Freely Educate

Free Audios of Public Domain Books

I like LibriVox's tagline: "accoustical liberation of books in the public domain."

Volunteers have donated thousands of hours to reading public domain books (classics), so that we can access them as free audios.  The LibriVox volunteers have so far successfully cataloged 1,500 books.

LibriVox says, "Our goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books. "

Here's an idea:  If you would like to further ensure that a young person, perhaps a teenager or college-aged student, reads that big old classic, sign him or her up as a volunteer to read a public domain book for LibroVox.  Your student will get to practice his/her dictation and donation skills, and you'll be sure he/she actually read that book!

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Subscribe to FreelyEducate here

Keep up with FreelyEducate tweets (Twitter) here: @freelyeducate

StoryNory: Free Audio Books for Preschoolers, Kindergartners, Elementary Students

StoryNory offers audiobooks (audiobooks = books, read aloud and recorded) for children.  You may listen to these children's stories either online or by downloading the audios onto your Zune, mp3 player, iPod , or what-have-you player.  

There are over 100 tales, so I'm sure you'll find several you enjoy. The site is split up into five types of stories:

• Educational:  examples include the history of soccer and several Greek myths 
• Original Stories 
• Fairytales : Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, Charles Perrault
• Classic Authors : Rudyard Kipling, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll
• Junior:  stories for little ones, such as The Three Little Pigs and The Little Red Riding Hood    

Angelle, who recommended StoryNory to FreelyEducate.com, wrote, "these are readings of classics and original stories read by a woman with a lovely British accent."   (thanks, Angelle!) 

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Subscribe to FreelyEducate here 

Have a resource or giveaway to share?  Email me at loriseaborg @ gmail.com

Get a Free Educational Download Daily!

Homeschool Freebie of the Day offers a free download of an ebook or audio each weekday.  Each offer only lasts 24 hours.  You'll definitely want to check the site often (daily, perhaps?) to catch the latest freebie while it lasts!

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Thank you, Kim, for reminding us of this high quality, 100% free, educational find!

Subscribe to FreelyEducate here

Keep up with FreelyEducate tweets (Twitter) here: @freelyeducate

Lit to Go: Free Educational mp3 Audios of Stories and Poems

The University of South Florida offers a reading treasure trove for an educator -- free audios of many popular stories and poems.  They describe Lit2Go like this:

Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. You can:

• Download the files to your Mp3 player and listen on the go,

• Listen to the Mp3 files on your computer

• View the text on a webpage and read along as you listen

• Print out the stories and poems to make your own book.

Browsing through the Lit2Go archives by author, I found some of our favorites such as Jane Austen, Thornton W. Burgess, and good old Abraham Lincoln.  Browsing by title, I found such gems as The Merchant of Venice and "Hickory, Dickory, Dock" and even some that just make me curious as to whether my students would consider them gems or not, like Philosophy and Fun of Algebra.

You may also search the database by reading level. The results will show how long the audio is, and how many words are in the passage (or book, poem, etc.).

And, happily, if you're an iTunes junky like myself, you may enjoy knowing you can download many of the Lit2Go audios directly into your iTunes library.

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Subscribe to FreelyEducate here

Keep up with FreelyEducate tweets (Twitter) here: @freelyeducate

Classic Records from the Golden Age

     

the following is from the Kiddie Records site:

Introduction

Kiddie Records Weekly began in 2005 as a one year project devoted to the golden age of children's records.  This period spanned from the mid forties through the early fifties and produced a wealth of all-time classics.  Many of these recordings were extravagant Hollywood productions on major record labels and featured big time celebrities and composers.

Over the years, these forgotten treasures slipped off the radar and it became our mission to give them a new lease on life by sharing them with today's generation of online listeners.  Each week throughout the year we added a new recording and before we knew it, our one year project turned into three!  Although we will not be continuing beyond 2007,(updated: they started adding more content in 2009!) Kiddie Records Weekly will remain online and we will update the Bonus Records section every now and then.  

So whether you are hearing these records for the first time or reuniting with a childhood favorite from long ago, we hope you take great pleasure in your trip down memory lane!

Subscribe to FreelyEducate here

Thank you, Angelle, for this high quality, 100% free, educational find!

the following is from the Kiddie Records site:

Introduction

Kiddie Records Weekly began in 2005 as a one year project devoted to the golden age of children's records.  This period spanned from the mid forties through the early fifties and produced a wealth of all-time classics.  Many of these recordings were extravagant Hollywood productions on major record labels and featured big time celebrities and composers.

Over the years, these forgotten treasures slipped off the radar and it became our mission to give them a new lease on life by sharing them with today's generation of online listeners.  Each week throughout the year we added a new recording and before we knew it, our one year project turned into three!  Although we will not be continuing beyond 2007,(updated: they started adding more content in 2009!) Kiddie Records Weekly will remain online and we will update the Bonus Records section every now and then.  

So whether you are hearing these records for the first time or reuniting with a childhood favorite from long ago, we hope you take great pleasure in your trip down memory lane!

Subscribe to FreelyEducate here

Thank you, Angelle, for this high quality, 100% free, educational find!

Lit to Go: Free Educational mp3 Audios of Stories and Poems

The University of South Florida offers a reading treasure trove for an educator -- free audios of many popular stories and poems.  They describe Lit2Go like this:

Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. You can:

• Download the files to your Mp3 player and listen on the go,

• Listen to the Mp3 files on your computer

• View the text on a webpage and read along as you listen

• Print out the stories and poems to make your own book.

Browsing through the Lit2Go archives by author, I found some of our favorites such as Jane Austen, Thornton W. Burgess, and good old Abraham Lincoln.  Browsing by title, I found such gems as The Merchant of Venice and "Hickory, Dickory, Dock" and even some that just make me curious as to whether my students would consider them gems or not, like Philosophy and Fun of Algebra.

You may also search the database by reading level. The results will show how long the audio is, and how many words are in the passage (or book, poem, etc.).

And, happily, if you're an iTunes junky like myself, you may enjoy knowing you can download many of the Lit2Go audios directly into your iTunes library.

Thank you, Mary Villaume, for this high quality, 100% free, educational find!

Subscribe to FreelyEducate here

Keep up with FreelyEducate tweets (Twitter) here: @freelyeducate

Have a resource or giveaway to share?  Email me at loriseaborg @ gmail.com

LivingBooks for the Ears: Free AudioBooks Each Week

LivingBooks for the Ears offers free radio programs (or audiobooks). The free program audios are only available for one week and then are replaced by new selections.

This week, two Lincoln selections are available for download as mp3 files:  Out of the Wilderness and Mr. Lincoln Goes to the Play.

To view the audio download link, click on the above, then scroll past the "letter to the readers" on the site and you'll see the current audio download links (these change weekly). No registration is required.

Thank you, Katherine, for this high quality, 100% free, educational find!

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Subscribe to FreelyEducate here

Keep up with FreelyEducate tweets (Twitter) here: @freelyeducate

Have a resource or giveaway to share?  Email me at loriseaborg @ gmail.com

Classic Records from the Golden Age

                     

the following is from the Kiddie Records site:

Introduction

Kiddie Records Weekly began in 2005 as a one year project devoted to the golden age of children's records.  This period spanned from the mid forties through the early fifties and produced a wealth of all-time classics.  Many of these recordings were extravagant Hollywood productions on major record labels and featured big time celebrities and composers.

Over the years, these forgotten treasures slipped off the radar and it became our mission to give them a new lease on life by sharing them with today's generation of online listeners.  Each week throughout the year we added a new recording and before we knew it, our one year project turned into three!  Although we will not be continuing beyond 2007, Kiddie Records Weekly will remain online and we will update the Bonus Records section every now and then.  

So whether you are hearing these records for the first time or reuniting with a childhood favorite from long ago, we hope you take great pleasure in your trip down memory lane!

Thank you, Angelle, for this high quality, 100% free, educational find!

StoryNory: Audio Books

StoryNory offers audiobooks (audiobooks = books, read aloud and recorded) for children.  You may listen to these children's stories either online or by downloading the audios onto your mp3 player or iPod or what-have-you player.  

There are over 100 tales, so I'm sure you'll find several you enjoy. The site is split up into five types of stories:

• Educational:  examples include the history of soccer and several Greek myths 
• Original Stories 
• Fairytales : Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, Charles Perrault
• Classic Authors : Rudyard Kipling, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll
• Junior:  stories for little ones, such as The Three Little Pigs and The Little Red Riding Hood    

Angelle, who recommended StoryNory to FreelyEducate.com, wrote, "these are readings of classics and original stories read by a woman with a lovely British accent."   You can read more of what Angelle thinks, along with two more site recommendations, at her blog, The Many Adventures of 3 Munchkins and a Little Man.

Thank you, Angelle, for this high quality, 100% free, educational find!

Lectures on the Origins of the Olympic Games

(Note: All below text is from The Teaching Company's description)

Free Lectures in Honor of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing

In celebration of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, The Teaching Company is proud to present a pair of free commissioned lectures, Ancient Origins of the Olympic Games.

Although the modern version of the Olympic Games has been around for over 100 years since its revival at the 1896 games in Athens, the Olympics have a rich and exciting history that goes back to ancient Greece. A crucial aspect of Greek culture, the ancient Olympics emphasized the ideas of heroism and honor established by Homer's epic poetry. The games were meant to celebrate physical strength, speed, and manhood. Most importantly, they embodied the spirit of competition (agon) that defined ancient Greek life.

The games as they were played back then bear a striking contrast to the Olympics as we know them today:

Athletes originally represented their families and not their communities. Women were not allowed to compete and only unmarried women could watch the games. There were no team sports; rather, individual athletes competed against each other. The games never moved to different locations; instead, they were always held in the city of Olympia in southern Greece.

Despite their differences, the ancient Olympics were as celebrated as today's games. The first Olympics captured what it meant to be a citizen of Greece. The Olympics of today capture what it means to be a citizen of the world.

Ancient Origins of the Olympic Games is delivered by Professor McInerney of the University of Pennsylvania. .

Download Ancient Origins of the Olympic Games and listen to it at your computer, transfer it to your iPod or MP3 player, or burn it to a CD.

Limited Time Offer:  Available until September 4, 2008

Librivox: Audios of Public Domain Books

I like LibriVox's tagline: "accoustical liberation of books in the public domain."

Volunteers have donated thousands of hours to reading public domain books (a.k.a. classics), so that we can access them as free audios.  The LibriVox volunteers have so far successfully cataloged 1,500 books.

LibriVox says, "Our goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books. "

Here's an idea:  If you would like to further ensure that a young person, perhaps a teenager or college-aged student, reads that big old classic, sign him up as a volunteer to read a public domain book for LibroVox.  He'll get to practice his dictation and donation skills, and you'll be sure he actually read that book!

~ Lori Seaborg for FreelyEducate.com

(high quality ~ 100% free ~ educational finds)

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