Published March 23, 2012 | 
Some great kid reading websites that you should check out would include: content that is age specific, has FREE activities and keeps learning fun, and doesn’t have a lot of advertisements all over the pages. We have prepared a listing of the websites we use with our children and grandchildren and hope you will enjoy them as well. I personally like the www.crayola.com website. Not only do they have FREE arts and craft activities, coloring pages but they also have FREE games that the kids love to play. Registration is optional but if you register with the site you will receive updates in your email as they become available and will keep you up to date on all the holidays and any new materials they have added to the website. We have used them for years. Continue reading
Published February 7, 2012 | Ann George is a new writer I am trying. There are three books on the Amazon website and I got one of them for FREE in a Kindle version last month called Dance of the Winnebagos: Jackrabbit Junction Mystery Series. It was a fun romp through the Arizona desert with an old mystery, a sinister and sassy villain, comical heroine as well as a hunky hero. Continue reading
Published June 22, 2011 | Summertime is a great time for parents and kids to keep up their reading skills. Without the pressures of school kids should continue to read books, magazines, newspapers and even ebook versions of all of these. I keep several websites bookmarked for my children and grandchildren that have age-appropriate lists of books to read such as Scholastic.com – http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/collection.jsp?id=608. Their website has a pdf version of the lists by age group for your children to read this summer. You can open up the documents and print them out to take them to your local library. The library is a great place to take the kids several times during the summer. Most all public libraries have some kind of programs available during the summer and the librarians will be happy to help your and your kids (Grandkids) to find the books on your lists.
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Published April 10, 2011 | Have You Read A Good Magazine Lately? You know you pick up magazines and browse through them when you are in a long check-out line at the store. And you pick up a magazine at the doctor’s office waiting for your turn to be seen. Our parents used to put magazines on tables in the “formal living room” and many people still do. I am no exception. I have to have something to read when I am waiting on my car to be serviced, when seeing any doctor and when I have to stand around in line at any kind of store. I have even given magazine subscriptions to my loved ones who have a special interest such as Cooking with Paula Deen or Sports Illustrated for my kids who loved sports. I know whenever I find a Reader’s Digest lying around I have to pick it up and at least read the “Humor in Uniform” and “Laughter is the Best Medicine” sections.
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Published May 1, 2010 | 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: Continue reading
Published April 8, 2010 | 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
Published March 25, 2010 | My next favorite author is JA Jance. She has three characters that she normally writes about and one of those is Ali Reynolds. Ms. Reynolds is a former TV News Anchor who lost her job and her husband (her philandering husband is the one who fired her) and decided to move back home to Arizona for a while to get her barrings. Her grown son encourages her to start her own blog and her adventures start there. Her latest book is “Trial By Fire”. Ms. Reynolds volunteers to be a Media Consultant for one of the local sheriff’s offices that is having a little trouble. She gets mixed up in a murder (of course), has no authority to investigate but gets pulled in nonetheless.
The Reynolds character speaks to me as she is about my age, has to look for another career, has a grown child and starts her own blog. I would like to become an investigator as well but, sadly, don’t have the time or the resources and quite frankly glad that I haven’t been thrown into any murder investigations. Ms Jance’s books are always entertaining as well as suspenseful, lots of action, and have a well thought-out plot. She is very descriptive about her surroundings and allows the reader to feel like they are there.
Posted in Favorite Authors, Reading for Fun, Review of Books | 
Ali Reynolds, female detectives, JA JancePublished February 18, 2010 | 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.
Published October 15, 2009 | 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.
Published September 15, 2009 | JA Jance is a great writer of fiction and has several recurring figures that I enjoy reading about. Joanna Brady is a small town sheriff in Arizona. Ms. Jance’s other great character is JP Beaumont. She wrote a book several years ago where these two characters meet called “Partner in Crime”. That story left us readers wondering, “what if”. “Fire and Ice” follows these two characters through a series of murders that are connected. JP is following on the trail of a serial killer. Joanna is having problems with a murder as well. She also has an officer who is missing a sister. Yes, you guessed it, the sister is one of JP’s victims.
It is amazing how the author can keep the two areas separate in their series. You go from the desert area of Bisbee, Arizona to the rain-soaked area of Seattle, Washington. I think that is where the title comes from fire-hot Arizona to ice-cold Washington. It is a yin-and-yang kind of thing. And it makes for a “keep you on your toes” mystery!
Even though the Joanna character and the JP character do not meet up until the end of the book it is still a great story and has a very believable if maybe a somewhat disappointing ending. But it does end none-the-less. Pick up your copy today and give it a read. This story may inspire you to read the entire series of Joanna Brady and JP Beaumont books. You can find a listing of them on the author’s website:
http://www.jajance.com/jajance.com/Books_In_Order_List.html
You can pick up a copy of “Fire and Ice” from our ebookstore page as well as all the other great books by JA Jance. You pick up a paper copy of these books or if you own a KINDLE machine you can order the electronic book.
Cheers!
jolenemacinjax
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