St Aiden's Newsletter 17-07-2007 Hello Everyone It's Monday and time for my weekly newsletter, bringing you updates on the website and links and resources to other great sites. The Reader's Digest article has been compiled and we had our "photo shoot" this week. Savannah thoroughly enjoyed it for the first couple of hours, and then I think the lights got a bit bright for her :) Our photographer, Sally, was awesome and we had a lot of fun. The Homeschooling article will appear in Reader's Digest in November. I will post more news on this in October. This last week I have focused on creating and incorporating activities for Fine Motor Skills which can be accessed at http://www.staidenshomeschool.com/pre_k/finemotorskills.html On this page you will find a link to download a 116 A4-page activity-packed e-book, which includes reproducible activities relating to paper crafts, fingerplay, cut and paste activities, dot to dot, letter, number and picture tracing, shape & colour matching and lots more. I have also added to this ebook and finalised a 170 page eBook containing all of the above and even more activities, such as lacing cards, pipecleaner crafts etc, This book is available for purchase at http://www.lulu.com/content/1213863 for $6,50. There is a similar book of 172 pages created in the standard US letter format (page size) as opposed to our S African A4. This ebook is not available on my website but can be accessed at http://www.lulu.com/content/1214223 In keeping with Fine Motor Skills and related activities, you will find many more printables and downloads at http://www.staidenshomeschool.com/concepts/concepts_puzzles.html It seems that I missed these pages when reworking links after I gave the site a facelift recently. I believe that all links are happy again, but would appreciate you letting me know of broken links. More free printable activities are at http://www.staidenshomeschool.com/concepts/CONCEPTS_COLOURS.html I have to publicly thank - and it is embedded in my books - Marcia Arpin of www.allthedaze.com for her valuable input, encouragement and expertise when I was researching for this book. She is such an inspiration and I have mentioned it before, but I do so again,www.allthedaze.com is one of those addictive sites - when I get in I can't get out :) Other sites that I have spent a lot of time in this week are: www.scribd.com - This is a site I found quite by accident, and am so happy that I did! It has literally hundreds of thousands of free reproducible articles, activities and eBooks covering every topic imaginable. I came across a sweet little ABC 123 book in there, apparently it has no copyright attached to it, but rather be on the safe side, I decided to post the link instead of offering the publication. It really is worth a visit to the site, if only to have a look at what is in Homeschooling and Kids Stuff, you'll be plesantly surprised, and it doesn't cost a cent. You can find the publication at http://www.scribd.com/doc/200930/Amazing-Learning-Book-for-your-KIDS http://www.dance-to-health-help-your-special-needs-child.com/index.html - This is another of my favourite sites, more so because the webmistress, and my dear friend, is one of the most amazing women I have the pleasure of knowing. Dzagbe is a Dance Movement Therapist who has worked with adults suffering from a range of problems including severe mental ill health, various health problems such as stress, medication and drug dependency and personality problems. Her main work, however,has been with children with special needs. Although I have a few pages in my site discussing Dzagbe's work, let me rather use the words of another professional when describing the impact she has on people: I highly recommend "Dance to Health" by Dzagbe Cudjoe especially for children with disabilities. She easily shows parents how to use simple movements to enjoyable music to help these children form appropriate brain connections. In particular, the vestibular, proprioceptive, visual, and auditory systems are significantly enhanced through dance movement therapy. Also, the interaction between the parent and the child and between a group and the child during dance improves social and communication skills. "Dance to Health" is a necessary asset for anyone interested in a fun yet effective therapy for pediatric disabilities. Valerie L. Richey, MD, ND The Healthy Path, LLC www.The-Healthy-Path.org www.Autism-in-the-Christian-Home.com That's it for this week, a short one. As always I would appreciate feedback and comments, and if there is something that you would like to see that you are not seeing quickly enough, please send me a mail info@staidenshomeschool.com and I will do my best to get it uploaded for you. Have a safe, fun-filled week. God Bless Donnette http://www.staidenshomeschool.com http://www.myspace.com/single_parenting_sa