Project HappyChild NEWS

1st February 2000

[for ongoing updates, see Latest Site News]

January has been an awesome month where visits went over 2000 per day for the first time - and on Thursday 27^th January hit 2455, representing more than 100 visits per hour over the day as a whole. Bearing in mind the fact that we first hit 1000 per day only last October (27/10/99) this means visits have doubled to 2000 a day in only three months! Our thanks to all those unsung people who have forwarded our publicity page to their friends and colleagues, and to the growing number of people who have made a link to this website.

We're now looking forward to the magic "3000-per-day" figure - because that level of accesses each day will represent ONE MILLION visits per year, on an ongoing basis. Please help us to reach this! You can keep an eye on the ongoing "daily visit level" on our webstats page.

A major new addition to the website this month has been our "Times Tables" resource. 50 free-to-print worksheets gradually guide the child through working out how the numbers fit together - so it's not just "learning parrot fashion" - and provide a structured practice format so that each table can be learned easily yet thoroughly, and practised again whenever necessary.

This resource only went on line last Wednesday morning and has already had over 1600 visits in the last six days! It's unlikely it has reached the search engines as yet, so our thanks to everyone who has passed on details to friends.

Michael Tipper's February articles will be on line in the next day or two - and this month you'll have the opportunity to find out more about the man himself, and how he first became involved in Memory Training - we'll be adding a short "biography" to Michael's area of the site. This month's main article is on "power browsing through text books" and the review is of Mind Manager, mind-mapping software for web pages for which Michael has written a simple step-by-step guide to use which will be on line shortly. This month's Great Mind is Napoleon Hill, author of "Think and Grow Rich", the Amazing Brain fact is about multiple intelligences - and the Mnemonic is about the game of snooker.

Being that this Newsletter is published only once each month, it's become apparent that we need to have some facility on site where regular visitors can find out the latest developments and what has been added where.

Accordingly we've started making more active use of our "News" page which is now updated as soon as changes and additions are made to the site as a whole. This page also shows the progress of featured items such as the Millennium Balloon and Vinny Lauwers' epic voyage to raise money for disadvantaged and disabled children.

We are continuing to add resources to the Syndromes Links Index, as we become aware of them.

Recent additions include the Deafworld Signing Dictionary [deaf language, in various country variations] and their very comprehensive details of deafness resources worldwide.

Our thanks to Harvey Twyman for notification of his new resource for the Makaton Sign Language Vocabulary (special language for children with mental handicaps), and to Archie Allison for details of Variety Village [Ontario, Canada], largest sports training and fitness complex in North America for youngsters with special needs.

We've also added a link to LD OnLine [Washington DC] - inter-active guide to learning disabilities for parents, teachers and children - hyperactivity and attention-deficit disorder - and our thanks go to Mike Andrews of Pathways Development Group for providing details of AbleData, whose database contains information on more than 25,000 assistive technology products from white canes to voice output programs.

Links to local school nets listing schools' websites in five more countries have been added this month - four to our Eurasia page [Malaysia (see January Newsletter), Poland, Turkey and Slovenia (our thanks for the latter to Vladimir Batagelj, University of Ljubljana, Department of Mathematics) - and one to Bermuda in the Caribbean [see our Americas page]. Browsing around the schools' websites is an education in itself - many have photographs of the school buildings and the differences between the environments in which children learn is stunning.

Any help in providing similar information for other countries is always appreciated, and we credit the source of new schools' websites listings wherever possible.

We've recently received details of the new Children in Crisis website, and we'll be adding related information to the Project HappyChild site later this week. Children in Crisis have a number of gala events planned for this year, including the York Tennis Challenge Cup [a number of top tennis professionals have been invited to take part] on SUNDAY 20^th FEBRUARY 2000 - tickets from Ł7.50 adults, Ł5 children under 12, corporate hospitality packages available - also a Casino Night in March 2000 and a City Dinner in May 2000.

Their Sponsored Events include Trek Nepal in March/April [taking in Kathmandu and the temples of Patan], To Russia with Love in September [cycling from Moscow to St. Petersburg], the Flora London Marathon and the London Triathlon.

Details of all the above events and their ongoing work to help children in a number of countries can be found on the Children in Crisis site.

The pagebuilding schedule is now running at 3-5 days, on average, so early notification of forthcoming events would be much appreciated.

Best regards,

Penny.

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