20 Sites and Tools to Encourage Lifelong Reading (Guest Post)

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Invoking a lifelong love of reading in the children in your life can be difficult but it is very important. Fortunately, the Internet provides a number of sites and tools that can help you encourage and inspire any child to be a lifelong reader. Here is a list of 20 sites to explore:



Reading Rockets - The Reading Rockets site offers tools and resources that can be used to encourage and teach children to read. Throughout this site, you will find information about reading instruction, classroom strategies, help for struggling readers, children's books and authors, videos, and podcasts.



ReadWriteThink - ReadWriteThink features a large collection of tools that teachers and parents can use with students to support strong reading and writing skills. These tools can be integrated into any K-12 lesson plan to build strong lifelong readers and writers.



Reading Is Fundamental - Within the pages of this site, visitors are provided with tips, tricks, ideas, and resources for motivating kids to read, choosing books, reading aloud, and much more.



The Stacks - The Stacks, a beta site provided by Scholastic, features books, authors, games, videos, and a blog for encouraging children to read as they get older. This site offers a wide selection of books for all ages, book clubs, a reading community, and more.



Highlights Teachers - For over 60 years, Highlights has been offering tools and resources to teachers for encouraging improved and lifelong reading in students. The Highlights Teacher site provides teaching resources, lesson plans, reading suggestions, classroom resources, online games, and interactive resources for kids.



Education World - Education World, a huge education resource center, offers tools, tips, lesson plans, and many more resources that teachers can use in their language and literature classrooms. Most of the resources listed discuss ways to encourage and teach reading, lifelong literacy, help struggling readers, etc.



Book Hooks - The Book Hooks site is a good site for students to share their love of reading with others. The site works by having students create book reports on the books that they are currently reading. Book Hooks also provides resources, games, links, and news that students will find interesting.



Enlighten Me - Verizon Information Services provides Enlighten Me, an interactive literacy site that offers a collection of informative articles designed to build strong readers and writers. Enlighten Me also has information on kid's books and an area for students to write their own book reviews.



Absolute Whootie - Absolute Whootie provides online stories, folk tales, and children's plays that provide positive themes and encourage children to read. The stories within this site are illustrated by kids and include links to fun games.



Cool-Reads - Cool-Reads is a book site where hundreds of books are reviewed by 10-15 year olds. This is an excellent place for young readers to get book recommendations.



Stories from the Web - Stories from the Web offers online stories for children between the ages of 0 to 14. Within this site, children can read and write stories that are reviewed by others.



Literacy Connections - The Literacy Connections site offers a wealth of resources and tools that teachers can use to promote reading skills in children and adults. Through this site, teachers can find information on phonics, word study, children's literature, and language experience.



Kids' Review - Kids' Review features book reviews written by kids for kids. The site gives students a reason to write about literature and helps struggling readers.



KidsReads.com - KidsReads.com provides useful tips and resources that teachers and parents can use to find books that students of all reading levels will enjoy. The site also features reviews, author info, audio books, series recommendations, and more.



Book Adventure - Book Adventure is a motivational reading program for children in grades K-8. Through this program, children can create book lists of over 7,000 titles, take quizzes, and earn points for literary success.



Growing Readers for Life! - This blog works to provide tools, resources, tips, and articles that anyone can use to inspire a love of reading in young children. The site also features a free newsletter that visitors can sign up for.



Jen Robinson's Book Page - Jen Robinson's Book Page is a blog created by a lifetime lover of children's books. Through her blog, Jen provides reviews, articles, and resources designed to inspire lifetime reading in all children.



KIDLITOSPHERE - This blog is actually a society of bloggers looking to promote lifelong reading and literacy ideas through blogging on children's and young adult literature. The society offers dozens of resources for encouraging lifelong reading in students.



Book-Pop - This virtual literature site offers animated web adventures for beginning readers. Throughout the site, visitors will find animated stories that children can read themselves as well as stories that can be read to them.



Seussville - Seussville is an interactive site with Dr. Seuss books, games, printables, storymakers, and more.



Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School.

Literacy in Children Begins at Home/Guest Post

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The literal definition of literacy is being able to read and write and being educated, either in general or in a particular field of study. When it comes to children, most parents believe that the journey to literacy starts when they begin school. But that is not entirely true – in fact, a child begins to learn the minute he or she is born into this world. And if we are talking of the knowledge gathering process, that begins not at school, but at home. For a child to improve his or her literacy at home, here’s what a parent must do:

· Encourage them to read more: The more your child reads, the more literate he or she is. When you’re able to assimilate a book, it’s easy to learn your lessons and understand them. Read to your toddler not just at bedtime but during the day too. The colors and pictures in illustrated books help their memories develop faster. Once they’re able to read by themselves, encourage them to take up reading as a hobby and minimize the time they watch TV or spend in front of the computer with mindless games.

· Get them involved in mentally stimulating activities: Puzzles and acrostics help children develop their mental acuity and word power. They gain a better grasp of language and logic, two aspects that help us maintain an efficient learning process throughout our lives. When your kids pick up skills that are not generally associated with regular learning, they gain an edge over their counterparts and peers.

· Let them be children: And last, but not the least, you must let children be children and engage in activities that are suitable for their age. If you pressure them into other activities that you think are more meaningful and useful, you are interfering with the growing process and in fact stunting their growth, emotionally and socially.

· Spend time with them: When you’re a child, you need love and attention more than anything else. And when you don’t give your children the time and attention they need, you are interfering with their natural growth and literacy process. They become unruly and disruptive in subconscious ways to gain your attention, and this disrupts their learning process.

A child must be given every opportunity to become literate, starting with the environment at home.

This guest article was written by Adrienne Carlson.

20 Places to Find Free Children's Books Online

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The following is a guest article from Karen Schweitzer of About. com.

20 Places to Find Free Children's Books Online

The local public library isn’t the only place to find free books for kids. There are many different sites online that offer free children's books to read or listen to. Here are 20 places to read, create, and share free children's books online:

International Children's Digital Library - The ICDL hosts many different reading resources for children, including a wide range of illustrated books that can be read for free online. Books are easy to locate using the ICDL search features and are often available in multiple languages.

The Baldwin Online Children's Project - This amazing resource provides one of the best classic book collections that can be found online. Many of the books include illustrations and can be read on the web using a customizable reader.

Big Universe - This award-winning site is devoted entirely to children's books. Kids can read free books online, create and print their own books, and share reading recommendations with other Big Universe members.

Magic Keys - Magic Keys offers illustrated books for younger children, older children, and young adults. All books can be read for free online.

Children's Books Online - This volunteer-driven project provides a large online library of illustrated antique books for children of all ages. New books are added to the site each week.

ByGosh.com - ByGosh.com provides a modest collection of illustrated classics for younger children (Three Little Pigs, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, etc.) and classic novels (Huckleberry Finn, Peter Pan, etc.) for older children.

Mighty Book - Might Book offers a hodgepodge of animated stories, songs, jokes, and puzzles that can be enjoyed for free online. The site also has a paid membership service that opens up more resources.

Hans Christian Andersen Online - This site features a complete collection of stories from Hans Christian Andersen--nearly 170 stories in all.

Zelo - Zelo offers a large collection of free nursery rhymes for children.

Page By Page Books - This free online library features hundreds of free classic books sorted by title and author.

Classic Book Library - The Classic Book Library offers a wide range of free classic books that can be read online. More than 30 free books are available in the children's literature category.

Classic Reader - Classic Reader provides hundreds of the best-loved classics for young readers. All of the books can be read for free online and may be reviewed after reading.

PublicLiterature.org - This site offers two features for young booklovers: a modern books blog, which features new works and new authors, and a classic books section, which offers an easy-to-use interface for reading classic books online.

The Literature Network - The Literature Network is a great place for older children to find free books to read online. The site hosts classic books as well as author biographies and quizzes.

Online Books Page - The Online Books Page does not host children's books exclusively, but the site does provide more than 35,000 books that can be read for free online. Many of the books are classic stories that would be appropriate for older children and young adults.

Read Print - This free online library serves both children and adults. It is an excellent place to find classic novels, poems, plays, and short stories.

Lil Fingers - Lil Fingers offers a small collection of story books for young children. Books can be read online and include sounds and graphics.

Starfall - This site offers free books and other material that can be used to teach small children how to read. Most of the books are suited for kids in kindergarten through second grade.

Librivox - Librivox volunteers record books that are in the public domain. Children will enjoy many of the audio books in Librivox's extensive catalog.

Storyline Online - This site from The Screen Actors Guild Foundation features videos of famous people reading books to children.

Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online college courses for OnlineCourses.org.