Geography: US States

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/states_experiment_drag-drop_Intermed_State15s_500.html

A friend sent along this website, which lets you place the states in the correct position, and gives you average miles of error, number correct, percentage correct and the number of seconds it took you to do so. It's fun and once you have some of the western states filled in, not too difficult.

General Information: Adult Education Wiki

http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Main_Page Literacy Tent Wiki

A great new Wiki for Adult Literacy Education. This site has discussions on various disciplines from ABE and GED to ESL to Family Literacy. As a Wiki is always a work in progress (much the same as Blogs), check it often to see new additions. This one is very new, and is still short on content, but has an enthusiastic list of supporters, so I expect that it will not remain empty long. Check it out: Highly recommended.

Spotlight: WCC Adult Literacy Project

The Adult Literacy Project at Waubonsee Community College celebrates its 20th year with an appreciation banquet on April l4, 2005 and a community breakfast on August 30, 2005. Join the dedicated corps of volunteers who teach speaking, reading and English writing skills to adults from 30 countries around the world. Trainings are conducted throughout the year at convenient times. The program offers open classroom times and Friday morning discussion groups as well as a student book club and family literacy. To obtain further information, contact the literacy staff at (630) 801-7900, ext. 4106. The email address is jhiggins@waubonsee.edu.

Family Literacy Online: Projects: The Family Center

http://alri.org/esquare/esq2/family.html

Good website for family literacy projects, including the very popular, Ants on a Banana-Bus http://www.hamstertours.com/snacks.html. Figure This! http://www.figurethis.org/
math challenges for families is also available in Spanish. Sites like Intergenerational Cultural Differences http://www.otan.us/webfarm/emailproject/cul.htm is a good class project. I also liked Parent Made Developmental Toys for fun project ideas.

Software: Reading Writing and Typing

http://www.talkingfingers.com/product_tour/index.html#1 : Ages 6-9, CD format, multi-sensory approach

In the RWT!™ program CD, a mischievous computer villain called Vexor tries to steal the letters and prevent the storytellers from writing down their stories. Two Helping Hands, Lefty and Rightway, help children foil Vexor through 40 exciting levels, building hundreds of animated sentences and stories as they go. Children are rewarded with certificates of advancement after every four letters.
This is a great program for Family Literacy, and the goals established are quickly attainable. It helps children read through phonics, lets them write a story and has games that reinforce the skills in a fun way. There are printable progress reports that can be used to monitor success.
It's about $80. and works with Mac (7.5 -OSX) and PCs (Win 95-XP).

General Information: Talking Tool: Awesome Talkster

http://www.awesomelibrary.org/Awesome_Talking_Library.html Awesome Talking Library

According to their Web page, Awesome Talkster combines a browser, directory, search engine, and text-to-voice technology. This allows you to select online text and have it read to you. Children can have the Web pages read to them slowly, but adults can have pages read at normal speed. Click Here for a Free Copy No Ads, No Spyware, No Trial Period. This is "Freeware," courtesy of Code-it. Keeping in mind the adage that there is no such thing as a free lunch, I downloaded a copy of Talkster after first running a spyware check on my computer, and then running the same spyware check after installation and use. I did not get any indication of problem. Disadvantages: it is a large program that takes a long time to download. If that is a problem, you can order a CD of the program for $10.00. Browse in Spanish, French, German, Russian, Dutch,Arabic, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, or Japanese.

The voice is rather robotic (think train station announcements or a robot from Star Wars), but it is able to pronounce difficult words with some clarity. You can simply add the URL address of the piece you want read to you. You can highlight sections to read and click on the 'selected' button to read only those sections. I tried several of the addresses in this blog, as well as the blog itself, and it read them all. Download on a network T 3 connection was about 5 minutes total.
It works on PCs (not Macs) from Windows 95 to XP. Developed by EDI(Evaluation and Development Institute) and Dr. Jerry Adams.

Search Engines: ALA Kid Friendly List

http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/foryoungpeople/childrenparents/especiallychildren.htm#designed
ALA has done some impressive research in tools for kids. This list of search engines designed especially for children provides a safe haven for Internet exploration, and can be used by parents and educators as a recommended resouce.

DESIGNED-FOR-CHILDREN SEARCH ENGINES
Ask Jeeves for Kids
Awesome Library
Education World
Family Friendly Search
Fact Monster
KidsClick!
Kids Search Engines
Kids Search Tools
LycosZone for Kids
SearchEdu.com
Teach-nology.com
TekMom's Search Tools for Students
What Makes a Web Site Good?
Yahooligans!

General Information: Research: Core Knowledge

http://www.coreknowledge.org/ Core Knowledge

This is a research site "Dedicated to excellence and fairness in early education, the Core Knowledge Foundation is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan organization founded in 1986 by E. D. Hirsch, Jr., professor emeritus at the University of Virginia and author of many acclaimed books including Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know and The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them. The Foundation conducts research on curricula, develops books and other materials for parents and teachers, offers workshops for teachers, and serves as the hub of a growing network of Core Knowledge schools. "

I have nothing but respect for the research of E. D. Hirsch, and this organization has many useful areas of information. There are teacher sites, curriculum guides and lesson plans.

Website: Discovery Kids

http://kids.discovery.com/ Discovery Kids is great for older kids (readers) but has things for all ages. For example, if you click on Kenny the Shark: http://kids.discovery.com/fansites/kennytheshark/kennytheshark.html

Meet Kenny Have you met Kenny and Kat?

Become a SharkPlay "Into the Jaws" and find out what it's really like to be a shark.

Take Kenny HomeNow you can take Kenny home to live on your computer.New wallpaper images!

Go for a SwimJump into our 3-D shark tank and swim with the sharks.

Feed Kenny Find out what happens when sharks eat too much. (Really gross, kids will love it!)

Reading Rainbow Kits: $49.95 per title

http://gpn.unl.edu/rainbow/product_index_kit.asp?cookie%5Ftest=1 Reading Rainbow Family Literacy kits available in English and Spanish. Kits are $49.95 each, and there are many titles to choose from. Kits include:
1 nylon backpack
1 VHS 30-minute episode
1 feature book
1 laminated Family Activity Sheet
It appears that you can purchase a VHS tape or DVD separately for $39.95 without the backpack or activity sheets, but the Kits come in either format.

Search Engine: Kid's Click

http://www.kidsclick.org/ Kid's Click This is a web search for kids by librarians. Safer than letting them chance some of the sites given on a regular adult search engine.

Website: Funschool

http://www.funschool.com/ Funschool's mission is to make learning fun. The site offers more than 800 interactive games and activities for preschool through 6th grade that are fun, easy-to-use, educational activities ranging from matching numbers and shapes for pre-schoolers, to geography, math and history for third through sixth graders. Funschool is a proven popular, trusted provider of interactive online games in a safe online learning community

Website: FirstGov for Kids

http://www.kids.gov/ First Gov for Kids is the government site that covers a long list of government approved (i.e. safe) sites for kids of all ages. Some sites are in Spanish, and include topics such as government, money, space (great NASA links), and others, including:
Garfield Comic Creator (make your own comic strips) : http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/sleep/starslp/missionz/comic.htm
Money Central Station (lots of fun games dealing with money): http://www.moneyfactory.com/kids/start.html
http://www.sesameworkshop.org/passport/ Online club that connects kids ages 6-12 around the globe. This site was developed by Sesame Workshop whose mission is creating media to delight and educate children and their families. Passport Kids provides a safe environment where children can express their opinions and compare their experiences as they explore the world.

Website: Yahooligans

http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/ Yahooligan's Along with PBS, this Yahoo site for kids is one of the most popular. There is a large variety of games and materials, some school oriented, others just for fun. This site is well done, and can keep kids occupied for quite some time.

Website: Disney and Kauffman Foundation

http://disney.go.com/kids/today/index.html Kid's Island Good games and skills for children at all age levels. Great graphics from Disney, and characters that the children know. Hot Shot Business is similar to Sim City, and allows kids to create and manage their own business, teaching math, planning and problem solving skills along the way. There are a few areas that are demo only, but overall a good choice for fun.

Website: Gameaquarium

http://www.gamequarium.com/ Gamequarium uses fish and a tropical theme to teach kids at all levels from pre-K to 6+. All the general categories are included (math, science etc.) as well as some additional items such as keyboarding, holiday fun, safety, Spanish and games. Cute.

Blogarithm subscription

To make things easier, I added a’ Blogarithm’ subscription at the bottom of this Blog page. You can add your email address to the box, and Blogarithm will send you an email when there is an addition to this Blog. There is no charge for this subscription.

Website: PBSKids

www.pbskids.org The PBS kids site that has all the favorites, from Arthur to ZOOM. There are a lot of areas to explore here, for all age groups. There are even pages to print out for coloring.

Website: Great Websites for Kids/ALA

http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/greatwebsites/greatwebsiteskids.htm The American Library Association has a site that lists kid friendly websites by topic area. I liked the 'Strange Matter Exhibit' http://www.strangematterexhibit.com/ which shows kids how strong materials are when crushed, what's inside them and other fun, interactive things. Favorite Children's Stories goes from Aesop's Fables to the Wonderful Wizard of Oz : http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/greatwebsites/greatwebsitesfavorite.htm
They even give you a search tool so you can search by the selected audience:
http://www.ala.org/gwstemplate.cfm?section=greatwebsites&template=/cfapps/gws/search.cfm

Website: Parent's Guide to the Information Highway

http://www.childrenspartnership.org/bbar/pbpg.html The Parent's Guide to the Information Superhighway. This is a 'rules and tools' for families online, and is available in Spanish and Italian as well as English. Some of these can be used to help parents carry on the family literacy programs at home, and help keep the children safe in the process. A must read!

Website: Kidlink

http://www.kidlink.org/english/general/intro.html Kidlink
Empower children to build global social and knowledge networks The Internet opens vast new horizons for kids and youth. Their possibly strongest opportunity consists in finding new friends, and develop friendships into a global interpersonal network. For learning, for support on a personal and professional level, for fun, and for everything else related to their future.
Non-commercial, user-owned organization based in Norway focused on strengthening children with free educational programs that helps them build a life. It helps them collaborate with peers around the world (individually or through classrooms), create social networks, mature, and encourage creativity.

Source: Goodies and Treats

Oriental Trading Company: http://www.orientaltrading.com/otcweb/application?namespace=main

This is a great source for low cost 'treats' to hand out for children. We've used them many times, and the items are shipped quickly and always in good order.

Welcome to Waubonsee College Family Tech!

Feel free to comment on any of the postings, and tell us what YOU do to bring technology to Family Literacy.