Now the greatest ebook site for kids is on Facebook. Keep up with news, new books and all the Wizards fun on the site you spend time on anyway. Check us out and become a fan of Wizz-E. 

If you have children or have not been living underneath a rock for the last year, you know about the small handheld gaming system made by NIntendo. The Nintendo DS Lite, a double screened gagdget that allows you to play on two screen as well as use both screens to draw, text, keep babies, horses, and pets alive or be a cheerleader, chef and the newest addition to this superb contraption, read entire novels. Classic kids stories, and adult favorites. 

This device is taking ebooks to another level. One that will get them into kids hands which is the idea right? The DS works with Wifi so they can use it on the go as well as at home. Think of it as a “Kindle” Jr. only this one allows you to do so much more than read. This is just another way that technology is being used to encourage kids to read. We have said it before, if you can present the task to a child in a forum that is exciting to them, within their understanding and familiar  to what they normally do they will partake in it. I mean, would you seriously pass this thing up? 

Game is avail. in the UK and soon in the USA: Wired: blog

Or get your  Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today or a grouping of many other great publications and newspapers. Plastic Logic has launched a Reader that is thin, lightweight and about 8×10″ to satisfy your craving for magazine heaven. 

“We want Plastic Logic Reader users to have all the content that they need and want at their fingertips,” said Plastic Logic CEO Richard Archuleta. “With today’s announcements we are amassing one of the largest collections of content available for an eReader and we’re just getting started. We intend to create a large and dynamic marketplace to support the Plastic Logic Reader.”

What eReader.com and Fictionwise.com are thrilled with the new addition, as they are the forefront for ebook downloads. This will bring the ebook market into the big time. The large, clear and clean screen is most appealing those in business. It is one of those gadgets that you can’t leave the office or the house without. What iPods and MP3 players did for the CD, this will do to journals, newpapers and magazines. If you are like me, when you have a long flight you use that time to catch up on your reading. Carrying on 25 magazines could be the new fines, but the ability to keep all that gossip on one slim gadget. Fantastic. 

John Ridding, Chief Executive of the Financial Times, commented: “We are delighted to be partnering with Plastic Logic to provide our award winning journalism through its innovative new eReader. Digital distribution is integral to the FT’s strategy as we seek to offer our customers the opportunity to consume FT content across any channel that suits them.”

It all about reaching you clients where they are and providing a product that will enhance the service they already get from you. To make a better product that can do more everyday is the key to a successful sale. In every one’s attache case, MacBook Pro, iPhone/Blackberry, Plastic Logic Reader, Kindle, and Wallet. Nothing else needed.

We’re all trying to make it up to Mother Nature, right?  Flowers she has plenty of, so what can we do besides saying we’re sorry, we’re so sorry?   It seems to me that the most mature, logical way of going about this business of redemption is changing the small choices we make.  Turn off the light in an empty room, walk or carpool to work, take your own bag to the grocery store, read an e book.

Read an e book?!

Blatant self promotion? perhaps.  Good sense? definitely

A paper book creates four times the greenhouse gas emissions of an e-book and even more ozone depleting substances associated with acid rain.  It needs three times more raw materials and requires seventy eight times more water consumption.  Furthermore, a University of California Berkeley study found that reading a newspaper electronically releases 32-140 times less CO2, several orders of magnitude less nitrogen oxide, and SOx, and the use of 26-27 times less water.

I am uncomfortable with turning such an old and dear friend into a villain, but I am hopeful that in seeking a balance between the traditional and the futuristic, we may be able to strike a comfortable balance in our energy use as well.

If you have or know a child with ADHD reading to them or asking them to read is at the best, frustrating; not only for you  but for them. Kids with the struggle often are very smart, but in school they are not given the tools to become great readers. After doing some research on ADD through various websites (my favorite - ADDitude) I have gotten some very useful information on how to help encourage a child instead of avoid the struggle.

Great Tips:

Engage the imagination.

While your child reads or listens, encourage her to visualize the events in the story, creating a picture or movie in her mind. After a few pages, ask her to describe it.

Use sounds, voices and actions to illustrate what is going on. Make is a adventure. Since some kids with ADD can focus on TV or music, play it a puppet show or play, add songs. Ask them to act it act, make up the soundtrack or draw the images while you read.

Increase word power

The stronger your child’s vocabulary, the better his comprehension—and the less frequently he’ll put down a book to ask about a word.

If you know that a passage contains unfamiliar words, define them—or have him look them up in a dictionary—before he begins to read. Give them a little word dictionary to look up the words and then take notes on them so they are familiar next time.

Try the magazine rack

An entire book may be daunting to the child who can’t stay focused. A children’s magazine may be a less intimidating alternative. If your child likes stories, try Spider (ages 6-9) or Cricket (ages 9-14); if she likes science, pick up Ranger Rick(ages 7 and up) or Kids Discover (ages 6 and up). [For more information, visit CricketMag.com, NWF.org, andKidsDiscover.com.] Ask her teacher whether your child can read a few magazines to meet the monthly reading goal.

Use Audio books

You can get great books on tape from the library. Make it a speacial time when your child can get cozy, put in the tape and have some “me” time. Maybe buy them some special headphones that are just for reading time or a blanket that they make with pictures on it. Make it all about them and the book in their hands. Take the focus away from the challenge with sound, atmosphere and relaxation.

The great thing about children with this particular challenge, as much as it is a challenge for us as parents, educators, friends or leaders is that it is twice or more of a challenge for them. Not only to be understood but to be accepted and receive the right tools to iron out the wiggles and giggles and focus on the task they are given.

Some other ADD favorites:

Sizzle Bop

ADD

Carol Hurst

You can read the full article  ADDitude by Leane Somers.

I had the chance to talk with some really diverse and great teachers, moms, and directors this weekend and here part one of the what they are saying about online learning for kids.

First Jamie Miles a  Kindergarten Teacher of 3 years at a private school in Oklahoma City said:

NIL: What do you think about ebooks for enhancing kids learning:

Jamie: I personally have never used ebooks, We don’t use books as a center in my classroom. Usually centers are a learning game, puzzles, art…etc.Each child reads with me during centers but it is not a center activity. Our kids go to Computer Lab twice a week and usually do some sort of reading in that class

NIL: Do you think that kids can learn using technology if it is not a replacement for traditional reading?

Jamie: of course, technology is a great tool

NIL: in most classes do children have access to computers at home, and do you see that parents encourage kids to learn how to use them?

Jamie: well it depends on the school. In my school I would say most kids have access to a comp at home. But some schools especially poor districts will have kids that can’t afford it at home. As far as the kids is my class I know for a fact their parents encourage learning on a computer

I believe that online books and the option to read online is such a growing and maybe a little awesome opportunity to teach kids and get them involved in technology. The main problem is getting the tools in the schools and in the homes of those students that are missing this opportunity. All children need to have access to this tool if they have the hope of competing in the world to come.

Tomorrow Director extraordinaire!

If you have been to college or university or know someone who has you understand that buying a textbook for $100+ dollars, using half the book and selling it back for $7 is not the best investment. College students spent a whopping $5.543 Billion (NACS.com) on course required materials. What? That is madness; good for the presses but bad for students. In action against this model, students have founded site that download textbooks in the same way as music file sharing is done. I hear you asking, illegal, yes. Publishers are catching on to this new trend and with a vengance seeking a way to stop it fast. I mean, they have to eat too. 

The students that support these textbook download sites are arguing that given the opportunity to downlaod legal copies of the books without paying insane prices they would. It is faster, more convient and allows books to be taken anywhere a laptop/MP3/4 divice could. 

Is there really a market for this? You betcha. Sales on college campus bookstores are down 14% (The Chronicle of Higher Education) and downloads are up with student speaking out about it.

The growing market for ebooks, whether online or downloaded,  opens up so much possibility for those who they were written to educate. If college students had that option, with legal and open parameters to use this form of technology they would and they would actually open the book to read it.

The average weight of a high school student’s backpack is 20 pounds and contains about 6 textbooks. In comparison, the average weight of an ebook reader, capable of holding hundreds of books and instantly accessing hundreds of thousands more, is less than a pound.

Lugging a heavy backpack around for extended periods of time can lead to back pain, shoulder pain, and also bad posture.

So, my question is why aren’t more chiropractors championing the advent of e books!?