These are our se7en favorite book sites – things to see and things to do… games to play and printables !!! There are many others I am sure, but these are the ones we are looking at now. They are great sites for kids to explore and for homeschool parents who are looking for activities to inspire their students to greater heights!!! They are in no particular order – but if you only go to one site then it has to be the first one!!!
Site 1: LookyBooks.
Beware of this site – only go there if you have hours of time… it has heaps of picture books that you can read online. Real live picture books, lovely funky new ones and glorious classics. It is very searchable, by topic, author or title…We have spent many happy hours poring over them… It is worth remembering that they update all new books on Wednesdays.
Site 2: Puffin Books.
Here you can find lots of activities and heroic figures for all ages and stages… Ranging from Charlie and Lola to Roald Dahl. And in their cool links section they have a wonderful long list of author sites to go and browse and find fabulous factoids.
Site 3: Scholastic.
This site has three sections of interest to parents and kids: The Parents Activity Center, which is well younger, where we frequent I Spy and The Magic School Bus; The kids section is called The Stacks, and here you can read a range of books and there are plenty of author links, like Cornelia Funke. And, finally they also have heaps of resources and printables for teachers, read the homeschool mom.
Site 4: Kids at Random House.
This site has lovely heroes like Katie Morag and Elmer the Elephant not to mention The Edge Chronicles for the bigger guys. Basically something for everyone.
Site 5: KidsReads.com
This site has dozens of links to authors, lists and lists of books with reviews… but the catch for my kids is the ultra long list of series books.
Site 6: Little Tiger Press.
This site has great printables for little kids and just the loveliest stories!! Who can resist “Fly, Pigeon, Fly!”?
Site 7: Usborne Quicklinks.
This site is great for browsing links in Usborne Books and takes you to all sorts of wonderful sites for animals and astronomy and languages, whatever – if there is a topic they have got it!. For example, if you browse English Language and then have a look at the Illustrated Dictionary and Thesaurus – they come up with all these gems!
That’s it – read away!!!