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The calendar is such a routine, everyday thing, but how much do you actually know about the operation of it. Why is it like that?

A DAY: The Earth turns at a reasonably steady speed about the imaginary line running between the North and South Poles named the Earth's Axis. The time it takes to spin once is called a 'rotation' and this takes just under twenty-four hours. Nevertheless, because the Earth is constantly travelling around the Sun, the precise time from noon one day to noon the next is 3 minutes 56 seconds longer and this makes a day almost precisely twenty-four hours in length.

The actual time from noon to noon varies depending where the Earth is on its celestial course around the Sun, but if you average the days in a year out, it comes to exactly twenty-four hours.

A YEAR: All nine planets in our solar system travel around the Sun in almost perfectly circular paths called orbits. Each trip around the Sun is called a revolution and all the planets revolve around the Sun in the same direction. The direction the Earth takes can be verified by noting its location against the background stars.

In view of the fact that you cannot see the Sun and the stars at the same time, it is obligatory to note the location of the Sun in the morning and the see which stars come out there in the night. You will see that the Sun appears to pass through the twelve constellations of the zodiac during a year.

Earth's journey around the Sun, which seems like the Sun travelling through the zodiac takes about 365.25 days. This is different from year to year, so astronomers add or delete a second in some years to keep their time accurate with the Earth's motion.

THE SEASONS: The seasons mark the change in the pattern of daylight over the span of a year. Because the Earth is tilted off centre, different parts of it receive different amounts of sunlight on different stages of its path around the Sun, a path that we call a year. So, between approximately the 21st September and late March, the Earth's Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun, which produces Autumn and Winter, giving less than twelve hours of daylight per day.

From April to the 20th September, the Northern Hemisphere enjoys more than twelve hours of daylight a day, producing Spring and Summer. The exact opposite occurs in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Equinoxes occur at the points in the year when there is exactly twelve hours of sunlight and darkness in the day. So, the vernal or Spring equinox is on or around the 21st March and the autumnal equinox is on or around the 21st September. Summer officially begins on the day with the greatest amount of daylight, the 21st June or summer solstice.

The winter solstice occurs on the shortest day, the 21st December. 'Solstice' is a combination of two words meaning 'sun standing still' and the days are so called because they are the days when the ostensible movement of the Sun reaches its limits and reverses course again.

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In the 1700's, dishes, saws, knives, flints, a scraper, a prehistoric horn celt with strange markings, a spokeshave and some arrowheads from the Neolithic Period were found. These are now safely housed in the museum in Cardiff, but at the time no one thought to organize an excavation and later a housing estate was built on the site.

An ancient Roman kitchen, complete with remains and utensils underwent a similar fate. In 1533, Leland was made the Kings Antiquary and was directed to make a tour of all places where records were held. This took him nine years and his description of the island was:

"It is about a mile in circumference and has good corn, grass and some wood, and there is no dwelling on the Island, but in the midst of it is a fair little Chapel of St. Baruch which is visited by many pilgrims. It took the name Barri from this holy man who was buried there and whose remains are yet on the Island". (The Welsh name for Barry is Y Barri).

Vikings raided the coastline of south Wales in the Tenth Century often taking hostages from the monasteries, but they did not seek to settle the area. The island was known as the 'Saints' Retreat' or the 'Island of Saints' for a long time. Later, in the Sixteenth Century, the island was used by smugglers and pirates and was known locally as the 'Smugglers' Fortress'. This occurred at the same time as Bristol, Britain's second largest port, was growing rapidly.

Barry Island soon became the centre of piracy and smuggling in the Bristol Channel. In 1784, the island became known as the "Fortress of Knight". Knight was the most prolific pirate and smuggler in the channel and people were to terrified to speak out in court against him., although he was also considered a bit of a local hero. His armed ship was called 'John O' Combe'. He was eventually forced out to Lundy, which he also fortified. He and his successor, Arthur, returned to Barry so frequently that H.M. Customs asked the government to station a cutter in Penarth and 60 troops to Barry.

Rhoose was infamous for its wreckers and George II sent troops to break up the smugglers and wreckers. They landed at Aberthaw "the Rhoose men's favourite landing zone, from where they could easily transport the contraband along Port Road to Cardiff, the main market for such things". Several large caves were filled in while constructing the present day docks and it is likely that they were used by the pirates until they were moved on in about 1850.

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The Seton home schooling program was initially designed as a Catholic home education course out of the all-catholic Seton High School in Manassas, Virginia. The Catholic home school society grew fast and demand for the school's new home curriculum course was high.

The school's organizer, Dr. Anne Carroll, determined to have the teachings taught at the school to be offered by mail. She recognized the reality that many parents didn't have the income to lodge their children at a private educational institution. This was at what time the Seton Catholic home-schooling course began. The Catholic home-schooling concept gelled and out of it came the Seton home-schooling lessons in 1980. It was further enhanced by Dr Mary Kay Clark in 1985.

Nowadays this religious based curriculum is utilized by more than 10,000 principally Catholic students all over the world. Seton has in addition turned out to be the chief Catholic publisher in the United States for school-aged students. The home education school with its numerous home school books is famous worldwide.

You can be certain that Seton Home-schooling Prospectus is not a part of a "diploma mill" but is accepted universally as an accredited educational curriculum for home school students. It meets all the educational standards of a bona fide, quality, completely accredited educational organization recognized by the US Department of Education. Accreditation will aid your home-schooled student once they decide to go to college. It even helps cope with special needs children.

For Seton home-scholars, they will understand the educational fundamentals of English, Math, Science while also discovering more on the subject of the Catholic culture and its biblical studies. The lessons give a moral foundation of Catholic instruction to enhance the abilities of the parents to be the primary teachers of their own kids with home-based education. Pope John Paul II explained the thought process in his Letter to Families: "Parents are the first and the most important educators of their own children..." It is easy to see that you can say this excerpt from the former Pope summarizes the complete philosophy of the Seton Home Study School.

The Catholic Church has continuously taught to go ye into all the world, but Catholic home schooling parents can firstly evangelize their children in a spiritual residence through catholic home-schooling instruction from K-12. The entire emphasis is on the eternal good of the young person.

So if you are a Catholic and want to make a true difference in the child's value system, think about home-schooling. Seton is in simple terms the best option. You will be happy you chose it.

Find out more about Best Curriculum Home School at Catholic Homeschool Curriculum.

In the 1700's, dishes, saws, knives, flints, a scraper, a prehistoric horn celt with strange markings, a spokeshave and some arrowheads from the Neolithic Period were found. These are now safely housed in the museum in Cardiff, but at the time no one thought to organize an excavation and later a housing estate was built on the site.

They also found an ancient Roman kitchen complete with utensils and food remains which appeared to have been abandoned in a hurry like the Marie Celeste. That wasn't investigated either. In 1533, the King's Antiquary, Leland, was told to tour all places where records were held. It took him nine years and his description of the island was as follows:

"It is about a mile in circumference and has good corn, grass and some wood, and there is no dwelling on the Island, but in the midst of it is a fair little Chapel of St. Baruch which is visited by many pilgrims. It took the name Barri from this holy man who was buried there and whose remains are yet on the Island". (The Welsh name for Barry is Y Barri).

Vikings ravaged the coast of South Wales in the tenth century. They often took hostages from the monasteries, but they did not seem to want to live in the area. For a long tim, the island was known as the "Saints' Retreat" or the "Island of Saints". Afterwards, in the sixteenth century, it was inhabited by smugglers and pirates and was called the "Smugglers' Fortress". This became serious as it grew simultaneously with the rise of Bristol, Britain's second largest port.

Barry Island soon became the centre of piracy and smuggling in the Bristol Channel. In 1784, the island became known as the "Fortress of Knight". Knight was the most prolific pirate and smuggler in the channel and people were to terrified to speak out in court against him., although he was also considered a bit of a local hero. His armed ship was called 'John O' Combe'. He was eventually forced out to Lundy, which he also fortified. He and his successor, Arthur, returned to Barry so frequently that H.M. Customs asked the government to station a cutter in Penarth and 60 troops to Barry.

The seaside village of Rhoose was so renowned for its wreckers that George II sent troops to break up the gangs. They landed at Aberthaw, just up the coast a bit, "the Rhoose men's favourite landing zone, from where they could easily transport the contraband along Port Road to Cardiff, the main market for such things". While building the docks at Barry in the late Nineteenth Century, several large caves were filled in. They were probably used by the pirates who were moved on again in or about 1850.

Much of what we know or have supposed about Barry and the Vale of Glamorgan, in which it is situated has been gleaned from the buildings found there, many of which have been badly neglected for too long. There are also legendary stories, such as that of Joseph of Arimathea, who traded tin in Glastonbury, just across the channel and who was one of the first missionaries to this part of the country.

Tradition has it that the father of Caractacus took his son on a journey to Rome, where they were converted to Christianity. Later, they returned to the Vale of Glamorgan with Bran The Blessed, the missionary. It is a fact that Christianity was a popular belief there early in the Fourth Century and that south Wales sent several bishops to the Council of Rome.

Saint Baruch's Church on Barry Island is one of the oldest places of historic religious interest in the region, but unfortunately, it too has been allowed to become dilapidated. Barry Island was one of the most important places of monastic interest in south Wales and around. The ancient Viking strongholds of Steep and Flat Holms also housed monks and Saint Illtyd's Seminary in nearby Llantwit Major, which taught 2,200 disciples, was closely linked to it too.

There was an ancient Roman fort and accompanying naval dockyard on Porthkerry Point, which had obviously jutted out further into the sea than it does now and later a castle was built on their ruins. There have been found many wolf and deer bones between Sully and Barry - enough to show that they had existed there in great numbers. There have also been a large number of findings of arrowheads, flints, needles and coins, proving that people were there to prey on them too.

Barry Island was first called 'Baruch's Island', as far as we know, after Saint Baruch. St. Baruch had been found on one of the beeches, washed up dead in 700 AD. He is known to have drowned when returning from Flat Holm, which was commonly used as a retreat by religious people over Lent.

He and Gwelches were disciples of Saint Cadoc at that time and on their return to the island, they realized that they had forgotten their enchiridion or religious manual. St. Cadoc made them do back to fetch it. Neither men returned alive. St. Baruch's most acclaimed student, St. Illtyd was educated there.

Barry Island has had its name changed several times over the centuries. It was once called 'Island of the Saints' and 'Insular of Peiros', after St. Peiro, who was St. Illtyd's successor at the seminary at Llantwit Major. He was also St. Samson's luminary. There was also a St. Doeninas, who was abbot of a nearby abbey on Friars' Point.