The University of California Berkeley has put entire course lectures
on YouTube. You can watch all of the lectures from several different
courses for free. They are also planning on expanding the available
courses.

Cassius and I have really been enjoying listening to these audio books from the University of Florida. They have stories for ages kindergarten to grade twelve. Cassius transfers the stories onto his little mp3 player and listens to them has he builds Lego and before he falls asleep. He really enjoyed the Invisible Man by H.G.Wells and is looking forward to Dracula and Frankenstien (a little light summer listening).

go to http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/

or if you have iTunes:

- Open iTunes program
- Click to go to the iTunes Store
- Click on iTunes U on the left sidebar
- On the lower left sidebar is a list entitled, “Universities”.
- Find and click University of South Florida
- Click on the icon of the little boy, “College of Education”.
- In the center bar, find Lit2Go:Audio Files for k12
- It automatically opens the Spanish language resources. Click the
grade above.

Robert Louis Stevenson, Longfellow, Bronte, Austin, Dickens, Twain,
Frances Hodges Burnett, Bram Stoker, Aesop–it’s quite an extensive
collection. Plus lectures on mathematics and logic for high school
students. There are 24 universities listed, so if it’s a lecture on
Science, Technology and Society from MIT you’re wanting, this is the
place to go.

Starfall.com is a great online resource for learning to read. Paris (2 1/2), loves the alphabet section! The letter T and B are his favourite. Cassius doesn’t visit this site anymore, but I know other seven years who are just beginning to read, that find it very useful.  I love the simplicity of this site,  and also that there is no advertising.

Stories in the “It’s fun to read” & “I’m reading” section include: Greek myths, Chinese Fables, Comics, Musicians, Poetry, Artists and Magic. These stories are interesting for their own sake, which always help with motivation. Kids can either read the stories themselves or hear the words by clicking on them.

Brain Pop is an online animated learning resourse. Cassius has learned about Science, Health, Technology, Math, Social Studies and English movies, plus much more. The humour really helps keep his interest.

The only drawback is that it costs around $100 a year. But some parts of it are free, and you can take a five day free trail to see if you like. They have a monthly payment option also.

The other day I asked Cassius to write down what he watched on Brain Pop. In part so he would have practice writing and also so I would know what subject to record under his weekly hours. Instead of a the boring list I expected he gave me a piece of art. He put a heart next to the films he liked . The thumbs are next to the ones he thought were just okay. Can you find them? I thought they were frying pans.