Reading Bringing Up Baby Bilingual led me to a post about Tumblebooks. The cost led to me to a search on more e books. So with little ado, here's a listing of some (free!) e-books for kids!
Children's Storybooks Online Mainly English books.
Children's Books Online: The Rosetta Project Old books and the site is volunteer driven. The books have been scanned in and many have translations.
ICDL International Children's Digital Library Lots of books in many languages.
StoryPlace: The Children's Digital Library Animated stories and activities.
BookPALS StoryLine Online Books read by celebrities. Video of the actors reading the books, words show up on the books.
Bookhive Listen to stories by great storytellers.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Free Kids' E Books
Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun. Wish We Could Come Out and Play!
Each day I'm trying to get some outside play in for the kids. But it is hard when I hear things on the news like I did last night.
I was sitting on the couch, crocheting, and Husband was sitting on the love seat working on his laptop (the kids were all blessedly asleep). We had the news on in the background and I was watching bits and pieces when suddenly I hear, "If you have asthma as I do, tomorrow will be a tough day for you. (blah blah blah) So stay out of the sun from 12 to 8." Then the news switches from the weather to a commercial as I turn to Husband in disbelief.
"Did they just say that due to the level (whatever) day we have to stay in from twelve to eight?!?" (they'd mentioned something about children and the elderly in addition to people with asthma.)
He nodded, shell-shocked.
"I remember when ozone days meant you had to stay in from 12 to 3 or 4..." I let the sentence trail off and mentally struck off my plan of walking to the park the next day.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Added Some Stuff to the Blog
By the way, I've added some features to the blog. If you scroll down to the bottom, there are word of the day widgets for German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, French, and Leetspeak. On the sidebar I've put in a Babelfish Universal Language Translator. I still have both my LibraryThing and Shelfari widgets in the sidebar.
Hobbling along with German but adding a crutch of Spanish
The title explains how I feel. My German has improved over the years though honestly, I haven't been putting as much time into it as I should. Between working full-time (and at my old job, more than full-time), homeschooling, general parenting, and my various interests (you know, husband, crafts, reading, actually seeing my friends on occasion, etc.) I'm strapped for time in a good week. Catch me on a bad week and I barely have time to breathe, much less sit down and have a block of thirty minutes to study.
Obviously, I'm the "bilingual" one in the family. The children get their languages from me with the Husband trying to fill in the blanks. (One only has to hear someone yell "Das ist nicht für dich!" so many times before understanding that means "That is not for you!")
So the kids have learned all the German that I speak to them. Unfortunately, this hasn't been a lot. If we were to travel to Germany (which I'm hoping we can sometime in 2009) I think that they might be able to make themselves understood but barely. This is an utter failure on my part so I'm going to start spending thirty minutes a day studying German to get my skills up to par. Right now if I know how to say it in German, I do, with one notable exception. When we are in public it is harder for me to speak German to them. Whether I feel like I'm being rude to the people we're spending time with or I feel embarrassed because of the reaction of others who think that because we're speaking another language we *must* not speak English which seems to be a mortal sin as far as many are concerned.
So in addition to more study on my part, I have to make more of an effort to speak German when we are out and about and in the company of others. I have already been adding more time spent speaking German lately and the difference is noticeable. Fin is soaking up the additional vocabulary wonderfully, in fact he's doing so well that it makes me want to figure out a way to speak another language to them. He's four, almost five, which is supposed to be an "age of opportunity" and you can definitely tell.
The obvious choice would be Spanish which is most likely what I'll go with. But my heart yearns for Mandarin or Japanese. I think that Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday I'll speak German. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday will be Spanish. I'll see how that works out after a week and post the results. Tomorrow will be the start day, a Spanish day.
Obviously, I'm the "bilingual" one in the family. The children get their languages from me with the Husband trying to fill in the blanks. (One only has to hear someone yell "Das ist nicht für dich!" so many times before understanding that means "That is not for you!")
So the kids have learned all the German that I speak to them. Unfortunately, this hasn't been a lot. If we were to travel to Germany (which I'm hoping we can sometime in 2009) I think that they might be able to make themselves understood but barely. This is an utter failure on my part so I'm going to start spending thirty minutes a day studying German to get my skills up to par. Right now if I know how to say it in German, I do, with one notable exception. When we are in public it is harder for me to speak German to them. Whether I feel like I'm being rude to the people we're spending time with or I feel embarrassed because of the reaction of others who think that because we're speaking another language we *must* not speak English which seems to be a mortal sin as far as many are concerned.
So in addition to more study on my part, I have to make more of an effort to speak German when we are out and about and in the company of others. I have already been adding more time spent speaking German lately and the difference is noticeable. Fin is soaking up the additional vocabulary wonderfully, in fact he's doing so well that it makes me want to figure out a way to speak another language to them. He's four, almost five, which is supposed to be an "age of opportunity" and you can definitely tell.
The obvious choice would be Spanish which is most likely what I'll go with. But my heart yearns for Mandarin or Japanese. I think that Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday I'll speak German. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday will be Spanish. I'll see how that works out after a week and post the results. Tomorrow will be the start day, a Spanish day.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Redecorating... Or re-storing as the case may be...
I'm thinking of adding some bookshelves to the boys' room. I've hesitated putting some in because we're in an apartment that we don't intend to stay in much longer and I didn't want to do all the work only to leave the shelves behind. However I want some shelves in their room and definitely don't want to add any bookcases that Dul could climb and then jump off of. Plus, floor space is precious in their room. But I keep going back to the fact that essentially I'm lazy. So I think that I'm going to buy...
Tot Tutors - Toy Organizer
2 Sided Book Display
Whitmor Kids' Soft 3-Drawer Chest, Primary Colors
I'm not sure about the top one. It is something that I've wanted for a long time but I really don't want to buy even more useless plastic that will end up getting thrown away in a few years and then sticking around the earth forever. So I'm thinking of just getting one of those multi-slotted cubby things and buying some baskets to add to that. Anyway, I'll probably get these sometime around Christmas.
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Some Tidbits to Fill Your Time and Your Mind
The 100 Most Common Words is a fun little quiz if you have a little extra time. You have five minutes to fill in the boxes during which your mind will go deliciously blank, usually prompting an angry slap-typing of your keyboard as you repetitively type in word after word that you think must be in that list. I got the quiz from a blog I've got on my incredibly long Google Reader list: Language Hat Pretty cool read. Leela James is rocking it out as always. I love her hair, her style, and of course, her rockin' tunes. Have you yet read Pleased to Meet Me or The Audacity of Taupe? If not, you should. They are interesting little tidbits.
Homeschooling Continues…
For this year at least, I've decided to continue homeschooling. I was just getting a little freaked out by seeing all of the back to school displays in the stores. I've decided to sign Fin and Dul up for some classes this fall. Mainly I need them to have an outlet with more little kids. They have their cousins (who we need to see more because they love playing with them) but that's about it. Right now I'm thinking of signing them up for one class on one of my off days. I'm torn on whether I should sign them up for individual classes or if I should let them take classes together. I'm leaning towards signing them up for a science class. My choices are limited because I'm trying to keep the classes scheduled for my off days (due to my promotion I get three days off each week!) but there are a few classes that might interest them. I was using Rosetta Stone online through my local library but they've discontinued the service so now I've got to try and find my Rosetta Stone discs. I'm going to have Fin and Dul use the German and Spanish discs and I'll do both of those and add French and either Japanese, Mandarin, or Arabic for myself. Live Mocha has lessons for a lot of languages but I think that they are geared towards adults and older kids, not preschool/kindergarten age.
Friday, August 01, 2008
A Birthday Each Month
I've been reading one blog regularly for quite awhile now. Listen to Kirsten is about a little girl and they blog it so it seems as if she's posting. It is a very cute blog. Anyway, her parents give her a birthday present each month. For example, she just got her 21 month birthday present. I've always thought that was a cute idea and I've decided to start it. I like to buy the kids toys but I also don't want to give in to their every demand. One new toy a month sounds about right.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Public School?
So I'm thinking of putting Fin in school. The plan was to homeschool but as time has gone on… I have to work, the Husband has to work, and daycare is not cheap, nor free. We don't use daycare as of yet but if we were to both obtain full-time employment during the day, daycare would be no joke with three kids. Plus if they'll be in daycare it might as well be school since school is just a big daycare anyway. I checked out a school website today but it isn't clear on age requirements. This is apparently something that parents should just know. I'm guessing that with a winter birthday, four year old Fin would be in pre-kindergarten. I would have loved to put them both in school at the same time but I really doubt they'd allow Dul to go as he's only three and has a late winter birthday himself. I'm not sure how he'll adjust to being home by himself all day (I don't think pre-k is a half day thing at this school) but I guess we'll find out. I'm most worried about dropping off and picking up Fin. Right now with my overnight schedule it will be ok because I'm home during the day but if I were to go to days, it would become more complicated. Ah well, I guess I'll think of that when the time comes. I wonder when the PTA meets?
Friday, July 04, 2008
Belle is Wearing Pigtails and the Boys are Writing
Today I put ponytails in Belle's hair for the first time! Her hair is kind of bald on the sides (wasn't always this way but she sleeps with her head to the side) so every time we've gone out her hair has been kind of odd-looking. Today I dressed her up in a cute new onesie and a pair of ruffled pants that I love and I decided to do her hair. At first I just put barrettes in but I really wanted to do ponytails so I searched out some little elastics that I bought for braiding my hair and put two ponytails in. She looks utterly adorable! I bought some kindergarten-lined paper long ago and far away. I also bought preschool paper at the same time (basically the same as kindergarten paper but has a big empty top for drawing a picture) which we've been using. Today was the first day I put the kindergarten paper to use. I wrote out some words for Fin to copy and wrote out letters for Dul to copy. They are working on that now.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
A cool registry website
I'm loving My Registry. With the help of the website you are able to make one registry that pulls from many different websites. I've added the button to my toolbar so I can easily add things when I see them. You can even add things from Etsy which is really great. I'm using it to keep track of the things I want to buy for Husband, the kids, and myself. I'll probably pass the link out to interested parties (a.k.a. my mom, sister, and brother who are forever buying my children gifts) this Christmas which should probably help cut down on the "whatever shall I get them that is an approved toy" (no lead, no MIC, etc.) dance that starts November 1st and lasts through the holidays. I especially like the tags option so that you can put the person's name down. I often forget if something that I bookmark is supposed to be for my kids or for other random people which the tags option should help cut out.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Belle can speak!
Did you know about the risks of BPA in your canned foods, including canned baby food and formula? Belle did the cutest thing yesterday. She said "mama"! Ok, so it wasn't actually "mama", it sounded more like "Mom" but she was trying to crawl to me (she's doing a scoot/crawl/roll thing to get around these days) and she started crying because it was too much work for her and she looked at me and said "Mam". Of course I picked her up immediately and started celebrating (and maybe rubbing it in the Husband's face a little as well!) She's not yet four months old so it is really cool. She's got a weird little thing going on with her hair though. The sides of her head have these patches of almost baldness where she sleeps on them. Hopefully that'll grow in soon. Tomorrow we'll be doing origami dinosaurs!
Saturday, June 21, 2008
You Tube Videos Made Easy
With my beautiful new app, YouPlayer, I'm able to watch things in a sidebar while I'm surfing the internet. I've added a few German clips to my playlist and now the kids are able to watch that while I'm typing away at what. Very, very cool.
Playing with my Add-Ons
I just tried the clip mark add-on that I downloaded for Firefox. I don't think that it even posted to my blog which is odd. However, right now I'm typing this in a ScribeFire add-on and watching Janet Jackson's "Feedback" video in a sidebar through my YouPlayer add-on. Both are really cool. I love add-ons. I love Firefox!
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Christmas List in the Making
Though it is only June, I'm working on the Christmas lists for the kids. Most of the patterns that I'm getting are through Ravelry but some are from Crochet Pattern Central. So far… … I'm going to crochet: …I'm going to (try to) knit: In addition to these things (which are all for my kids!), I want to: Crochet: So obviously, some of this stuff isn't going to get done. I'm going to try and narrow down this list a bit as the year goes on. I'm trying to decide what I'm going to get started on first. I'm going to do the toys in either acrylic or cotton. I have some green (various shades), blue, pink, and purple acrylic right now. I'm thinking that I can make some of the balls and/or blocks right now. I want to make blocks in various sizes and make a lot of them. I remember that my cousin had these big foam blocks that looked like bricks when we were kids and I loved pulling those out and playing with them when I went to her house. I'd love to make some of those for my kids. Maybe like twenty blocks, even more if I could do it.
Thursday, June 05, 2008
We’ll Have Some Spanish With Our Letter of the Week, Please!
The baby will be three months in just a few days which means I'll be starting The Letter of the Week Nursery Program in the next week or so with her. I've decided to officially add Spanish to our languages. I wasn't going to do it but we have so much access to Spanish materials and there is such a huge part of our population that speaks Spanish that it is just senseless to ignore it. Money is tight right now so I haven't been able to order books/music/dvds in German like I was planning on and there is no where that I've found, even in bordering cities, where I can buy materials in German other than the same old, dry textbooks. I'm still going to keep at German but it just makes sense to introduce Spanish as I can find a ton of stuff for that easily and free. So for each Letter of the Week book that I order from the library, I'll also order the Spanish version (easily done as the books are filled with popular hits). We're studying dinosaurs right now. Each week or so we check out ten to fifteen books on the subject that we're studying. This week I've ordered: So hopefully those will all come in soon and we can get started. The book that Fin and I are working on this week is Little Dinosaur by David Kinefield. I'm writing out the words on note cards for him and will also work with him on them each day. My goal is to work through a small book each week so that by the end of the week, he can read it with ease. I have yet to find a homeschool planner that I've found meets my standards. I have three kids and I want to look at all three's work for the week in one blow. I did find one site with some cool planner pages but it isn't exactly what I want. So I think I might be drafting my own in Word when I can find the time.
Monday, June 02, 2008
The Ridiculous Things People Say
"How will they ever learn to get along with people?" So many things are wrong with this statement. Schools are designed to separate children into odd little groups of people of all the same age and, in some schools, the same abilities. When else in life will one be surrounded by only their age mates, even spending "breaks" with only people of the same age? This doesn't teach children to get along in society, it contributes to society's ills. When people ask this question of me I always want to question whether they've read "Lord of the Flies". "They'll be behind all the other children!" Right now, my four year old is reading. Not everything, he wouldn't be able to read this blog for instance, but he'd be able to pick out many of the words in it. His birthday is in the winter which means that he wouldn't be entering kindergarten this year, he'd have to wait until next year. When I was a kid, kindergarten consisted of review of the basics and then basic reading. I learned to read in an experimental preschool program when I was two so I was bored out of my mind and my birthday is late in the school year so I was one of the young kids in the class. I can only imagine the utter tedium that my almost six year old would face in a setting such as this with the level he is at now when he's four. So they most certainly won't be behind.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Add to LibraryThing
Well, now I don't know what to think. Apparently you can add to LibraryThing from Amazon. That's cool (better than nothing) but I'd really like it to add from any source. Unfortunately, it doesn't. And just as I was getting happy because I saw that there was an option to highlight and click, I read the page and that option is old and doesn't work for the updated version of the browser. However, I did pay good money for LibraryThing so I'm going to find a way to make this work for me! I'll update should there be any changes.
Wow, almost a month!
Almost a month has passed since I last posted! Not cool, I know.
Anyway, we went to the zoo as we do a few times a year. Once again, I was reminded why we go so randomly. The gorillas looked so sad. If you didn't hear about it when it happened, read about why the gorillas aren't happy. While the zoo now claims that the gorillas have recovered from that incident, I don't think so. They always seem distant and sad, a few times one or two have been angry.
Maybe it is just me but I don't feel right about keeping animals that act so like humans locked up. They can speak to us, they can actually use a language and talk to us. Not like dogs or horses or any other animal, gorillas can learn sign language and carry on conversations with humans. Yet we keep them locked away like criminals.
I'm not sure if I've mentioned Shelfari before but it is a great option to LibraryThing which I am becoming less enchanted with. I like some features of LibraryThing but it isn't as pretty a set-up as Shelfari and it is a lot easier to add books that you don't know about (the groups have group shelves!) than LibraryThing. Though maybe I'm not utilizing LibraryThing to it's full potential. I've already paid for a lifetime membership to LibraryThing (though Shelfari lets you add unlimited books for free) so I'll keep at it and maybe (hopefully?) it'll get more user friendly.
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