Jolenes Reading Information Blog

Archive for the ‘Helping Kids to Read’ Category

It is no secret that I love to read. As a matter of fact my favorite form of relaxation is reading a good mystery. And I admit that I will read a trashy romance novel on occasion as well. While looking for material for my next article I came across a couple of websites that had quotes about reading. Some of my favorites are from http://www.richmond.k12.va.us/readamillion/readingquotes.htm Here are a couple of examples:

“Beware of the man of one book.” Thomas Aquinas

“Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful
and entertaining authors.” Joseph Addison

“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” Joseph Addison

“Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.” Mortimer J. Adler

“A library is a hospital for the mind.” Anonymous

“If you can read this, thank a teacher.” Anonymous Teacher

“Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?” Henry Ward Beecher

“Books are not men and yet they stay alive.” Stephen Vincent Benet

Here are a few more from the Reading Rockets website: http://www.readingrockets.org/books/fun/quotable

“I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library.” Jorge Luis Borges

“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” Frederick Douglass

“The things I want to know are in books. My best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I [haven't] read.” Abraham Lincoln

“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.” Emilie Buchwald

Now what are your favorite quotes about reading?

One of my favorite magazines to read is the Readers Digest. I love to read on the jokes and humorous stories at the bottom of the pages first and then Laughter is the Best Medicine and Humor in Uniform stuff next. Finally, I will read the articles. Whenever I am in a waiting room that is the first magazine I look for. It has always been a great resource of information and humor. I can read it in a few minutes or take my time and read the whole thing. I haven’t had a subscription to the magazine in a long while as it was costing too much but now they have an online version that is just about as much fun to read at: http://www.rd.com/. I know that all magazines depend on advertising and paid subscriptions to stay alive and I wish them well in that pursuit. So if you can afford the price of a subscription please get one.

The Readers Digest magazine will keep over time better than just about any other magazine you can get. I have kept all of the ones that I have collected over the years and enjoy re-reading them whenever I run out of books to read. They are compact enough to put in your purse or maybe in your back pocket (if your pockets are big enough). The company also still pays for stories contributed by everyday people as well. I have never done this but if you have and were paid we would like to hear from you about your experience. Encouraging people is write is always good thing and even young people can get their start by writing for the magazine you can go here: http://www.rd.com/submitJokePage.do

Hey Gang, I couldn’t wait to post this one. One of my daughter’s teachers sent this video from Ocoee Middle School in Ocoee, Florida. Great video and fun too. Check it out on you-tube at:

Ocoee, Florida is a little town just west of Orlando, Florida which use to be nothing but orange groves and farmers. It is still a kind of small town but the Middle School has created a really first rate project. Congratulations Ocoee Middle School and keep up the good work!.

After seeing this video I have hope that there are children out there who want to read and whatever we can do as parents, relatives or friends of kids to encourage our children to read is worth trying. Once a child or adult, for that matter, learns to read it opens up all kinds of possibilities for that person to pursue knowledge in its many forms.

There are lots of resources out there on how to teach your children about reading and writing. We like to blog about them when we come across them. Today we found the website called ABCTeach.com This is a very nice little website with lots of reading and writing worksheets. This website offers a limited amount of worksheets for FREE as the bulk of them are offered to members only at about $40 a year for a single user access. The worksheets that are available without a membership are very nice and they have some Math worksheets as well. Like most of the websites for teaching kids how to read and youngster how to write it is mostly centered around young children. They have some for high school students but not very many in the FREE area. Printing out these worksheets at home helps to save the planet and you can print them on the back of papers you already have around the house. Recycling is a great thing and having these resources available online can only improve our efforts to save the planet. Actually this website has some Green worksheets as well.

We have added some new links under ‘Resources to Reader” that might be of interest to our subscribers. Most are for helping your kids to read and to learn to enjoy it. The other two are for aspiring writers. We have going into the Blog and Website creation business to help new writers advertise their products, talk to their fans and the build a email mailing list. Check them out.

The other part of this post is a book review of one of my favorite authors, J.D. Robb a.k.a. Nora Roberts. The new book is “Kindred in Death”. Our heroine, Lt. Eve Dallas is called on her day off to a fellow police officer’s home to investigate the death of his daughter. As the story unfolds we find that this is just the beginning and the killer has a list and he is working his way down it. On top of this Eve must participate another WEDDING! Oh, my she really doesn’t want to do that.

The story is, of course, great. I have always enjoyed J.D. Robb’s books and this one is no exception. My mom enjoyed it as well. The book has good pacing and some great plot twists and suspense. Each of the books and can alone but the whole series is like getting caught up on your family. This book brings some old friends back as well. Enjoy this and the other books written by this author. But I must warn you once you start to read Nora Robert’s books you will not stop!

I found some more websites that has cute helpers for your little readers to try for FREE. That’s right a reading helper for you and your little ones to go to.

The Lil-fingers website features online books and applications to review words and letters. It also has some free coloring pages, games to play and stories to read. It is called http://www.lil-fingers.com/index.html Check out their site. There are not too many advertisements that get in the way of clicking in the right areas. Which is important because I have found that most sites that offer things for free has too many advertisers and they are right in the middle of what you are really trying to access.

To encourage the “poet” in your little ones try out this Rhyming site at:
Seventy-One Other Take Home Rhymes They have a listing by the first line in the nursery rhyme and you click on it and it opens up an Acrobat Reader file with the rest of the poem.

PBS Kids is also a great FREE Resource for online learning. They have books that are read aloud, music videos, activities and games online to play and printable pages to print out and color. There is even a “Tips for Parents or CareGivers” section. This is a fun website that you and your children can enjoy.

It seems that I have been a little lax in posting to this blog. So, I will be making several posts today but dating them one for each month. Hopefully, each post will be worth reading.

Now, I have been reading to my grand-daughter since she could sit on my lap and pay attention. Before that I would sing to her or tell her stories. I did the same thing with each of my children as well. That is how it starts. Singing to babies and telling little ones stories begins the process of teaching them how to read. Reading to them on a regular basis is the next step. Granted with most little ones you will have to read the same story over-and-over again until they get fascinated by something else. It doesn’t matter only that you read to them every day. Children like routine and they learn better if you try to make a routine of it. Don’t forget to make it fun as well! They should see you reading other things as well. We read books, newspapers and magazines. When we are not working, cleaning, car-pooling and have a variety of all the other things that we have to do in our busy lives we relax by reading.

I was cruising the web for some FREE resources for new parents and grand-parents to use to help get their little ones interested in reading and found some great resources. One of them is the Reading Rockets. There are free guides to download and print out. They have tip-sheets, program guides to PBS shows, and much more. Give them a try and see if their information will help you.

For older children between 4 and 7 you can use the services that are offered for FREE at the www.Starfall.com website. There are interactive programs about letters, numbers, words and more. These are offered for FREE. They do have a store attached to the website with some low-cost materials but just the volume of free stuff is great so give them a try.

Cheers
jolenemacinjax
admin

I hope everyone has their reading list ready for the summer. Children as well as adults should take a little time during the summer to read a good book. Relaxation comes in all forms and for me reading a good mystery is just as relaxing as sitting by the pool under an umbrella drinking a mai tai. Actually, there are a great number of easy going past-times that lend themselves to reading a good book as well as the activity itself.

For instance, how about fishing? Nothing better than sitting on the bank or shade-covered dock with a fishing pole in one hand and a book in the other. It gets you outside and hopefully, in the fresh air while trying to catching lunch or supper. Between naps and laps around a pool, lake or beach why not grab a book and read a few chapters. I have found that reading takes your mind off a lot of your troubles and is a great way to relax. If you would like to start on a new series that is funny, has suspense, and always a surprise ending — Give the books that Janet Evanovich writes a try. The very first one I read was laugh-out-loud funny. Even teenagers will like the characters in these books! The Stephanie Plum character will keep you guessing!

One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, No. 1)

Your children from elementary to college will more than likely have a summer time reading list with at least one book as a requirement for the upcoming year. If you can’t find what you need at the local library you might want to try a used bookstore or two. I love going into an established used bookstore. You can find the most amazing things as well as bargains galore. Of course, I have been in one bookstore that was so huge it had boxes of books stacked everywhere with little rooms leading into other little rooms. I don’t think I found my way out for over 2 hours.