Balloons

We've had fun today playing with some balloons, so I thought I'd share some activity / learning ideas!

• practice throwing, catching and kicking
• pat the ball into the air and count how long it takes to float down to the ground
• tie a string to the balloon and take it for a walk
• blow up balloons of different colours to help your child learn their colours - can they catch the red one, find the blue one etc
• play peek-a-boo behind the balloon
• draw faces on a balloon and practice different emotions

Have fun! Be careful with balloons as uninflated balloons are a choking hazard. Don't blow up the balloon completely - if it isn't over inflated it is harder to burst.

Encouraging Writing

One thing I am often asked is how to practice writing with a child who isn't very keen? The answer is to keep it FUN!

So here are some of my favourite ways to get children practicing writing / drawing skills without using a pencil and paper!

• use a chalk board
• use a whiteboard
• paint with water onto a wall / path
• chalk onto a wall / path
• finger painting
• use an Aquadraw
• use a Magna Doodle
• writing in 'gloop' (cornflour and water)
• writing in playdough
• writing in sand / mud using fingers or a stick

Let me know any other fun ways you persuade your children to write!

St George's Day

The 23rd April is St George's Day. Saint George is the patron saint of England. His emblem, a red cross on a white background, is the flag of England, and part of the British flag.

St George was a brave Roman soldier who protested against the Romans' torture of Christians and died for his beliefs. The popularity of St George in England stems from the time of the early Crusades when it is said that the Normans saw him in a vision and were victorious. One of the best-known stories about Saint George is his fight with a dragon. But it is highly unlikely that he ever fought a dragon, and even more unlikely that he ever actually visited England. Despite this, St George is known throughout the world as the dragon-slaying patron saint of England. St George is always depicted as a knight carrying a shield with a red cross (or a banner with a red cross), generally sitting upon a horse and always killing a dragon.


Saint George is popularly identified with England and English ideals of honour, bravery and gallantry, but actually he wasn’t English at all. Very little is known about the man who became St George. It is thought that he was born in Turkey (in Cappadocia) in the in the year A.D. 270 (3rd century) and had Christian parents. At the age of seventeen he joined the Roman army and soon became renowned for his bravery. He served under a pagan Emperor but never forgot his Christian faith. The Emperor Diocletian gave him many important missions, and it is thought that on one of these he came to England. It was while he was in England that he heard the Emperor was putting all Christians to death and so he returned to Rome to help his brother Christians. He pleaded with the Emperor to spare their lives. He imprisoned and tortured, but stayed true to his faith and eventually was beheaded at Lydda in Palestine on 23 April, 303.

In 1222, the Council of Oxford declared April 23 to be St George’s Day and he replaced Edward the Confessor as England’s patron saint in the 14th century. In 1415, April 23 was made a national feast day .

St George is patron saint not only of England but also of Aragon, Catalonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Palestine and Portugal amongst others, although he is celebrated on different days. St George is also patron saint of soldiers, archers, cavalry and chivalry, farmers and field workers, riders and saddlers, and he helps those suffering from leprosy, plague and syphilis.

The Story of St George and the Dragon
St. George journeyed for many months by land and sea until he came to Libya. Here he met a poor hermit who told him that everyone in that land was in great distress, for a dragon had long ravaged the country. 'Every day,' said the old man, 'he demands the sacrifice of a beautiful maiden and now all the young girls have been killed. The King's daughter alone remains, and unless we can find a knight who can slay the dragon she will be sacrificed tomorrow. The king of Egypt will give his daughter in marriage to the champion who overcomes this terrible monster.' When St. George heard this story, he was determined to try and save the princess, so he rested that night in the hermit's hut, and at daybreak set out to the valley where the dragon lived. When he drew near he saw a little procession of women, headed by a beautiful girl dressed in pure Arabian silk. The princess Sabra was being led by her attendants to the place of death. The knight spurred his horse and overtook the ladies. He comforted them with brave words and persuaded the princess to return to the palace. Then he entered the valley.
As soon as the dragon saw him it rushed from its cave, roaring with a sound louder than thunder. Its head was immense and its tail fifty feet long. But St. George was not afraid. He struck the monster with his spear, hoping he would wound it. The dragon's scales were so hard that the spear broke into a thousand pieces. and St. George fell from his horse. Fortunately he rolled under and enchanted orange tree against which not poison could prevail, so that the venomous dragon was unable to hurt him. Within a few minutes he had recovered his strength and was able to fight again. He smote the beast with his sword but the dragon poured poison on him and his armour split in two. Once more he refreshed himself from the orange tree and then, with his sword in his hand, he rushed at the dragon and pierced it under the wing where there were no scales, so that it fell dead at his feet.

How does England celebrate St George's Day?
By tradition, April 23rd is the day for a red rose in the button hole, the national flower. However, unlike other countries, England does not really celebrate its national day and for most people in England St George's Day is just another ordinary day. Special parades and celebrations of St George's Day are gradually becoming more frequent in England.

Activities for St George's Day

• make England flags by painting or colouring a red cross onto paper
• have a traditional English cream tea - scones, jam and clotted cream

Hook and Loop Dots

We have added some new products and Littlesheep Learning - hook and loop dots in our Extras category. These dots are great for making your own resources including PECS cards, reading and writing boards, matching activities and many other teaching and learning items. Look out for more items to help you make your own resources here too.

Incidental Learning

Oh dear, I haven't written a blog post for ages - we had the Easter holidays and the weather has been so good we've been out and about enjoying the sunshine. New things at Littlesheep Learning are few and far between too as we've been so busy having fun!

As we've been out and about our children have been learning so I thought I would post some of the incidental learning that we've had going on.

• looking at street name signs when out for walks - an excellent resource for learning capital letters
• painting with water on the wall - great for upper body gross motor development / practicing writing / science of wet and dry
• playing with objects in water - which ones sink and which ones float
• playing making shadows - great for fun fine motor imitation practice
• making and melting ice cubes - the science of water properties
• growing beans
• cooking - measuring good for maths, stirring / rolling / shaping good for fine motor development
• labelling colours of cars when out for walks - easy method of checking colours
• looking for minibeasts - we found ladybirds, spiders, beetles, snails, slugs, ants and worms

Let me know your incidental learning activities and I'll add them to the list!

Easter Nests

Here's our favourite Easter Nests receipe - we're off to make them later so no pictures yet!

Ingredients
50 g butter / margerine
50g syrup
25g drinking chocolate
Cornflakes
Mini eggs

Method
Melt the butter and syrup in a large saucepan.
Stir in the chocolate powder.
Add the cornflakes to the mixture, stir well using a wooden spoon.
Place the paper cases in a bun tin.
Carefully spoon the mixture into the cases and shape into 'nests'
When cool, top with a few mini eggs.
Store in an air tight container.

Egg Decorating

Decorating your own Easter eggs is a fun way to celebrate Easter. You can decorate your eggs with as simple or fancy designs as you want! If you are decorating blown eggs you can keep them from year to year and build a collection. Younger children may find decorating blown eggs too fragile so it's also fine to decorate hardboiled eggs but be sure to dispose of them after Easter!
How to 'blow' an egg
To blow an egg you need eggs, a needle and a bowl. Using the needle, poke a small hole in the narrow end of the egg, and a slightly larger hole in the other end. Move the pin around to make sure you tear the membrane around the yolk. Now, holding the egg over the bowl, blow through the small hole. The egg will be forced out the larger hole and into the bowl. Then rinse the egg well with water.

Decorating your eggs
Your imagination is your only limitation on how you can decorate your eggs. Use paints, ribbons, sequins, glitter, lace, coloured foil, felt tip pens, fabric scraps, dyes and wax. You can make your egg into people, animals and even vehicles or foods by adding decorations, or draw and paint intricate pictures or patterns onto your egg itself.

Wax Patterns
Use candles to drip wax onto eggs - be careful it is very hot (or use a white candle or wax crayon and draw on the egg). Then dip the egg into some dye, take it out and let it drain.

Dying Eggs

To dye the eggs the put the eggs in a single layer in a saucepan, cover with water. Add about a teaspoon of vinegar. Add the dye and bring water to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes, then remove the eggs and leave them to dry. If you want your eggs to be a darker shade, cover them with the dye and leave them overnight.

Why not colour your eggs using natural dyes? It's possible to come up with a great number of colors using natural ingredients that can easily be found in almost any kitchen.

Red: Fresh beets or cranberries, frozen raspberries
Orange: Yellow onion skins Light yellow: Orange or lemon peels, carrot tops, celery seed or ground cumin
Yellow: Ground turmeric
Green: Spinach leaves
Blue / purple: Canned blueberries or red cabbage leaves
Brown: Strong brewed coffee

April Fool's Day

I'm not clever enough to think about setting up an April fool 's joke today but I've seen some one from Rightmove about an "x-ray fly through" facility they are introducing from today whereby their satellites have taken photos of the interiors of everyone's house (if you weren't decent at the time of the photo they'll be blanking you out!) and by BMW about using RUSE particles embedde in the windscreen to allow instant messaging to drivers ahead. Let us know about the jokes you've seen or heard (or played on others!) by adding your comment's.

Unfortunately one thing that isn't an April fools joke is that Royal Mail prices are increasing again from tomorrow so we've had to change the postage rates at Littlesheep Learning we now have a special lower rate of £1.95 for orders under £5, with bigger orders now being charged at £3.95.

April Dates

1st - April Fool's Day
3rd - Pesach (Jewish)
5th - Maundy Thursday (Christian)
6th - Good Friday (Christian)
7th - Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race
7th - World Health Day
8th - Easter Sunday (Christian)
13th - Baisakhi (Sikh)
13th - Hindu New Year
21st - Queen's Birthday
22nd - London Marathon
23rd - St. George's Day (Patron Saint of England)

Last Chance!

Don't forget our BIG BOOK SALE and our 'Write a Review' competition ends at midnight tomorrow.

Visit Littlesheep Learning NOW to find out more, write your reviews and get your bargains.

Time to tell the Time!

It’s time again for the clocks to change, British Summer Time (BST) starts tomorrow, the 25th March 2007 so the clocks need to go forward an hour at some point in the early hours. I'm sure there is an official time for this to happen but I'm not staying awake until the designated hour so will change mine before bed!

Summer causes havoc for lots of young children because they use the light=day dark=night message they learnt as babies and start to wake up early and try to stay up late. If you have a toddler, you might want to start helping them to understand the concept of time and how to actually tell the time to explain that bedtime is not just when it’s dark!

The official guidelines for learning to tell the time are part of the National Numeracy Strategy with the following targets:

• Reception class children (ages 4-5) should be beginning to read the time to the hour
• Year 1 children (age 5-6) should be able to read the time to the hour or the half hour on analogue clocks
• Year 2 children (age 6-7) should be able to read the time to the hour, half hour or quarter hour on analogue clocks

However, as with a lot of learning there is no right or wrong time to start teaching your child about time, it is a concept that is learnt gradually with practice over time, so start when you think they are ready.

To start teaching children the time it is important to get them familiar with clocks. Look at clocks and point out the hands, the big hour hand and the small minute hand. Spot clocks for example, church / town clocks, watches and alarm clocks. Have fun listening to the tick tock of clocks and watches. Then start to point out the times that set activities happen, for example “it’s six o’clock look the big hand is pointing to the twelve and the little hand is pointing to the six now it’s bath time”, eventually children will match the verbal / the visual clock and the activity and start to learn to tell the time for themselves.

A fun activity for younger children is to make a pretend clock. Use a paper plate or a circle of card to make the clock face. Write on the numbers (the easiest way to space them evenly is to do the 12, 3, 6 and 9 first and then fill the gaps). Make some hands to turn using some card (don’t forget the minute hand is longer than the hour hand) and attach them with a paper fastener. You can use your ‘clock’ to show events as well as hours for example drawing symbols for dinnertime, bath time, bedtime next to the correct hours.

Older children who are starting to learn the value of time might like to play timed games for example seeing how much of a picture can be drawn, how many words they can write or how many toys picked up in a fixed time. This is also a good task for children who need to practice staying focussed on an activity or who need speeding up (can they get dressed faster today than yesterday)! You can also use a timer to signal the end of activities such as five minutes more bath time, ten minutes more in the garden or watching television.

There are lots of resources available at Littlesheep Learning to help children tell the time, for example, teaching clocks with moveable hands, clock faces to draw on your own hands, games including Time Snap and books for example ‘Telling the Time’, a popular Usborne book which features the favourite Farmyard Tale characters.

Whatever the Weather

Today is World Meteorological Day, an opportunity for national meteorological services around the world to come together and raise awareness of various weather issues. The day commemorates the forming of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1950, the WMO has became the specialised agency of the United Nations for meteorology, operational hydrology and related geophysical sciences.

The weather is something that toddlers learn about very quickly, they are told to wear coats, hats and gloves because it is cold, wear their raincoats and wellies because it is wet and to take their jumpers off when it is too hot. There are many different ways that learning about the weather can be incorporated into children’s activities.

The weather (in particular rain!) features in many children’s songs and rhymes so you can sing your way through the different the different types of weather. Some favourites include:

• Rain, rain go away
• Insey Wincey Spider
• I hear thunder
• It’s raining it’s pouring
• Five little snowmen
• The sun has got his hat on

Children who are learning about the weather my like to keep a weather chart. Younger children can keep a simple daily chart by checking the weather and sticking on that days symbol or by turning a clock hand to point to the correct symbol. Older children might prefer to keep a weather diary where they can draw in the weather each day and then count up how many sunny, cloudy, rainy and snowy days there have been in the week or month. They might also want to make a wind sock, a wind vane and rain guage to measure the weather more scientifically.

Matching and sorting games are great to help children understand the consequences of the weather. Cut pictures of people / clothes from magazines and match them to the weather types; swimwear, shorts and t-shirts for sunny days, raincoats and umbrellas for rainy days, snowsuits, hats and gloves for snowy days. Or do it in three dimensions – get a big basket of real clothes and sort them into piles for the different days of weather. Also match activities to the weather for example, flying kites on windy days, splashing in puddles on rainy days and building snowmen on snowy days.

A fun weather related craft activity is making weather collages. Use cotton wool to make fluffy clouds, silver foil to make rain drops, cut out paper snowflakes, and use squares of different coloured paper to make a bright rainbow mosaic.

World Water Day

Today is World Water Day, and quite appropriately it's raining so locally at least we are celebrating by answering lots of 'why is it raining?' questions from our three year old and puddle jumping!

However, seriously the international observance of World Water Day is an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro.

The theme for World Water Day 2007 is coping with water scarcity - the theme highlights the significance of cooperation and importance of an integrated approach to water resource management of water at both international and local levels. Equity and rights, cultural and ethical issues are essential to be addressed when dealing with limited water resources. Imbalances between availability and demand, the degradation of groundwater and surface water quality, intersectoral competition, interregional and international disputes, all center around the question of how to cope with scarce water resources.

An activity ideas to develop children's understanding of the problems of water shortage is growing cress seeds - make up to identical trays of kitchen towel and a sprinkle of cress seeds, make one wet and one dry - what happens and why? what are the implications for countries with no rain?


For further information:



Water Aid - an international charity dedicated to helping people escape the stranglehold of poverty and disease caused by living without safe water and sanitation.

Spring, Trees and Poetry

Today is the first day of Spring, World Poetry Day and World Forestry Day.

Spring has sprung! We've already mentioned some of the Spring festivals from different cultures and I'll be adding more about Spring showers tomorrow for World Meteological Day and then next week when we look towards Easter and other April festivals.

World Forestry Day is celebrated around the world on 21st March. This day commemorates the contribution and value of forests and forestry to the community.

Celebrate World Forestry Day by visiting your local woodland - look for the signs of Spring - the new leaves / blossom on the trees, the flowering of daffodils, snowdrops and bluebells, and the birds building nests. Look at the trees, can you identify the different types of trees and plants, do bark and leaf rubbings, and have fun running aroung exploring!

Believed to have its origin in the 1930s, World Poetry Day is now celebrated in hundreds of countries around the world. This day provides a perfect opportunity to examine poets and write poetry. In 1999, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) also designated 21st March as World Poetry Day. Check out the Read Write Think website for lots of information on different types of poetry with special tools to help you write your very own create acrostic poems, diamante poems, letter poems, or shape poems.

We'd love hear your poems especially those about Spring, trees or the weather please add them as comments on the post.

Mothering Sunday / Mother's Day

This Sunday (18th March) is Mothering Sunday (often known as Mothers Day). Mothering Sunday is celebrated in the UK on the fourth Sunday of Lent, which means that the date varies from year to year.

It is unclear when Mothering Sunday was first celebrated. Traditionally, it was a day when children, mainly daughters, who had gone to work as domestic servants were given a day off to visit their family and return to their ‘mother church’ the church in which they were baptised. Today it is a day when children give presents, flowers and cards to their mothers, women attending church services will often be presented with flowers and many youth organisations for example Scouts and Guides will have church parade services.

Craft activities are a great way to help children develop fine motor skills in a fun way. Here are some craft ideas for children to make for their mums that will encourage the development of these skills whilst making great presents. A range of left and right handed training scissors are available at Littlesheep Learning

Paper flowers
You will need: Pipe cleaners (preferably green ones or colour white ones green), coloured tissue paper, scissors and sticky tape.

How to make them:

• Cut a strip of tissue paper about 15cm long and 3cm wide and cut a ‘fringe’ (lots of downward snips) along it – this is a great activity for children just starting to learn scissor skills.
• Wrap the strip of fringed tissue paper around the end of the pipe cleaner and secure with sticky tape – this makes the centre of the flower.
• Cut out several circles (or flower shapes for children with more advanced cutting skills – right handed children should find it easier to cut it anti-clockwise and left handed children clockwise) of tissue paper - the more circles used the bigger your flower.
• Cut a small slit into the centre of the circle shapes and thread them all onto the pipe cleaner (again good for fine motor skill development) and then secure with sticky tape.
• You may want to also cut out leaf shapes and attach these.

When you’ve made your flowers you can put them on the front of a card or make a whole bouquet in different colours and put in a decorated yoghurt pot ‘vase’ or tie with a ribbon.

Flowery cards

There are several fun ways of making flower cards using fine motor skills.

• Cut out flower shapes and stems and stick them onto a card to make a collage.
• Finger paint to make the petals of flowers.
• Scrunch up coloured tissue paper into ball and stick it within a flower outline.
• Cut paper (old flower catalogues are good for this) into small pieces and stick them within a flower outline

St Patrick's Day

The 17th March is Saint Patrick's Day, Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland and his day is celebrated by the Irish and their descendants all over the world.

Saint Patrick is believed to have been born in the late fourth century, and is often confused with Palladius, a bishop who was sent by Pope Celestine in 431 to be the first bishop to the Irish. Saint Patrick is often credited with bringing christianity to Ireland.

Most of what is known about him comes from his two works, the Confessio, a spiritual autobiography, and his Epistola, a denunciation of British mistreatment of Irish christians. Saint Patrick described himself as a "most humble-minded man, pouring forth a continuous paean of thanks to his Maker for having chosen him as the instrument whereby multitudes who had worshipped idols and unclean things had become the people of God."

Saint Patrick is popularly known for driving the snakes from Ireland and it is true there are no snakes in Ireland, however there probably never have been as the island was separated from the rest of the continent at the end of the Ice Age! As in many old pagan religions, serpent symbols were common and often worshipped so driving the snakes from Ireland was probably symbolic of putting an end to that pagan practice. While he wasn't the first to bring Christianity to Ireland, Patrick is said to have encountered the Druids at Tara and converted the warrior chiefs and princes, baptizing them and thousands of their subjects in the "Holy Wells" that still bear this name.

There are several accounts of Saint Patrick's death. One says that Patrick died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland, on 17th March 460 A.D, where his jawbone was preserved in a silver shrine and was often requested in times of childbirth, epileptic fits, and as a preservative against the "evil eye". Another account says that St. Patrick ended his days at Glastonbury, England and was buried there and the Chapel of St. Patrick still exists as part of Glastonbury Abbey. Today, many Catholic places of worship all around the world are named after St. Patrick, including cathedrals in New York and Dublin city.

Saint Patrick's Day has come to be a celebration of Irish culture and associated with everything Irish, green and gold, shamrocks and luck, since the holiday began in Ireland, it is believed that as the Irish spread out around the world, they took with them their history and celebrations. As St Patrick's day is a religious holiday as well, many Irish attend mass, where March 17th is the traditional day for offering prayers for missionaries worldwide. Big cities and small villages alike celebrate with parades, "wearing of the green", music and songs, Irish food and drink, and activities for kids such as crafts, coloring and games. Some communities even go so far as to dye rivers or streams green!

Red Nose Day

As you can see Red Nose Day is Friday 16th March - fundraisers all over the country are busy doing small things to make a BIG difference.

Here are some ideas celebrating the colour red: wear red clothes, collect as many red things as you can, eat red foods, paint red paintings, build red towers and colour with red crayons.

At Littlesheep Learning we will be celebrating Red Nose Day by donating ten pence from every order placed from now until Midnight on Friday 16th March - so hurry and place yours now!

Computer Down Time

We're going to be having some computer down time over the weekend at Littlesheep Learning - but don't worry our website will be working as normal. Whilst I might not be able to post I thought I'd post the weekends blog posts today instead so you don't miss out!

No Smoking Day

Today is No Smoking Day.

No Smoking Day aims to help people who want to stop smoking by creating a supportive environment for them, and by highlighting the many sources of help available to people who want to quit. Now in its 24th year it is a firm fixture in the UK calendar because of its popularity amongst smokers and continued success. Three quarters of smokers would like to stop and on No Smoking Day over a million try.

The Day's main messages are:

• No Smoking Day is a good opportunity to stop


• Smokers can get help when they want to stop


• There are health and other benefits to stopping smoking

Are you giving up today? If so good luck.

More New Year Celebrations

Today is Sikh New Year!

Did you know that there are new year celebrations every month? For those who thought that New Year comes once in a year, think again! New Years are celebrated several times through all of the 12 months of the year! Here are some of them!

January
1 - New Year's Day (Gregorian calendar) - The most widely celebrated holiday.
1 - Japanese New Year's Day - Also known as Gantan-sai or Oshogatsu.
7 - Egyptian New Year's Day (Sekhmet)
8 - Druidic New Year
11- Old Scottish New Year
Mahayana Buddhist New Year is celebrated on the first full moon day in January.
14 - Eastern Orthodox New Year's Day
14 - Julian Calendar New Year
21 - Celtic New Year
Korean New Year (Sol-Nal) (Lunar New Year) is celebrated at sunset on the day of the second new moon after the winter solstice.
Tibetan New Year (Losar) is celebrated in late January or early February at the time of the new moon.
Vietnamese New Year or Tet is celebrated between January 17 and February 19 at the time of the new moon.
Chinese New Year is celebrated between January 21 and February 20 on the second (very rarely third) new moon after the winter solstice

February
Tibetan New Year (Ugyen Thinley Dorje) - Some Tibetans celebrate their New Year a month later than the Lunar New Year as Ugyen Thinley Dorje.
Muharram is the first month of the Muslim year and its first day is celebrated as Islamic New Year's Day.

March
1 - Roman New Year also called the Festival of Mars (Feriae Marti) honouring Mars, the Roman god of war.
8 - Sun Rise Day — The world's most northerly village, Longyearbyen, Norway celebrates the first dawn of the new year (their New Year's Day). Around noon on this day, they celebrate their first glimpse of the sun since it sat in October. The long night of winter is compensated by the midnight sun of summer.
14 - Sikh New Year Day - the first day of Chet, the first month of the Sikh calendar.
21 - Astrological New Year
21 - The Baha'i New Year (Naw-Ruz)
Hindu New Year also known as Bikrami Samvat falls on the day following the new moon on or after the spring equinox.
Persian or Iranian New Year (Noruz) is always held on the spring equinox.
Assyrian New Year, called Rish Nissanu, occurs on the vernal equinox, commencing the start of the spring.
Telugu New Year's Day also known as Ugadi is celebrated on the day after the new moon following the vernal equinox (first day of spring).
21 - Zoroastrian New Year or Jamshedi

April
Theravadin Buddhist New Year - The Tharavadin Buddhists of Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and Lao celebrate the New Year on the first full moon day with three days of celebration.
14 - Solar New Year (Songkran) - This new year's day is celebrated in many southeast Asia countries as Baisakhi in India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka (or Varushapirapu); Songkran in Thailand; Boum Pimay or Bun-Pi-Mai-Lao in Laos; Thingyan in Myanmar; and Bon Chol Chhnam in Cambodia. The exact time on the 13th or 14th is determined by astrologers.
14 - Nepali New Year Day - The specific time of the New Year is set by astrologers on the 13th or 14th.
13 or 14 - Sikh New Year Day (Vaisaki or Baisakhi) -On this day in 1699, Guru Gobind Singh created the Brotherhood of the Pure. April 14 - Sinhala /Tamil New Year's Day - Sri Lankans celebrate their national New Year's Day (Puththandu in Tamil and Aluth Avurudhu in Sinhala). The specific time of the New Year is set by astrologers. The Tamil New Year and Vishu are celebrated on the same day respectively in the Southern Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
13-15 - Thai New Year
13-15 - Cambodian New Year and Lao New Year
14 or 15 - Bengali New Year called Pohela Baisakh
22 - Parsi New Year Day also known as Pateti is celebrated on April 23 (April 22nd on leap years), this is one of the local new years celebrated in India.
24 - Babylonian New Year - The Babylonian New Year begins the Nabonassar Era Year 2752 on April 25th (24th on leap years).

May
26 - Buddhist New Year also known as Buddha Purnima or Buddha Jayanti - Some Buddhist sects celebrate Budhha's birthday on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month as their New Year's Day. Note: Some sects now celebrate Buddha's birthday on April 8th.

June
21 - Ancient Greek New Year - Some versions of the ancient Greek calendar celebrated the new year on the summer solstice.

July
9 - Armenian New Year - The Armenian Era, an old way of measuring time, began on July 9, 552.

August
Malayalam New Year - On the new moon in late August or early September (the first day of the Hindu month of Bhadon), the southern Indian state of Kerala celebrates its new year.
23 - Zoroastrian New Year (Shenshai), for those Zoroastrians who follow the Shenshai calendar.

September
1 - Orthodox Christian New Year - This day marks the New Year for some Russian Orthodox Christians.
10 - African New Year
11 (12th in leap years) - Ethiopian New Years Day - This is a national holiday in Ethiopia.
16 - Rosh Hashanah or Jewish New Year begins on the first day of the Jewish month of Tishri (Tishrei), is also called the Day of Judgment and Remembrance.

October
3 - Moroccan New Year's Day

November
Hindu New Year (Diwali) is celebrated on the new moon in late October or early November. It is considered by some as one of the Hindu New Years (sometimes celebrated the day after Diwali as Vikram New Year). The Marwari New Year is celebrated on the day of the festival of Diwali Jain New Year - Celebrated on the day after Diwali, this is the New Year's day for the Jain religion. It is the day after of the attainment of Moksha by Mahavir Swami and the day when his chief disciple Gautam Swami attained Kevalgnan. The Gujarati New Year is usually celebrated the day after the festival of Diwali (which occurs in mid-autumn - either October or November, depending on the Lunar calendar.

December
Sikkimese New Year - The Sikkimese New Year or Losoong is celebrated from the first to fifth day of the Lunar 11th month. It is also called Sonam Losar or the Farmer's New Year.