Project HappyChild NEWS

1st May 2003

[for ongoing updates, see Latest Site News]

Hi there! A huge welcome to all our new subscribers - traffic has been off the graph again this month, and we'd like to thank everyone who has been continuing to publicise the site :)

This month's issue is just a brief update on what's been going on here over the last four weeks - shorter than recent issues! - but just so all visitors are aware of progress and developments in different areas.

SPELLINGS, SOUNDS AND MEANINGS: The first part of the Sounds Database (AR sounds) is completed and currently with Mario in New Zealand for page generation - we'll put details up on the Latest News page as soon as the first 450+ free worksheets go on line. The links are already detailed on the AR index page but will divert for now to our "shadow" page until all the AR pages are in place.

ACCELERATED LEARNING: Michael Tipper's latest Feature Article is now on line - "Mnemonics you have sent in". Thanks go to the many visitors who write in to Michael - his schedule doesn't often allow personal replies but all e-mails sent in to him are read - new mnemonics are always very much appreciated.

EVENTS CALENDAR: We've added a new event to the already-massive Events Calendar for this year, "Rory Bremner at the Savoy" - click here for further details of this and other WellBeing events. Early booking recommended! - celebrity events are always very popular ....

Also new on the Events Calendar is Anti-Slavery's "Big Feat For Little Feet ®" - the first ever London walk on Sunday 8th June 2003 in support of their work to end exploitative child labour - there are an estimated eight million children worldwide who are forced to work long hours in harsh conditions - for more details see the Events Calendar.

We've also updated the Charity Catalogues page with details of current phone numbers for Wellbeing brochures and Xmas cards. Currently we're in the midst of a massive overhaul of the Project HappyChild Directory and we'll be adding quite a few more new links in addition to those on the Charity Catalogues, Booklists, Events, Syndromes Links and Resources Required pages.

Visitors are asked to bear with us whilst the Directory is being updated! - we'll be replacing the pages one at a time, as this is a fairly major task, but this whole area will be significantly more cohesive when the new pages are all on line.

HELP REQUESTED: The Kurdistan Children's Fund in northern Iraq desperately needs funds to help thousands of kids, including those at the looted Baghdad orphanages. If you're able to give even a few pounds, US dollars, Canadian dollars, euros or yen, their on-line PayPal facility can convert this into the currency required - see the KCF page for more details - and please do contact us if PayPal refuses to accept your payment, as has happened on occasion already. Even tiny donations can make a *real* difference.

FREE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: When we originally started building the French language resource in the Freeway area of the site, it was our intention (one day!) to add both classical Greek and Latin.

Other pagebuilding commitments have prevented us from building such a resource on line here - so we're delighted to say we have now located a very comprehensive Classics site with free, fully-downloadable, public domain Latin and Greek grammars, along with a wide range of classical e-books from Greek and Roman authors. This free resource is supported by Miami University (Oxford, Ohio).

We've linked to the Latin and Greek grammars and e-books both from Freeway and from our main index to free educational resources worldwide.

RELIEF WEB: Our thanks to Louise Gentzel at ReliefWeb [contact information for UN relief agencies, NGOs etc. and a directory of humanitarian organizations] for advising us of a broken link - this has now been updated on the Free Educational Resources page [see under International Affairs].

It's been a somewhat complex few weeks here - after last month's technical difficulties where both the computer and the monitor gave out completely, we're still managing with the previous drives - not able to format in case we lose the supplementary resources :) - and the printer has only been able to be linked in again over the last few days.

Many of you will have noticed the visitor counts crashing regularly! - simply due to volume of traffic and nothing much we can do to make the counts cope better, though the figures are corrected and re-uploaded whenever time allows. We'd expected the last few weeks to be quieter, with schools out and the Easter holidays, but traffic hardly dipped at all so it looks like a hectic few months ahead :)

Seriously though, we're delighted by the huge traffic levels and the sheer numbers of people who are able to make use of the site's resources. We still have many months of pagebuilding ahead but we'll keep the Latest News page updated as regularly as we can, as all the new resources progressively go on line.

Best regards,

Penny.

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