Jolenes Reading Information Blog

Archive for the ‘Reading Resources’ Category

I am playing catch-up again and so you will notice that there are 3 or 4 articles added this time. Sorry about that. Don’t be alarmed as these are being back dated. As I have stated in previous posts I love to read and some of what I like to read takes time away from things that I need to do such as keep up with my blog postings. And I have to limit myself or else as you can see nothing will get done. I have to read articles, newsletters and other blogs to keep up with trends in my job for which I have a blog at: http://medicalofficeclerk.info. I have a couple of blogs for family and friends at: http://jolenesramblings.blogspot.com/
As well as an electronic bookstore that I am currently renovating at: http://jolenesbooksandmore.com
And I have started a new business of website and blog creation service that is still in it’s infancy at each of the following:
http://websforyou.info
http://blogsforyou.info
http://websforwriters.com
http://blogsforwriters.com
Of course, I have other websites and blogs and for shear dumbfoundedness on my part I volunteer to redo a website for our local Volunteers in Medicine chapter as well. Which I believe turned out pretty well. In between all of this I have found the time to read for pleasure as well.

One of my more recent books that I have read was Laurel Hamilton’s Divine Misdemeanors I wasn’t able to get the book when it was first release in December of last year like I normally do, you know Christmas expenses, but when I did read it it was well worth the read. Ms. Hamilton’s stories are always good and this book is about her second set of characters that she writes about Merry Gentry – Private Eye also known as Meredith Nic Essus, princess of faerie. It is the eighth book in the series and on her website you can still download the first chapter and read it. If you like books about supernatural stuff and murder mysteries then give this author a try. Her books have a great story line with suspenseful plots, great characters that are well fleshed out and she gives informative details about the worlds she has created that seem so believable that they could actually happen. Both her series that I read, Anita Blake – Vampire Hunter and Merry Gentry – Private Eye are set in the U.S. Anita Blake is set in St. Louis and Merry Gentry in Los Angeles. All of her works are great reads and take you out of the everyday!

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.

I try to keep up with what’s happening with the EBook Reader area. I came across a website that has incorporated everything you would like to know about the devices as well as news about them, prices currently being charged and much more. Go to: http://www.top-ereaders.com/ and read what is there. This site gives information on each of the readers, what you should look for and the prices as well. Walmart offers the Ebook Reader’s at a slightly lower price and you should make sure which ever one you would like to get the best price. There have been several articles over the last few months that Walmart is getting into selling ebooks as a major competitor against Amazon. They haven’t really done anything as of this writing but we will continue to monitor the situation. The readers themselves are all still around $200 to $500 or more depending on the manufacturer and the options that you choose. The Amazon Kindle 2 seems to be pretty nice but still on the pricey side for my taste. The most important feature, for me at least, is that the device be able to read PDF (acrobat reader) files. Without this feature the Reading Devices is usually locked into one type of ebook and/or company which is not very a good thing.

Another website I would recommend is the EBOOK88 website at: http://www.ebook88.com/about.html This website has some great information about Ebooks themselves. If tells where you can get them from, where some free resources of ebooks can be found, and more. “eBook88 is an independent web site for eBook resources. We provide a list of some educational eBooks that are available at different eBook Stores. Some of them are free. We also have an ebook directory where individual authors can submit his/her works.” I found the site to be informative and helpful.

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

We all would like to receive free stuff and during the holidays it is more prevalent than ever. When you do a search on the web be very careful when you download stuff to your computer. One source that you might want to try would be my bookstore. I have several ebooks that are virus free and available for immediate download for everyone who would like to get them. Right now we have 11 ebooks on a variety of different subjects. I like to read books on a variety of different subjects. I read recipe books, old time classics, books on how to do things as well as current fiction novels. This will give you an opportunity to try ebooks for yourself. The books are in Acrobat Reader format and some have both the Acrobat format and the text format zipped together. I still haven’t been able to find an ebook reader to try for a reasonable amount of money. All of them are still around $300 but I am forever hopeful.

If you would like to try some more free ebooks you can go to the Gutenberg website and download as many of the “out of print” books in text format. You might want to try your local library as well. Some have ebooks available for checkout but you will need access to their online website. These are 3 sources that I trust. If you find another source of free ebooks and would like to share them then please feel free to comment or email us at: jolene.macfadden@jolenesreadingguide.info

http://jolenesbooksandmore.com/Freestuff.html