing pages as well.

African pages are also constantly being updated.  I am not going to list every new addition, save to say that every week there are lots of additions to http://www.staidenshomeschool.com/africa/african_animals.html, which include free animal activity books, printables, workbooks, videos and more.  I hope you are enjoying the African Animals eBooks.  Last week I researched the Mountain Gorilla and have uploaded an ebook, some really fantastic photographs that can be used freely, a few videos and other printables.  Again it is a truly humbling experience to watch and learn about how selfless dedicated people spend their lives and their time in their quest to prevent any more senseless slaughtering of our African Wildlife. You can read about it and watch some excellent videos at http://www.staidenshomeschool.com/animals/gorilla.html

Some really brilliant sites that I would like to share with you are www.adrianbruce.com, who is a phonics "master" as far as I am concerned, and has received numerous awards, both in Australia and throughout the www.  Below you will find a site description.  For myself, I will just say that I spend an inordinate amount of time in his site.  His phonics posters (word families etc) are magnificent, fun, colourful and extremely professional, as are all his games - AND FREE!

adrianbruce.com shares educational resources with the world- reading games, reading posters, maths games, phonics games, phonics posters, podcasting ideas, motivational posters, art activities, free educational software, teaching resources, printables, readers theatre, educational webpage links, blogging, educational software, problem solving, homework help, photography, science lessons, poetry lessons, writing lessons, teaching writing, homework ideas, educational podcasting, chess lessons and blogging ideas. To name but a few :)  Go to www.adrianbruce.com

For Homeschooling parents and/or teachers, you will find exceptionally valuable additions to your portfolio at A Teacher's Toolbox - Resources 4 Busy Educators 

A Teacher's Toolbox is the companion of adrianbruce.com. It showcases recent educational resources that have been added to the site, his ICT work with teachers and students, free reading games, free maths games, free educational software and much, much more. Feel free to check it out and if you know people who can use this stuff, send it on :) Be SURE to check out HIS ARCHIVE - Heaps of GREAT STUFF there!  Go to http://teacher-toolbox.blogspot.com/

Finally, but no less importantly, I would like to introduce you to www.mathsisfun.com - Exceptional online and offline fun Maths resource for K-12 students and teachers. Includes puzzles, games and printable math worksheets. A mix of fun and study is good!  We are fortunate to have one of Rod's Fun Maths Tables on our site, it really does make learning your 12 times table fun!  http://www.staidenshomeschool.com/mathsisfunmultiplicationtabletest.html

That's it for today.  I do wish you all a safe and happy week ahead.  As always please feel free to mail me with any comments, queries or suggestions.

Till next time
Blessings
Donnette
http://www.staidenshomeschool.com