On sale through Friday June 30th – 30 popular children’s eBooks (ages 3 to 12) for $1 each. They usually cost about $4 to $12. You can download the books to your phone, tablet, or computer, and then read it with the free Kindle app.
Reading with your kids is good English practice, and a great thing to do with them.
Now, and after June 30th: You can also look here for a list of many more free/cheap eBooks on Amazon for children 4 to 8 years old.
Humans of New York is a website, and Facebook page, that has lots of interesting pictures of people – and a very short story about them. Brandon (the publisher) started with pictures and short stories just about people in New York City. But then he started including personal stories from people in other places around the world – such as Pakistan, Iran, India, Vietnam – and some longer stories on subjects such as refugees and people in prison. The latest set of stories is about people in Brazil. Here is an example:
“He fell in love with me the first day he met me. He kept calling me princess. He said we were meant to be together because our feet were the same size. Look how embarrassed he’s getting!” (São Paulo, Brazil)
— Thanks to Pat for suggesting this website. She uses it for reading practice in her English class. —
… or read to your grandkids, nieces, nephews, little cousins, dog, – or yourself.
Children’s books are shorter and easier to understand. They’re really good practice for someone learning English. Reading to a child can help you with:
And – you will learn faster when you use English for something you enjoy. (It’s really good for your child too!)
March 2nd was the birthday of the famous children’s author Theodor Geisel – “Dr. Seuss“.
When you watch a video in English (TV show, movie, YouTube, etc), you can often choose to display the English words at the bottom of your screen – as they are being spoken. This is called closed captioning. Many times you will see “CC” to show where you need to turn it on.
This is different from subtitles which are also used to show the spoken words, but in your own native language. When you are beginning to learn English, using subtitles in your native language can be helpful. It lets you listen to the spoken English pronunciation while you read the translation. This can be especially good for learning English slang and idiom expressions.
But as your English improves, closed captioning – reading the English words while you listen to those words being spoken – can help you more, in many ways including:
Many times, you can stop the video, to listen to something again – a great way to practice.
For example, one new TV show, called Planet Earth, is on the cable station BBC America. They talk slowly and clearly so you really have time to listen and read the closed captions.
A website with many, short, interesting videos is TED.com. For many of the videos, you can display the words in either your own language, or English. Here’s one of their most popular videos. It’s on body language, and how just changing the way you stand can give you more confidence…
Do you like to read the news? The Times in Plain English is a free website with newspaper articles that are re-written in easier English. You can translate stories if you need help understanding.
A few weeks ago there was a post about free/inexpensive books listed on Bookbub. Here is another website that lists THOUSANDS of free eBooks – Freebooksifter.com
For example, here is their listing of free (or inexpensive) Amazon (Kindle) eBooks for children 4 to 8 years old. And here is their Amazon list of many free eBooks for learning English.
This Saturday, November
19th, there will be a large book sale at the main Framingham Library at 49 Lexington Street from 10:00 to 3:00. Lots of children’s books and cookbooks. Some are very cheap – 25 to 50 cents. Fill a whole bag for only $7!
Bookbub.com is a website that tells you about free or inexpensive digital books – eBooks.
You can read these books on an eBook reader (such as Kindle or Nook). But you can also read them on your phone, tablet, or computer – usually with the free Kindle App or Nook App. If you have an iPhone or iPad, you can read many of these using your iBooks app.
For example, on BookBub they have listed an eBook version of the popular children’s book Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site, selling for $1.99 on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
And here is their latest listing of Free eBooks.