Reading Is Fundamental provides literacy support tools for all ages and donates millions of books to children. Using events such as Poetry Month, the site offers interactive games as well as articles. Check out the Literacy Resources section of the site for book lists and brochures. The Multicultural area helps children relate to other cultures as well as understand their own world. Search by zip code for local chapters. RIF receives federal money toward its work.
The International Reading Association sponsors ReadWriteThink, offering materials for teachers and parents. Resources, organized by grade level, include games, activities, projects and tips for parents. The user-friendly site includes ideas for taking the online materials out into the child's world to reinforce the ideas learned online, with printable files in the Parent & Afterschool Resources area.
Among the tools offered at Starfall are word-building games that show a picture and pronounce the word, as well as letting the student spell it. The basic ABC area includes a signing alphabet, a benefit to parents with hearing-impaired children or children with hearing-impaired friends. Although the site contains a store, the number of free offerings makes this site a valuable resource.
Mommy's voice narrates capital letters, while a child's voice identifies lower-case ones in the alphabet portion of the Lil' Fingers site, also known as ABC, Mommy and Me. Animated storybooks show and describe various concepts, such as opposites like slow and fast, quiet and loud, and big and small. Be forewarned -- online narrated books lead to ads for books for sale.
PBS Kids offers Between the Lions, a series of activities to get children involved in reading. Games, stories and video clips bring stories to life and teach the basic components of words. For example, Chicken Stacker presents a series of vowel sounds and asks children to click the words matching a particular sound. Animated stories with highlighted words allow children to see and hear the relationships between letters, words and ideas.
Some of the online sites sponsored by commercial reading and learning companies include free features. Scholastic offers activities related to reading and writing, including a searchable Reading Response, an area where young readers can post reviews of what they have read. Education 4 Kids offers online drills. Sylvan Learning Center sponsors Book Adventure, a site offering customizable reading lists and quizzes on books read by the child.