Area 6 : News & Views

LATEST SITE NEWS

22nd December 2009: URDU VERBS - : We're delighted to say that the Urdu verbs worksheets have now been linked in from the site :) and our thanks to Ayub Shaikh and Riffat Khan, for all their hard work on both the Urdu verbs and Urdu vocabulary over a very long period.

The Urdu verbs worksheets started receiving visits barely half an hour after first going up on line here tonight! very keenly awaited, as have been all the dual-language worksheet sets so far. See the Translators' page for details of other languages currently in progress.

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14th December 2009: SPANISH VERBS - : After a - very - long wait, we're very pleased to say that the Spanish verbs worksheets have finally been linked in from the site :) and our thanks to Aurora in Peru, and Jim in Spain, for making this possible. Visits are already racking up to the newly-released pages - we know how very keenly these have been awaited :)

Work is still ongoing to provide the Spanish-English vocabulary worksheets - due very soon we hope - and the Urdu-English verbs are about to have their final check-through. Our thanks to Samyak and Deepa for their offers of help with Hindi-English and Gujarati-English worksheets - more details about everything ongoing in the dual-language worksheets area can be found on the Translators' page.

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6th December 2009: 3D GRIDBUILDING - SCIENCE - biology, chemistry and physics: Stage 5 of the science has now been uploaded - over 2450 pages now - and for the first time you may be able to see exactly how all this fits together. It really is in "3D" - these pages don't only link forwards, they link backwards as well (in all directions).

You can test this out for yourself - take a page like "cells" - if you scroll down just below the definition, there are links to all the pages that mention the item you're reading about. This is "science in depth" - fully-lateral science, where GCSE-level students should in due course be able to build up a 3D picture of how everything fits together.

Remember you saw it here first!   this area is truly groundbreaking.   Though actually we originally developed the programming techniques for lateral forward/backward linking, for Andy's Guide to Pokémon in Area 12, as long ago as 2007 (see for example the RBY Pokédex page). Younger visitors especially have a huge capacity to think laterally, probably the reason for the very high ongoing levels of visits to the Pokémon area here.

There's still a very great deal of content to be added for the 3D Science area (and we'd appreciate it if site visitors could send in some original science graphics for the pages) but the basic structure is all now in place.

The whole "languages" area here is unique - laterally-linking languages across the planet, in considerable depth across each language (compare a French-English worksheet against a Russian-English worksheet with the same English content, and you have the French-Russian translation, and so on, across many many language pairs) and, in a similar way, we are now making it possible to map science in 3D, in a way that has never been done before - so that the endless different facets of science can become interlinked laterally across the board. If there are any science teachers or lecturers out there who would like to become involved with this amazing science project, just drop us a line :)   e-mail info via the 'contact' link near the foot of this page.

9th November 2009: 3D GRIDBUILDING - SCIENCE - biology, chemistry and physics: After several months of programming-behind-the-scenes (to get this resource to "self-generate" more automatically), we're delighted to say that the main structure for GRIDBUILDING is now on line. This has been a - very - long haul! but the last major "structural factor" for the site here, as a whole.

So this is "stage four" (as regards the Gridbuilding). There's a lot more actual "information" to be added, but now that the structure is in place, this will all become progressively swifter :D Take a look at "Biology A-Z" (the darker-shaded cells lead to pages where definitions have now been added). If site visitors have any original science graphics they would like to see on line, now is the time to start sending them in :)

So, now, there will be a little more time for "other things" and for adding the remainder of the scheduled content for the rest of the site. We've just had offers of help with Hindi-English and Gujarati-English worksheets; Spanish-English verbs, Spanish-English vocab and Urdu-English verbs are all due on line fairly soon, and help is still requested to check Chinese-English content (both Cantonese and Mandarin) and Bulgarian-English content so that those sets of vocabulary worksheets can go on line (see the Translators' page for details of other language worksheet-sets in progress). Plus we still need more "structured content" for the wordsearch puzzles in the Keywords for Learning area.

If you'd like to help in any way, please get in touch (see 'contact' link below) - and please write again if you don't get an autoresponder - mail can be a little unpredictable here. UK visitors can also help (at no cost to themselves) by signing up with PlusNet and giving happychild as a reference - we get a small reduction on our internet costs for every month you stay with PlusNet. Not a lot :) but things are run on something of a shoestring here, so every little helps :D

13th October 2009: 3D GRIDBUILDING - SCIENCE ~ stage three is now going up on line. Take a look at this extraordinary new resource - this is being built "organically" in a way that has never before been possible. There's a lot of information to be added yet! but the basic underlying structure is now becoming visible. A page like "Chemistry A-Z" is probably a good place to start :)

28th September 2009: 3D GRIDBUILDING - SCIENCE - for biology, chemistry and physics: We're delighted to say that the second stage has just been made visible - it's all very much "under construction" still but there have been significant developments behind the scenes since the first stage was opened to visitors on 24th May - more details here.

28th September 2009: DUAL-LANGUAGE WORKSHEETS: We still urgently need help with checking the translations for Mandarin and also Cantonese [the Chinese-Pinyin-English vocabulary worksheets are ready-to-go as soon as they've been validated] and also now for the Bulgarian-English vocab database which was completed very recently.

Meanwhile Urdu-English verbs worksheets are in final checking stages, Spanish-English verbs worksheets are in final checking stages, and both Spanish vocabulary and Italian vocabulary are progressing well :) Polish-English verbs worksheets are also currently being checked, and a number of other languages are in progress - see the Translators' page for more info. This News page might not get updated very regularly lately (for which our apologies) but there is a great deal going on here, currently :)

28th September 2009: HARRY POTTER - FILM SIX ... and finally ..... we've done the review for the film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Just took a few days before we had time to upload it and update this page ;)

24th May 2009: Andy's Guide to Pokémon: Just a brief note to say that the Pokémon Platinum Pokédex is now on line ~ we know this one has been keenly awaited.

24th May 2009: 3D GRIDBUILDING: Also now on line is 3D Gridbuilding - science - biology - physics - chemistry. It's very much "under construction" and we're likely to be working on this for the foreseeable future.

24th May 2009: DUAL-LANGUAGE WORKSHEETS: Help is still (urgently) requested from a language professional, to check the translated vocabulary databases for Mandarin and Cantonese (plus pinyin), so we can put the English-Chinese worksheets up on line. Any volunteer help would be appreciated :) e-mail address via the 'contact' link below.

25th April 2009: URDU WORKSHEETS: A long pause in updating this page ... sorry ... but, as usual, things have been flat out behind the scenes here. We're extremely pleased to say the Urdu-English vocabulary worksheets have just gone on line, and also the matching area for Wall-to-Wall Urdu. Urdu-English verbs worksheets are also in the pipeline and we're hoping these will be available relatively soon.

Also on the languages side, we've received two offers for checking the Italian vocab (now in progress), as well as new translation offers for Greek, Bahasa Indonesia and Hungarian. The Translators' page will be updated shortly. Our thanks to the many volunteers working so hard to make all these free language worksheets possible :)

... and finally (for now) we're currently working on Pokémon Platinum for Andy's Guide to Pokémon. We know there's a huge demand for this one! and it will be on line as soon as we possibly can.

22nd January 2009: FRENCH GRAMMAR: After (literally) years in the making, our 48-page Guide to Basic French Grammar is now finally on line (also accessible from the foot of the main French index page). This simple Guide is "deliberately different" - designed in such a way as to make it easier for kids to remember the various French Grammar components. Take a look at "the apple series" and "the orange series" ... or "the nine whiches" ....

The 2009 Events Calendar is also now fully up to date, and there has been significant progress with the dual-language worksheets area, with offers being received for the checking of the completed Spanish and Urdu vocabulary databases (to provide Spanish-English and Urdu-English worksheets), and an offer to translate English-Pashtu. Help is still needed for checking the Mandarin, Cantonese and Bulgarian vocab databases, so please pass on details to anyone you know in the language field :)

11th January 2009: 2009 EVENTS CALENDAR: We're now in the process of updating the Calendar of Events taking place in 2009 and beyond, to raise funds for disadvataged children. Long task, this! so we'll note on the Calendar how far we've got at each stage, until the whole massive page is renewed. The range of activities arranged for this year is beyond description :)

Aside from that, the main 'building' aspect of the site is now completed. This has taken almost eleven years! and has been quite an undertaking. Our thanks to the many thousands of loyal visitors who have "stayed with us" during this (very) long construction phase.

We're still dependent on "help being offered" to get various areas up on line - checking still required on Urdu vocab (possible offer), Spanish vocab (possible offer), Cantonese vocab, Mandarin vocab and Bulgarian vocab, but these databases are now fully translated so the dual-language worksheets can go on line as soon as the required help is provided by volunteer language professionals - see the Translators' page for more info.

The French Grammar pages are currently being checked and will hopefully be able to go on line shortly. The only other help requested from visitors is for structured keywords for the wordsearch puzzles in the Keywords for Learning area. Contributions required if you'd like us to finish this!

Meanwhile - whilst we're waiting for offers of help with all of the above - we've scheduled the next 12 months for link restores (there are around 12,000 external links leading from the site pages here). Many links have broken during the 'heavy pagebuilding' phase of the last several years (during which time other sites have changed the page addresses to which we link), but completing the main site pagebuilding here has had to take priority (or it would never have got done!). However "done" it now is - and we'll be focussing on rebuilding our links with the rest of the Internet over the months ahead. Likely to be a more leisurely phase, perhaps ;)

4th January 2009: Andy's Guide to POKÉMON: Happy New Year to all our visitors! as usual at this time of year, we've been immersed in Pokémon updates ... we know there are a fair few adults visiting this site, and that most of the adults are probably not interested in 'Pokémon' - but you're also maybe unaware of how tough this game is for younger children - or of how it helps develop lateral thinking skills.

Andy's Guide to Pokémon has been created to map out the structure of the games, and to make it easier for kids to 'stay afloat' when coping with tens or hundreds of thousands of different factors-to-remember (depending on how many 'versions' they have, from red, blue, yellow right through to diamond and pearl). Take a look through the Red/Blue/Yellow Pokédex, or FireRed LeafGreen cheats to get some idea of what your seven-year-old might be dealing with :)

NEWSLETTERS - this website has been on line since 1998 - there have been a lot of Newsletters! The archive is here and the very last Newsletter is here.