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    20 Sites to Improve Your Child’s Literacy

    Guest PostsBy 5 Mins Read Quest for Literacy Writing Resources
    20 Sites to Improve Your Child’s Literacy-2
    #10

    Karen Schweitzer for The Children’s Book Review

    Photo credit: JasmicImmersing children in literacy activities can help them improve their reading, writing, vocabulary, grammar, and spelling skills. There are a number of organizations and sites that provide online activities, teaching tips, and free books for children.

    Here are 20 Sites to Explore Over the Summer:

    National Children’s Literacy Website – This non-profit organization is dedicated to improving and promoting children’s literacy in child care and home settings. Helpful materials on the National Children’s Literacy Website include general literacy tips, advice on teaching children to read, educational activities, story-time tips, and links to additional resources.

    Literacy Zone – Created by Woodlands Junior School in the UK, Literacy Zone offers online literacy games and activities to help children improve spelling, grammar, punctuation, and writing skills.

    StoryPlace – StoryPlace is a digital library created specifically for children. Library materials include free online books, online activities, take-home activities, and reading lists for preschool and elementary students.

    Starfall – Starfall relies on phonics to help children learn how to read. The site offers movies, interactive games, and engaging activities for readers in pre-k to second grade.

    The Baldwin Online Children’s Project – The Baldwin Project makes classic books freely available to children online. The project publishes books that are in the public domain (books published before 1923). Books are sorted by author, titles, genre, and subgenre.

    International Children’s Digital Library – This online library hosts nearly 5,000 high-quality digital books in more than 50 different languages. Books contain both text and illustrations and can be discussed in a community forum.

    Storynory – This site publishes a new audio story each week. Storynory offers both classic stories and original tales that have been adapted from stories around the world.

    Kiddie Records – Kiddie Records publishes recordings of children’s records that were made between the mid forties through the early fifties. Recordings include classic stories like Horton Hatches the Egg and Casey at the Bat. All of the recordings can be downloaded or played for free online.

    DogEared – Dog Eared is a National Geographic book blog written by kids for kids. The blog offers reviews, book recommendations, and a book of the month feature.

    RIF Reading Planet – Operated by the nation’s oldest and largest nonprofit children’s literacy organization, the RIF Reading Planet provides book reviews and recommendations, an author showcase, reading activities, teaching strategies, and much more.

    The Reading Tub – The Reading Tub is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting reading and literacy projects. The organization’s site offers a book zone and a special section for budding writers.

    KidsLit – Operated by the director of the Menasha Public Library in Wisconsin, this blog offers book reviews and recommendations for children and young adults. New reviews are posted each week.

    Grammar Girl – Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty provides a free podcast that covers common grammar mistakes and issues. Each podcast episode lasts only a few minutes and provides easy-to-understand grammar advice and tips.

    The Story Kitchen – Created by Bruce Van Patter, The Story Kitchen offers dozens of story starters to help inspire young writers. Each story beginning consists of a few paragraphs with a note at the end that encourages site visitors to finish the story.

    Writing with Writers – Writing with Writers is a scholastic project that allows kids to work with authors and illustrators in special workshops designed to improve writing and literacy skills. The project also provides featured writing activities and step-by-step writing guides.

    ClassMarker – ClassMarker makes it easy to test your child’s reading comprehension or vocabulary. The site allows you to make free online quizzes with multiple choice, true false, short answer, and fill in the blank questions.

    Flashcard Maker – Scholastic’s Homework Hub Flashcard Maker is a good tool for children who need to learn sight words. They can test themselves online or print the flashcards to practice off the computer.

    FreeRice – This UN World Food Program site offers a great vocabulary-building trivia game for students at any level. Every time a question is answered correctly, FreeRice donates ten grains of rice to hungry people.

    Shelfari – Created specifically for book lovers, this social media site makes it easy for kids to track the books they have read and make a list of books they would like to read. Shelfari is also a good place to discover new books.

    National Children’s Literacy Website – The Soho Center is committed to promoting children’s literacy in child care settings and home settings. Whether you are a family child care provider, a teacher in a child care center or Head Start program, or a parent of a pre-school or school-age child – there’s a lot you can do.

    This guest post featuring 20 Sites to Improve Your Child’s Literacy is from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School.

    *Disclosure: Please note that this post may contain affiliate links that share some commission. Rest assured that these will not affect the cost of any products and services promoted here. Our team always provides their authentic opinion in all content published on this site.

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    The Children’s Book Review, named one of the ALSC (Association for Library Service to Children) Great Web Sites for Kids, is a resource devoted to children’s literacy. We publish reviews and book lists of the best books for kids of all ages. We also produce author and illustrator interviews and share literacy based articles that help parents, grandparents, teachers and librarians to grow readers. This article was written and provided by a guest author.

    23 Comments

    1. Terry Doherty on

      Thanks for including us in such great resources. I would love to know more about our games tab, though … I run the blog you link to and we don’t have interactive games.

      Reply
      • Bianca Schulze on

        Hi,

        I didn’t actually create this list; however, I was wondering about that. I will update the post for you—I thought I may have missed something.

        We love your site. Thanks for stopping by!

        Reply
    2. David K Park on

      What a great list of resources! If you get a chance, we love for you to check out www.meegenius.com so we could be included in next year’s list. We’ve been getting great feedback from parents and teachers.

      Reply

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    7. Jeanna Beker on

      Please consider adding the Soho Center’s literacy resource pages to your links. We are a 40 year-old non-profit with a strong focus on children’s literacy.

      Our literacy sub-site is at – www.child2000.org/literacy.

      Happily, our site is well used and regarded; typically we come up #1 or #2 in Google for “children’s literacy.”

      For your further information, our main site is at – www.child2000.org.

      Thanks in advance.

      Jeanna Beker
      Director
      The Soho Center

      Reply
    8. nisha on

      Hi,

      Thanks for such a helpful list. Checked out a few links, great..!

      You are also welcome to visit our site www.navrang.com, selling classics like series of Enid Blyton and much more for the last 18 years!

      Reply
    9. Daniel on

      I homeschool my children and have found ProProfs http://www.proprofs.com/training/ and excellent site for creating interactive online courses for my children. I can add videos, PPTs and images to make visual courses, which are loved by the kids.

      Try them out.

      Reply

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    11. Lakshmi on

      Hello,
      I am reaching out to you to introduce my website with stories for children (in pdf, flipbook, and audio formats), braille books, reviews of some popular children’s books-all accompanied by learning tools and activity suggestions. I also believe the website could serve as a platform for authors and illustrators to share stories and art, get feedback from readers, improve, and create books and art readers love.

      Please consider adding the website to your list if you find it suitable.

      Thanks a bunch for your time and support.

      Best Regards.
      Lakshmi
      http://www.taletrove.com

      Reply

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    13. Danielle on

      Hi, I am also reaching out here to share our resource, we have hundreds of original kids books, all free in pdf and online, check-out http://www.freekidsbooks.org

      Reply
    14. Caroline Smith on

      Thank you for the great ideas, very simple idea but useful for learning how to spell write words!
      Spelling practice for kids

      Reply

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