St Aiden's Homeschool Website Updates - 05 February 2009

Wow! I cannot believe we are well into February already. The Northern Hemisphere will soon be experiencing spring days whilst the Southern Hemisphere will begin its autumn days. Where is the time going to J

As promised in the last website update we have a focus on one of the greatest literary masters in history, Charles Dickens. I have compiled Comprehension & Literature Unit Studies on some of his well-known and lesser-known works. The age groups for these will vary dependent upon the age and aptitude of the learner.

Each Unit study is accompanied by an Executive Study, which is helpful when summarising for written comprehension. Normally this is aimed at much older students. I have included these because of the length of some of the manuscripts… I know one is 943 pages long.

The download links can be found at these pages:

David Copperfield


Master Humphrey's Clock

Oliver Twist

The Battle of Life

The Holly Tree

The Cricket On The Hearth

The Chimes

A Child's History of England

On Dickens Main Page you will find an autobiography on the man himself, as well as some interesting books of fact, The Works of Dickens. Also are links to some really informative sites on Dickens and his works.

I have also compiled a comprehensive literature unit study on Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. It’s a large file and it was eventually necessary to break it down into the original “parts” of the book. So there are 8 sections to the book, each one illustrated beautifully, and a separate download link for the Literature Unit Study. Please let me know of any broken links in this section as it was reformatted a number of times until I was happy with the final books.

Items that are not uploaded to the website but are available for free download at Currclick are:

Bible Stories for Children : A Collection of 45
by St Aiden's Homeschool, South Africa

http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=27236

With Our Compliments This book comprises a collection of 45 well known and well loved Bible stories that have been adapted and simplified as far as possible for reading to young children. The book contains beautiful illustrations in colour and black and white and is a beautiful addition to any collection.

The Hares & The Frogs ~ Reading Comprehension & Copywork Book

by St Aiden's Homeschool, South Africa

http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=27327

The Tortoise & The Ducks ~ Comprehension & Copywork
by St Aiden's Homeschool, South Africa

http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=27326

The Wolf & The Kid ~ Comprehension & Copywork
by St Aiden's Homeschool, South Africa

http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=27325

Welcome to our collection of Free Comprehension & Copywork books for early readers. Of course there are hundreds of other free titles at this link.

Handwriting Practice Units in a variety of styles and formats, from the very early learner to the more advanced can be found at the following links:

http://staidenshomeschool.com/activities/printables/activitybooks/alphabet_simple_words_writing.html

http://staidenshomeschool.com/activities/printables/activitybooks/early_readers.html

http://staidenshomeschool.com/activities/printables/activitybooks/writing.html

Also a reminder of the free Valentine's Day Units and printables :)

A thought for the day: Let man search for what is right and let happiness come on its own ~ Johann Pestalozzi

Thank you for subscribing to this newsletter and for reading. As always suggestions, requests, comments and criticisms are welcome and can be sent to me at info@staidenshomeschool.com

I wish you and yours a wonderful and blessed weekend.

Till next time

Blessings

Donnette E Davis

St Aiden's Homeschool

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Christmas Day 2007 ~ St Aiden's Homeschool

Entry for 25 December 2007

Hello Everyone

It's a bright sunny (and rain-free) morning (not going to stay that way sadly) here in Pietermaritzburg. Sav and River are spending some time with their father and his mother in Gauteng and so the house has been quiet for the last 3 days, and will be still they return home later this week.

This is not a website update as such, just a Christmas message full of good wishes and blessings for each of you. I am not usually stuck for words and normally get straight in and the fingers do the walking.

But today I have received a mail from an internet colleague with something that I am happy that I read. When starting to read it I thought "Good grief, this is shocking!" until I got half way through and realised the true meaning of the message it was sending through. I will CCP it here:

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

An Internet Marketer's Adaptation for 2007 (with apologies to Clement C. Moore)

'Twas the night before Christmas and all cross the 'net

Marketers were hoping that clickthroughs, they'd get.

The products were finished and ready to go

outsourced and prepared by those "in the know"

"The customer first!" is the mantra we say

so our software and services will help them today.

The squeeze page, the copy, the ecommerce cart

the site was all ready, now we'd done our part.

Affiliates were lined up now it was their turn

They hoped that commissions, yes BIG ones, they'd earn!

On Morin, On Silver, On Fallon and Dale.

Your emails are bringing big sale after sale!

On Brunson, on Filsaime, On Ambrose and Reese...

Conversions are crazy, promote again please?

Jackpot! A huge launch! filled with riches galore, but in the midst of it all

I wondered, "could there by more?"

And that's when it hit me, a truth so supreme,

that money and sales didn't mean anything.

A chance to give back because Christmas is giving,

a way we can honor the Christ that is living.

'Cause that is what Christmas is really about.

God gave His Son and now there's no doubt...

On the night before Christmas it could be the start

when you find God's love for you there in your heart."

May you know the joy and reality of Christmas today, and every day.

I feel blessed that I have had the opportunity (though unfortunate circumstances sent me in this direction) to have been able to have been a part of your lives in one small way or another. I also feel truly blessed that I have been able to create and provide content & resources for our HS families to use, and when I read my incoming mail, very often a tear comes to my eye when the writer explains just how in some small way we have made a difference to their homeschooling and very often family life.

St Aiden's has become a popular homeschooling resource on the internet, and I have you to thank for your comments, thoughts, encouragement and yes, even criticisms. We are here to provide what YOU need so that you can be in the position to give your children the best gift possible - that of yourself. I thank everyone deeply and sincerely for your support through the year, and look forward to a new year of new content, new ideas and a great and fun learning experience for educators and chldren alike.

St Aiden's has recently been listed at http://www.hslaunch.com/ as one of the top educational Homeschooling sites. Again, thank you.

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I wish you a happy season and a prosperous new year!

As always you are welcome to leave your comments on my yahoo blog or this HS blog.

Have a safe and blessed Christmas!

Blessings
Donnette

PS - To everyone who sent links through - thank you. I finally did manage to obtain the license for 12 Days of Christmas Graphics and the files are uploaded at http://www.staidenshomeschool.com/activities/christmas/12_days_xmas.html
Educational of course, but you can grab the sheet music and midi file as well...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/staidenshomeschooling http://www.staidenshomeschool.com

Man must search for what is right, and let happiness come on its own. Johann Pestalozzi