Jolenes Reading Information Blog » Reading for Fun

Great Kid Reading Websites

jolenesreadinginfo — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 04:46:17 +0000

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.

Another website that my kids, grandchildren and I really love to visit is the Educational Center at Sea World: www.seaworld.org They have animal information you can print out, sound files of each of the animals and little booklets you can print out. They also have coloring pages, games and activities. Finally, they have a teacher’s guide area with lesson plans by age group, more coloring pages and access to Shamu TV! All in all it is a great introduction to the Sea World/Busch Gardens theme parks and a great FREE educational resource for you ahd your children to explore and use.

One great resource that most of us have heard about but you may have not had a chance to actually visit in person or even check out their tremendous website is the Smithsonian at: http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/students/. This has always been a place of great educational opportunities and they have put a lot of effort into the Student Pages filled with fun facts, games and homeschooling lesson plans. You have got to check out this great website and all the pages within the Smithsonian site.

By visiting these fun, informative and well known websites with your kids you are encouraging them in their reading, making learning fun and teaching them how to explore good sites that are age appropriate. They will learn something new each time they visit and in the mean time can’t help but learn how to find educational resources on their own and not even know it.

Ann George

jolenesreadinginfo — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:51:14 +0000

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.

The story is well written and a great read. This month the book is only $.99 in Kindle. You can download the Kindle Reader for PC directly from the Amazon site and enjoy hundreds of eBooks for a small price or even FREE. Check it out today!

Summer Reading Lists

jolenesreadinginfo — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:28:22 +0000

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.

There are lots of programs out there that even offer prizes for summer reading. One such program I found on a search on Amazon called Journey Forth’s Summer Reading “Read in the Deep End” program on the BJU Press website: Click here for more details and you might win a Amazon Kindle Ebook reading device. They have age-appropriate reading lists, reading logs to print out and accepts several forms such as print books, electronic books etc and you have until August 31st to turn in your completed logs for each of your children!

Barnes and Noble also has a Summer Reading Challenge for you and your kids (Grandkids) with a Reading Journal to download and print out. You just have to read through the rules, read the books, complete the journal entries and turn them into your local Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/summerreading/index.asp Give a try and see how you do!

Don’t forget your local library and your local school systems has information about summer reading programs on their websites. Most kids are given a summer reading list by the end of school as well as a couple of pages of reading logs or journals to fill out. Please remember that your child needs to see you reading as well as encouraging them to read. And reading to them during the day or at bedtime shows them that reading is important to you and is a great time for bonding. If you cannot afford to buy books for your kids the library is always a great resource for books. Perhaps at the end of summer you can reward your child or grandchild with a brand new or used book that they can keep from your local bookstore.

Read A Good Magazine Lately?

jolenesreadinginfo — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 22:39:42 +0000

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.

Now-a-days we are getting our magazine fix electronically. The I-Pad, I-Pods, Kindles, Nooks and more are offering monthly electronic versions of our favorite magazines on our electronic reading devices. Is this a good thing? Yes and no. Yes, it is better to have electronic versions of magazines because it is the “GREEN THING” to do. And it is convenient to have all of your magazines stored on your little reading device. The really neat thing is they haven’t figured out how to put those perfume smells on electronic versions yet. I have allergies to strong perfumes and when picking up a women’s magazine I have to be leary of those samples they put in the middle of them. The “No” part of the answer comes in with not being able to cut our coupons, cut the pictures and articles or donate our used magazines to nursing homes, hospitals and homeless shelters as a way to recycle. I always recycle my magazines after I read them. The problem comes when I don’t have time to read them and they pile up. But that is another story.

Remember in order to encourage our kids to be readers they have to see us reading and we have to give them gifts centered around reading. You may not want to pay for an electronic reading device for your kids yet but an age-appropriate magazine subscription may be a good way to get them in the habit of reading. And you can save them for their school projects. My children and grandchildren are forever having to cut out pictures in magazines for some project or another. So spend the $10 or $20 a year for a magazine subscription before they go the way of the cassette tapes and become extinct!

What Is Your Favorite Reading Quote?

jolenesreadinginfo — Sat, 01 May 2010 13:00:18 +0000

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?

Readers Digest Online

jolenesreadinginfo — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 09:17:00 +0000

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

Trial by Fire

jolenesreadinginfo — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 08:48:49 +0000

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.

Great Video for Kids About Reading

jolenesreadinginfo — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:50:07 +0000

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.

Another Free Reading Resource

jolenesreadinginfo — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:11:38 +0000

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.

Fire and Ice

jolenesreadinginfo — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:12:55 +0000

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
Admin

“KEEP ON READING”

Fire and Ice