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Litland.com Resources & Links
Consider 2 billion users of the
Internet worldwide, and an estimated 2 million blogs alone,
then add the number of websites available, and the idea of
finding reputable, usable or just plain interesting sites is
like finding a needle in a haystack. So we hope the few we
illuminate here for you will help in some small way. Check
back as we update this list regularly.
Rubbing shoulders: companies with whom we are affiliated or
simply like.
Character
education curriculum:
Successful in Latin America, the Alive to the World
curriculum is available in English. This
highly respected program is produced by Alliance for the
Family, whose chairwoman Christina Vollmer is a member of
the Pontifical Council for the Family. From 1st
grade through 12th, the curriculum eases the
child into understanding their own value as a human being as
well as the world around them appropriate to each age level.
You can see the topics covered mirror qualities of good
character embodied in our review criteria.
The publisher matters!
Even well known titles or famous writers can have
content altered in newer editions. The integrity of the
publisher does matter. Publishers we recommend include
TAN Books/Saint Benedict Press,
Catholic Courses, Ignatius Press, Sophia Press
Institute, and Ascension Press.
Looking
to start or move your own website? Consider
hostmonster.com . All host companies prohibit child
pornography because it is illegal. Some will prohibit adult
content as well, although most are not willing to give up
that revenue stream for the betterment of society.
Hostmonster.com goes further, and prohibits use of images of
children without parent authorization as well as profanity
in the domain name and on the site. We thought this
demonstrated good citizenship and seemed an appropriate
webhosting service for Litland.com.
Do
you have a college student, or teen taking college prep
courses, looking to save money on textbooks?
Rent them from
Chegg.com. This service works great and saves loads of
$$. Additionally, they kick back some of their earnings as
an investment into environmental causes. Finally, they too
do not approve affiliates whose websites are “pornographic,
defamatory, racist, overtly sexual, deemed to be
offensive”...also demonstrates good citizenship and an
appropriate connection for our Litland.com friends.
Looking for
Christian books and gifts? Then
visit...
... The
Catholic Company, a trusted
site for books and gifts.
...
Celtic Hills, importing gifts from
Ireland
...
Grace Designs providing gifts and
books of interests to friends of other
Christian faith
beliefs.
... Providence Jewelers
Providence Jewelers Christian and Inspirational Jewelry
...and Rosary.com for
rosaries and accessories
Rosary.com is your premier destination for rosaries, cases, rosary prayer books, and rosary gifts.
Movies add fun!
Renting movies can be more than entertainment! It is a great
way to have fun when studying certain themes, historical
periods, or genres of literature. We prefer...
...Faith and Family Flix, a completely
family-friendly rental service with both classic and
Christian films.
...of course,
Netflix! Many families
go without television or cable and rent from Netflix
instead, which permits control over the type of movies
watched as well as creates opportunities for parents to pass
down onto their children their family favorites.
Can coffee be
good for you? It is when you order through
Mystic Monks coffee! Yes one of the brothers was a premier
coffee roaster before joining the monastery, and their
coffee is excellent! Plus you are automatically added to
their prayer list. So have a cuppa with a book or movie!
Mystic Monks Coffee
Books...Free!!!
Classics:
- Similarly, if your student is
studying Greek language or classic literature, The
Perseus project of Tufts university has
numerous Greco-Roman
texts and resources online for free:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/
- Sunday School Books from the
Library of Congress: These are full text books that were
the key to religious education for the youth in the
1800’s America. Searchable by author, subject and title,
they are fascinating to read. The archive spans all
ages, from books about being good girls and good boys,
to books on the conduct for young men. Moral tales and
publications on issues of the day are included. Scanned
images of the original book are one click away from the
typed text, so you and your children or students can
read directly from the antique text online if you
please!
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/sundayschool/about.html
Other books:
- One our favorite sites is The
International Children’s library which has full books
available to read for free online for children ages
3-13
http://en.childrenslibrary.org/ in multiple
languages including English. Books also have audio.
Children taking a language course might enjoy trying to
read younger books in that language for practice.
Parents can replicate classroom reading by having the
student listen to the audio and then read the same
passage out loud. Many classics are available here!
Book-Related:
Authors
Authors Authors!
The BBC has archived videos of
interviews with well-known authors. Take a look and see
if your favorite is included!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/writers/12201.shtml
Book societies:
Barter!
Got too many books? Have an affinity towards bartering? Try
trading them through sites like BookMooch
http://bookmooch.com/ and Title Trader
http://www.titletrader.com/
The Children’s
Choices project are books reviewed and
selected by 12,500 kids across the country. While we have
not read, and so do not endorse, every title, it is a neat
project and an interesting selection of books:
http://www.reading.org/Resources/Booklists/ChildrensChoices.aspx
The call for submissions gives information on how your child
can become a reviewer too!
Never
separated:
Readeo.com
offers a neat online
service. With an internet connection and a webcam, you and
another person can read one of their books together via
video! Great for parents who travel on business, divorced
parents, military spouses separated from their family, and
out of town grandparents. Geared towards age 8 and younger
picture books.
Readeo provides a free book each month too.
Scholastickids
channel on youtube has authors reading from their books,
book trailers and other interesting videos
http://www.youtube.com/user/ScholasticKids# Parents
should supervise use in accordance with their family
Do-Re-Mi’s. Use of videos can provide interest to reluctant
readers, be a reward for completing reading goals, and can
be incorporated into the reading assignments to
compare/contrast, developing critical thinking skills.
Information, Fun Facts, and Learning Helpers
“As a general rule, the most
successful man in life is the man who has the best
information.” (Benjamin Disraeli)
With that in mind, we’ve compiled a
listing of sites you might find interesting, helpful to your
studies, or to share with your family/students:
Anthology: The Norton’s Anthology of
Children’s Literature is a wealth of help for teachers and
students alike.
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nacl/index.html
A historical timeline pinpoints certain literary facts too.
It has an archive of free images that are public domain
(meaning no copyright infringement). The resource list of
web links is not only comprehensive, but well organized
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nacl/links/index.html
. Click on fairy tales, for example, and see the numerous
web resources that can be used in conjunction with your
reading assignments.
The British Library has many resources
online
http://www.bl.uk/index.shtml
Children’s Choices activities:
http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/
part of the Children’s Choices book review program of the
International Reading Association, this site houses
activities by reading grade group.
CIA World Factbook, one of the most
widely used sites for country information in schools and
business alike:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
College-bound?
COURSERA offers free college courses by Ivy League Schools,
sponsored by Stanford & UPenn:
https://www.coursera.org/ Great for high school level
college prep, gifted education, and adults wanting to
continue their education.
C-Span has free videos of interviews held on its cable
channel. These are useful for older students studying social
studies, politics/government, civic, etc. However, they also
have videos for their shows Booknotes and BookTV which may
provide information for your literature studies too.
http://c-spanclassroom.org// Click on video library.
Foreign language
blues? While I do not endorse this site's
information on colleges (if you need help selecting
colleges, please email me), I have to admit their list
of 100 free foreign language sites is awesome!
http://www.accreditedonlinecolleges.com/blog/2010/100-free-foreign-language-classes-online/
Geography IQ
http://www.geographyiq.com/
Government studies:
Free resources on our Constitution and Heritage at
http://constitutioncenter.org/education/students/studying-the-constitution/
and
http://www.americanheritage.org/k-12_lessons.html
Handouts/Recipes: Free handouts, recipes and more for
classroom from ABDO publishing
http://www.abdopub.com/shop/pc/viewcontent.asp?idpage=32
Internet
blues? Are your searches so unwieldy you think the
computer will explode? Let Quickhitsonline help!
http://quickhitsonline.com/ Designed to provide
links to sites in the most common classroom subjects
from valid organizations.
LOC: The library of congress has a
great list of webportals for families and kids:
http://www.loc.gov/families// and teachers:
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/ . They also have a virtual
reference desk at
http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/virtualref.html
Mensa: Parent teacher resources with
lesson plans at Mensa for kids
http://www.mensaforkids.org/school_template.cfm?showPage=school_pt_resources.cfm
Many people
are already aware that MIT's courseware is available
free to the public. However, more recently they have
enlarged with a section entitled Scholar, with courses
that are complete in multi-media; a ready-to-go
curriculum!
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/ocw-scholar/
The Museum of Online Museums provides a
collection of museums around the world that include
digitized materials available for free use online. Art, rare
books, music, its there.
http://www.coudal.com/moom/
Music: From the Oyster Bay-East Norwich
school district, we find the music quest website, which is
set up as a substitute assignment for an orchestra student.
http://oben.powertolearn.com/Music/resource.html It
links to good sources on music history.
Mythology: Many books have characters
based on classic mythology. Find information at the
Encyclopedia Mythica
http://www.pantheon.org//
Myths: This site is too awesome!
http://myths.e2bn.org/index.php Myths and legends of the
East of England, this site has folklore and myths told
(audio), a create-your-own-book page, teachers activities,
and loads of information! Use this to spice up a history
lesson, excite your child about reading, or as the seed to
fun writing assignments.
Science: Interested in forensic
science? The National Science Foundation is teamed up with
the television show CSI to produce a fun, educational
website full of science adventures
http://forensics.rice.edu/
Tech help: The website Free Technology
for teachers has helpful links such as the Google Guide for
teachers
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/03/free-33-page-guide-google-for-teachers.html
Thinkquest: Sponsored by the Oracle
Foundation, Thinkquest.org provides a family-friendly
library at
http://www.thinkquest.org/pls/html/think.library
United Nations Encyclopedia of the
Nations
http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/
The Victorian London Dictionary is a
fascinating site of everything of London during the
Victorian time period! This includes a fiction blog in which
a continuing saga of his Victorian life is journaled, a free
e-book mystery novel, penny dreadful short stories, Punch
cartoons and a searchable database!
http://www.victorianlondon.org/ Fun to read through the
thousands of pages and links, it could also prove very
useful for teaching and student research too.
Vimeo now has
free lessons for videography online
http://vimeo.com/videoschool
. Learn all aspects of using the camera to the artsy
"stuff" like perspective. Pick up an inexpensive
videocam and your kids will learn to use it in no
time. What a great way to enhance your home or classroom
curriculum by allowing students to interpret their
literature and social sciences through video!
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