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• I'm on TV!
  

  It was really exciting as at the end of January I was on TV. It was actually live! I was picked up by a very large Mercedes at 6.15am and taken off to the BBC London studio. We got there very early and I started to get nervous as I waited. I thought they might give me some idea about the questions that they would ask but they didn't. I was taken into make-up but sent out again as they said I looked OK or perhaps they thought there was no hope of making me look better! I waited with my Dad in The Green room with the other guests and waited and wiated for 8.30am to come. I went into the studio and waited a bit longer for my turn. Eventually I went in and sat on the settee with Dermot Murnaghan and Natasha Kaplinsky and and had strange questions thrown at me. I actually enjoyed it and would love to go on live again. I was lucky as they also asked me to go on Newsround - that wasn't live and they came down to school and filmed me. It really was very exciting.

  
  
• Simple Sums and my software

  Simple Sums is proving popular. I am always looking for ways to improve my software so if anyone is using this game or even if they have tried it and not liked it I really would appreciate some feedback so that I can improve the product. The basic idea of the game is to make any number of addition, take away or times sums. You can easily change the options: eg the number of questions eg if someone doesn't really like maths they might do 5 each evening or if someone is really keen they may prefer 40! the type of sums (add and/or take away and/or times). how high you want the numbers in the question to go up to eg The sums can be very easy with no number higher than 5. The programme will make random sums that would change each time you tried the test. Another great thing about it is the fact that you can print out the questions and your answers and then it is possible to keep a record of the users progress. This sheet also includes the name and date. I have watched some young children trying this out at a local school. They each had a pile of bricks to help them. So if the sum was 4 plus 3 they put 4 bricks in a pile and then got another 3 and put them in the pile. They then counted the total in the pile and typed in the answer. Do email if you are interested to know more or if you would like to order the game or one of my other products.

  
  
• YAHOO! Picks of the year 2002

  I have had absolutely loads of publicity since winning this award and it has been loads of fun. At half term I have been invited to look around yahoo in London and that should be fun. I am also going to 'Litening Books' to see how that works. Listening Books is the charity that can be amazingly helpful for dyslexic people who are not very good at reading. They send you as many tapes as you can listen to for just £50.00 a year. Once you have listened to a story you just send the tapes back and then they send you some more. It works really well and has saved me on more than one occasion when I have to read a long book for school.

  
  
  
• School
  

  This term has been fun so far - my school days are really long as I don't get home until 9.00pm. The trouble is that this site is getting so busy and I just don't have enough time to spend on it. I've got lots of ideas on how to improve it but I need more time! I think I am really lucky that I have some free periods at school because I don't do any languages - this means that I do have time to work on my software. The next game that I am working on is called Simple Problems. It is going to be a bit similar to Simple Sums but with problems instead of just sums. Please let me know if you have any good ideas as I can still change and include things now. I really do appreciate feedback as I do want to make good games and unless people tell me what they think I can't really improve things.

  
  
  
• Emails and Messages
  

  I am really sorry if I have not replied to all my emails. I am afraid that I had over 3000 after I was on TV. I also had a total of well over 1500 messages for the message board. I ussually tried to keep my message board up to date by putting them on each evening but when I came to do it the other night there were all these masses of messages that I just did not know what to do. I have read them all now and I thought that the best thing to do was to just put a selection of the messages on. I am really sorry to everyone who has not had their message posted but it has been absolutely impossible. When the site quietens down a bit then I expect I shall be able to put them all on again. Once again many thanks for them all and do keep them coming but not 1500 all on the same day!

  
  
  
  
• MY OLD NEWSLETTERS
  I still have my last newsletters and they can be read by clicking here. Also if you remember I used to have a news page, well I have put these back on, so please click here to go to them.