Great Free Resources for Stories

I have been wandering around the WWW lately trying to find some new and interesting things to keep SC a little occupied on the days when I need to get a bit more one on one in with KM. Now since I don't have SC all the time, I do try to schedule our bigger projects on days when she is not here, but sometimes life gets in the way and you just have to push through and get things done! Anyway I thought I would share some of the great things I have found, so here are the top five in no particular order -

1. On one of the many homeschooling/parenting Yahoo groups that I belong to someone passed along this site and SC can not get enough of it. The site is called Silly Books and here is a synopsis -

Literacy is contagious. Catch it here. You'll find animated books, children's music, puzzles and games that entertain kids while promoting child literacy. Have your children had their stories published HERE yet?

2. From the previous site I stumbled across an equally interesting one for emergent readers - Mighty Books - It says that you can get a subscription, but I am not really sure what more you would get with it, the free content including stories, songs and games in several categories seems very good -

Thousands of young children around the world have discovered the joy and power of reading at MightyBook.com. Now, we'd like to introduce this wonderful reading resource to your students. With more than 500 animated read-aloud books, songs, poems, jokes, puzzles and games to choose from, MightyBook provides many exciting opportunities for children to discover how much fun reading can be. Five new books or songs are added each month throughout the year

3. This next one I have known about for a while now, but never really had a reason to check it out. Now that I have KM has actually been poking around on it as well - Storyline Online - it has activities and printables to accompany all of the stories as well -

The Screen Actors Guild Foundation is proud to bring you Storyline Online, an on-line streaming video program featuring SAG members reading children's books aloud! Each book includes accompanying activities and lesson ideas.

4. This next one has lots of clips, games, and activities as well for the younger crowd - Up to Ten - I thought it would be great and though she may like it when she is a bit older, right now when I put it on SC walks away or squirms in my lap as soon as she sees the little guys - don't know why, I think they are awful cute!

UpToTen has been building prize-winning early-learning games and activities since 1999. Your child will love the reassuring, friendly world that our unique games inhabit. S/he will have enormous fun whilst building independence on the computer.

5. Finally this is just a fun click, click, click site - SC likes to move the mouse around and make the balloons and bubbles pop and she likes anything that allows her to be free to click away! Poisson Rouge or Red Fish Soup allows her to be able to do that. As you will see in the intro below, they are a very freethinking bunch and I think it is such a great site. If you get through the language features and can find English, you can also find a lot of cool printables as well.

There are no instructions on the site and there are some good reasons for that: most people, even adults, do not read instructions, children who cannot read will ignore written text anyhow, but most importantly for us, there is no need and in fact, instructions get in the way of the experience : the navigation through the various sections of the site is purposefully simple and intuitive, the functionalities within games are carefully thought out to afford a maximum of possibilities while keeping that special relationship to the real World.

So these are our newest favorites for SC, if you have any suggestions I would LOVE to hear them!