Reading Comprehension Exercises for Kids

Reading comprehension is the purpose of reading. It's the ability to understand, remember and communicate what was read. Building a good vocabulary and learning to decode the words are the keys to being a good reader. Another key is expanding your knowledge in a variety of topics. Someone who reads something that she's familiar with will comprehend more on the subject.

Strategies

Good readers use active comprehension strategies that work together. Good comprehensive skills start with the ability of predicting what's coming next in the reading. Another important skill is internally analyzing the story and asking informed questions. Visualizing as a reader reads helps to construct an image of the occurrences in the story. Finally, the skill to summarize and retain the information gathered by the story is important.

Summarizing Data

Have the student read a story. As he reads, he needs to pull out phrases that point to the most important facts. This includes participants in the action, events, locations and time. This is useful for following plot or the events of a news article. Once the facts are pulled out, have the student write these facts into complete sentences. Have him order them in a logical order. This can be chronological, in order of importance, or in order of presentation in the story.

Communication

Have the student read a short story. It can be a non-fiction or a fictional story. As the student reads, have her take notes about the events in the story. Once finished, she can pretend she's a newspaper reporter and is writing a news article on the short story. Have her write a journalism article answering the questions of who, what, when, where and why. She must present the most important facts or actions in the first paragraph. The other paragraphs must back up the first, as well as explain the "how."

Visualizing

The student must read a book and watch a movie based on the book. Once this is done, he can compare and contrast the book with the movie. He'll introduce the story in terms of character and plot. Then he can discuss how the book and movie were the same. Afterward, he can discuss major differences between the two. At the end of the exercise, have the student tell how the movie differed from how he visualized the book as he reads the story.

How to transfer CDs to the iPad

Apple's iPad is an all-in-one solution for consuming media. As in Apple's line of iPods, music plays a central part in the iPad experience. With multi-gigabyte hard drives and iTunes software installed on the iPad, your iPad can store a significant part of your music collection, if not the entirety of it.

Instructions

1

Install iTunes software on your computer. It is available as a download from Apple's Web site and will take less than 10 minutes to download on most high-speed Internet connections.

2

Insert your album into the CD drive. iTunes will automatically detect the disc once it is inserted.

3

Wait for iTunes to give track information. If you're connected to the Internet, iTunes queries a database that automatically pulls in the album's name, track listing and cover art, saving you the need to enter it manually.

4

Uncheck any songs you don't want copied.

5

Click "Import CD." This will make a digital copy of your album and automatically transfer it to your computer's hard drive.

6

Go to your music library. Once the transfer is complete, iTunes will add the album tracks to your music library.

7

Connect your iPad. It will show up in the devices panel on the left-hand side of the software.

8

In your music library, highlight the album or songs you wish to transfer to the iPad. Click "Sync" to sync your iPad with your music library.

Children's Books Writing Ideas

Publishers of children's books are always on the look out for new and unique topics. The editors get too many "ho hum" books with the same old and stale ideas coming across their desk. If you want to be published, you need to come up with one of these "wow" subjects. This is especially true with the amount of competition for each book submitted.

Instructions

1

Remember what it is to be a child. If you cannot think like a child, how will you know what book is best for young readers? When you next spend time with a three or four year old, for example, get down on the ground at his or her level. See how this child sees the world. Experience what he experiences. Find out what makes him happy or angry. What do those cookies in the oven smell like? What does that big tub of water look like? What about the feeling of the clothes from the drier? Take a notebook with you and jot down any ideas that come to you during this time.

2

Listen to children talking to one another. By the time they are four years old, they will have some interesting conversations. What is their perception of the world from their vantage point? What questions do they have? What scares them? What gives them pleasure? Watch kids in different environments: in the playground, at school, in the yard playing with worms, at home helping daddy in the garage or in the kitchen.

3

Sit down and watch Saturday cartoons, play video games, go the library and watch which books children pull from the shelf. When you see what interests children most, you can look for offshoots of ideas. Maybe there are too many books about scary dogs, but what about scary cats or even parrots? What about mom going to work and having a stay at home dad?

4

Think about your own childhood. In some cases, children are the same today as they have been for generations. Do you remember your first day of school? What was it like to follow in the footsteps of your older brother or sister? Do you remember that Thanksgiving when everyone fell asleep after dinner until the dog started whining for his food? Also think about the days you shared with your own children. What made them special? What unique things happened while they were growing up?

5

Go into a book store or a library where there are many children's books, games and toys, and let your mind run free for a good 15 minutes or more. Write down anything that comes to mind. Do not think, but just free associate. What is the first thing that comes to mind when you see that silly looking frog? What about that globe? Look at the robot walking down the aisle or the stacks and stacks of board games. What would it be like eating that whole 12-inch lollipop? Let the colors, sounds, shapes and designs bombard you.

Emma

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Amazon.com Review
Of all Jane Austen's heroines, Emma Woodhouse is the most flawed, the most infuriating, and, in the end, the most endearing. Pride and Prejudice's Lizzie Bennet has more wit and sparkle; Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey more imagination; and Sense and Sensibility's Elinor Dashwood certainly more sense--but Emma is lovable precisely because she is so imperfect. Austen only completed six novels in her lifetime, of which five feature young women whose chances for making a good marriage depend greatly on financial issues, and whose prospects if they fail are rather grim. Emma is the exception: "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her." One may be tempted to wonder what Austen could possibly find to say about so fortunate a character. The answer is, quite a lot.

For Emma, raised to think well of herself, has such a high opinion of her own worth that it blinds her to the opinions of others. The story revolves around a comedy of errors: Emma befriends Harriet Smith, a young woman of unknown parentage, and attempts to remake her in her own image. Ignoring the gaping difference in their respective fortunes and stations in life, Emma convinces herself and her friend that Harriet should look as high as Emma herself might for a husband--and she zeroes in on an ambitious vicar as the perfect match. At the same time, she reads too much into a flirtation with Frank Churchill, the newly arrived son of family friends, and thoughtlessly starts a rumor about poor but beautiful Jane Fairfax, the beloved niece of two genteelly impoverished elderly ladies in the village. As Emma's fantastically misguided schemes threaten to surge out of control, the voice of reason is provided by Mr. Knightly, the Woodhouse's longtime friend and neighbor. Though Austen herself described Emma as "a heroine whom no one but myself will much like," she endowed her creation with enough charm to see her through her most egregious behavior, and the saving grace of being able to learn from her mistakes. By the end of the novel Harriet, Frank, and Jane are all properly accounted for, Emma is wiser (though certainly not sadder), and the reader has had the satisfaction of enjoying Jane Austen at the height of her powers. --Alix Wilber

How to Write a Myth Story

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a myth as "a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon." This is the accepted definition of the traditional myth story. Myth is also defined by Merriam-Webster as "a person or thing having only an imaginary or unverifiable existence." This definition is closer to the meaning that we are looking for when we approach writing our own myth story. You would be surprised at how many popular stories and movies follow the myth outline.

Instructions

1

Create a setting. The setting of a myth story is typically a made-up one; think of "Star Wars" or "Lord of the Rings." Will your story be set on another universe or on Earth in the distant future? Another option is to set your story in the past, using knights and dragons and wizards.

2

Imagine a character. The main character can be male or female, but this character will be the hero of the myth story. Every myth story has a hero; Luke Skywalker, Oedipus and Bilbo Baggins are some examples. A hero is almost always an orphan being raised by a kindly relative or wizard. The hero is, of course, handsome/beautiful and young. They are poised on the edge of life between being a child and becoming an adult. The journey you set them on in your story will determine which way they fall (but they won't fall because they are the hero!).

3

Set your hero on a quest. All myth stories revolve around a journey. The hero will leave his home world and travel to another time or world or dimension in order to save the world. The hero does not usually know he is going to the save the world in the beginning. He simply is called to find something or find someone, or his world is destroyed and he must journey to find a new place to live. In the end of the story, the hero will return to his home world (if it is still there) to the adoration of all the townspeople.

4

Give your hero a talisman. A talisman is simply some sort of token that the hero carries with him. Sometimes he already has this talisman, or he may find it while on his journey. He has no idea of its power until much later. Think of the gold ring in "Lord of the Rings or "the force" in "Star Wars."

5

Surround your hero with lots of conflict. The driving force of any story is conflict, and the myth story especially is dependent on you moving the story forward one problem after another. Your characters will encounter difficulties at every turn. They will experience external conflict by battling dragons or aliens and being exposed to deadly weather conditions. Throw in internal conflict by having the hero fall in love with someone who doesn't even like him (again, think of Luke and Leah in "Star Wars").

How to Set Up an iPad for Audiobooks

Your iPad comes preloaded with the iTunes Store, which allows you to access music, videos and audiobook downloads. You can use your iTunes account to select and purchase audiobooks, which are then downloaded and accessible through your on-board iPod. Using iTunes to download an audiobook for the first time may seem confusing, but the process becomes easier as you download more of your favorites. With audiobooks loaded onto your iPad, you can listen to books whenever and wherever you choose.

Instructions

1

Start your iPad. Once the home screen has loaded, select the "iTunes" icon. This initiates the iTunes Store. Tap "Audiobooks" at the bottom of the screen.

2

Browse through the available audio books in the iTunes Store. You can use the tabs at the top of the page to look through featured audio books, top 10 lists and various categories. Use the search feature at the top of the screen to type in the name of a book or author.

3

Tap on a title that interests you, and view the description of the audiobook. Tap the button that displays the price of the book to purchase the audiobook. Enter your Apple ID password when prompted to authorize the purchase.

4

Check your iPad to see whether the book has downloaded. Tap the "iPod" icon, and then tap "Audiobooks."

5

Touch the title of the book you purchased, and it starts immediately.

The Thirteenth Unicorn (The Ben Alderman Series)

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Product Description
While spending the summer with their grandparents on a remote farm in South Carolina, Ben Alderman and his sister Casey uncover a hidden world of magic; a world their grandmother is secretly visiting. It is a world where elves and dwarves are locked in mortal combat against a witch who is trying to free the last surviving wizard from exile. The witch has been defeated once before but with the combined power of the wizard, no one will be able to stand against them. Much to Ben's dismay, he learns that he is the one foretold in the ancient elfin prophecies to bring about the downfall of the witch and save this exciting new world from destruction.