Kidthing Offers Free Downloads of Summer Books,Videos and Games

Free Games on Kidthing this summer....

Kidthing, the games and ebook player for kids is promoting free games each week throughout the summer. You can download the player for free and the access the free game downloads. There are games such as The Great Outdoors word search and soccer math. July will bring a group of patriotic themed games and activities. Once downloaded, games and books can be accessed off-line on the player, so kids don't need to be on the Internet to play.
My past Kidthing posts still seem to be some of the most popular and if you haven't tried out this player and catalog of books and activities you should give it a try. I have used a switch and interface with the books to allow students to turn the pages and of course many of the books can be read to the students. The access piece matched with the books available, make it great - especially for younger or cognitively lower students. They also have an NEA/Read Across America program during the school year that allows teachers to download a free book a month - many of them Dr. Seuss titles.
We have a lot of fun with kidthing at home and my 7 year old son asks to play and read on there all the time.

All the best to you!

Lon





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kidthing Offers Four Free Dr Seuss E-Books for Read Across America

Read Across Amercia and the NEA join kidthing to give you Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs & Ham, Hop on Pop and Horton Hears a Who free starting March 2nd.
I have been sharing how cool this reader is and how you can let kids read for themselves and attach a switch interface and jelly bean to do the mouse click and turn the pages. If you are a teacher or specialist, you can download the player with an NEA password to get books. Check it out...



Go to: www.kidthing.com/nea

All the best to you!
Lon



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Dear Mr. President, Free Ebook on kidthing

kidthing just released "Dear Mr. President" on President's Day. Sifting through 4,500 submitted chidren's drawings and text, the published collection shares 150 top submissions. You can read an article about the project here.

You can download your own free kidthing player and your free copy of "Dear Mr. President" by going to: http://www.kidthing.com/dmp.

AT Blog Carnival Submissions deadline this weekend.

If you have a submission for our next Assistive Technology Blog Carnival, send it to me at lonthornburg@nolimits2learning.com The Carnival will be up Monday. You can read more about it at http://atblogcarnival.blogspot.com

All the best to you!

Lon

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NEA Read Across America January Free Download and kidthing Dear Mr. President Contest

It's time to share the free download on kidthing for January. This one is a wonderful word search, Winter Wonders Word Activity. You can personalize the word list and do the timed activity. "The Four Seasons" plays in the background and you hear sleigh bells gliss as you drag the mouse over the word. Each word gets crossed off in the right column when it is discovered. You can play again or go to the next level. You can also print off a copy to use with paper and pencil.

The monthly NEA Read Across America downloads are only available if you enter a code in the store search window. You have to download the player from the kidthing NEA link: http://www.kidthing.com/nea It asks you for your school and school email to register. When you download, you will be given a code.

I love kidthing and it just gets better all the time. My son plays it a lot and has quite a selection of books he can read and have read to him. A switch and a switch interface USB can allow for a switch hit to turn pages as long as the mouse cursor is positioned on the corner of the page where the flap is.

If you haven't downloaded the free player and explored the catalogue of titles, please give it a try. You download titles and activities, then go off the Internet so it is kid safe.



Dear Mr. President:

For a limited time, kidthing is running a campaign to collect kid's art on President-elect Obama to present the White House with a book. It will then be available on kidthing. If you are interested in more details, check this out and check into it online at the kidthing store - accessible after you download the player.



All the best to you!

Lon

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Free E Book at kidthing: Read Across America Book for November

Just in time for National American Indian Heritage Month, Crossing Bok Chitto will introduce your students to a little-known part of history: the relationship between the Choctaw Indians and the slaves who lived in Mississippi during the time before the Civil War. This compelling tale of an enduring friendship between a young Choctaw girl, and slave boy who lives on the other bank of the river Bok Chitto, is a celebration of diversity and unity. Beautifully presented by an American Indian author-illustrator team; with a detailed and informative author’s note; this book is available as a free download at kidthing through November 30.

NEA has partnered with kidthing to bring you free downloads of selected Read Across America books throughout the school year. kidthing is a free, downloadable media player that allows children and classrooms to experience digital books, games, and videos on the computer, with no ads or subscriptions.
To access your copy, launch your kidthing player, and click on the “store” tab. Enter KTCODE-NEA5RAA in the “search” box. Or, if you haven’t yet downloaded your kidthing player, visit www.kidthing.com/nea to get started.

All the best to you!

Lon

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Kidthing Gives Teachers Free Content for Read Across America

Have you downloaded your free kidthing player yet? Are you getting the free children's literature they pass along to us from month to month? If you can't answer "yes" to these questions and you teach, work with or have children, you are missing out-big time. I was excited to find out that kidthing is a partner with NEA in giving away FREE downloads of selected books from the NEA Read Across America book list over the school year.
The featured free book until September 30 is "The Storytellers Candle" by Lucia Gonzales and Lulu Delacre. These books don't expire and time out so you don't have them anymore, they continue to be in your library. There are more on the way and I will keep you informed as they become available.
Their site has the details and says:
"Pre-school, kindergarten, elementary and junior-high school teachers and librarians are eligible to participate in this program. No purchase is required. Selected books will be available for download only during the calendar month they are featured as the Read Across America book. You will need to download and install the free kidthing player and register with kidthing to receive these books."
On www.kidthing.com/nea , there is a sign up now button where you put in your information to sign up for the NEA book list program. Once you fill in teacher information, you will be prompted to download the player. The player is a new version so if you have the player already, you will be able to also get the new version and re-download your previously purchased material again. If you have purchased a lot of content, the re-downloading of your content might take awhile, which could be kind of a hassle - but at this time I don't think there is any other way to back up your purchases. They ask that you sign in with the same user and password so you get your old purchased content. Maybe they are on a compressed download and then unpack in the re-install so it doesn't take too long. I will have to check into this and let you know.
Whenever I post on the kidthing free downloads, they are some of my most popular posts. they continue to be top of the list for folks to read. I hope you will go to one of my archived posts on the initial kidthing review or the interview on blog talk radio with the CEO, Larry Hitchcock.
This exciting children's book player plays interactive books from major publishers right on your computer without having children be on the Internet. You purchase the media and literature you want, download it and play it with the player. It is iTunes for children's books basically - yet it has many elements of social networking with family and friends online in a safe environment to share books, video, pictures and games.
National Geographic Kids, Dr. Seuss and Wee Sing are just a few of the major titles that have agreed to offer kidthing content. If I were a teacher in an elementary classroom again, I would have this on a learning center computer with headphones in a heart beat - and best of all, the titles are very reasonable in price and For your special needs students and students that need support in reading with an engaging medium, kidthing could just be the ticket.


All the best to you!

Lon




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Wee Sing Joins "kidthing" Content for Kids

The content for "kidthing" the new player for children's educational games and literature, has just added kid's music. Wee Sing a leader in music videos, CD's and lyric books for children has agreed to collaborate with kidthing with their brand of musical content through their video library.

According to the kidthing release:

"July 16, 2008, Los Angeles, CA –Wee Sing and kidthing, a web 2.0 global learning platform for children, parents, teachers, family and friends, announced an agreement to bring Wee Sing’s classic series of favorite children’s songs and musical videos to kidthing.

Wee Sing, which has sold over 50 million books, tapes, CDs and videos, will bring its award winning DVD series to a new generation on kidthing. For the first time ever, Wee Sing videos will be available to download as individual songs to kidthing’s digital media player. The music from all 9 award-winning Wee Sing DVDs will be available in the kidthing store beginning this fall, including: Wee Sing in Sillyville, Wee Sing Train, Wee Sing King Cole’s Party, Wee Sing Under the Sea, Wee Sing The Best Christmas Ever, Wee Sing Together, Wee Sing Grandpa’s Magical Toys, Wee Sing in the Big Rock Candy Mountains, and Wee Sing in the Marvelous Musical Mansion.

Wee Sing music enriches the cognitive, physical and social development of children with singing and dancing. Through songs, chants, movement and rhythms, children gain readiness skills of language development, auditory discrimination, body awareness, coordination and self confidence.

At kidthing, parents can preview and purchase fun and engaging content from around the world. The content is automatically downloaded to the kidthing media player, where kids can play the content, as often as they wish, in an ad-free environment that safely insulates them from the World Wide Web. kidthing has established content relationships with some of the world’s leading children’s publishing, game and media companies, including Dr. Seuss Enterprises, Penguin Young Readers Group, Charlesbridge Publishing and many others.

“When we started Wee Sing, we wanted to share our favorite childhood songs with our children in a way that was fun and engaging for them. Today’s kids are the digital generation and we are excited to be able to bring treasured Wee Sing songs to them in the safe digital world of kidthing,” commented Susan Nipp, co-founder of Wee Sing.

“Wee Sing has entertained and educated millions of kids through music on videos, CDs and DVDs. We are honored to be able to debut this incredible work for the first time digitally and downloadable at kidthing,” said Don Levy, kidthing’s President, Strategic Business. "

Having the Wee Sing content will broaden the spectrum of what is available on the player for special needs students to access in the classroom and at home. Using a switch interface and switch to access the player, orthopedically impaired students will be able to turn pages and have the player read books to them for smoe much-needed independence. Depending on how the controls are set up on the player for playing videos, the students should be able to play and stop a preselected music video.

An interesting side-note:

I have to share that in my younger years, one of the Wee Sing co-founders, Susan Nipp, was teaching piano in my Oregon hometown of Newberg. I took piano lessons from her for a year or so. Later in college life and beyond I recorded several albums of my own material at a local recording studio and at that time a producer and the studio owner -friend of mine were selected to produce the initial cassettes for Wee Sing (see history link on Wee Sing site also printed below.)

"Two years and 20,000 copies later, their book was acquired by Price Stern Sloan, a publisher now an imprint of Penguin Group, USA. Realizing the need to create more product that promised wholesome, educational fun, Pam and Susan continued to develop new titles. In 1981, they broke new ground in children’s publishing with the addition of audiocassettes to their established songbook collection. Barry Hagen and Mauri Macy of Early Bird Recordings in Newberg, Oregon, were selected to produce the music. After creating more than 40 audio products, Pam and Susan still work closely with Barry and Mauri. "

I doubt that Susan would remember me, but I have kept track of their successes through the years and have enjoyed the little connection I have to them through the past. It has been fun to see it come full circle today with this post.

I would recommend checking out the kidthing free player download and trying the sample content included.

All the best to you!

Lon

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National Geographic Society and kidthing Partner to Bring World to Kids

Ever since I first discovered kidthing, I knew there was something different about this site and their service. I downloaded the free player, interviewed CEO, Larry Hitchcock on No Limits 2 Learning Live on Blog Talk Radio, and then I really began to understand the concept. I did a test-drive with my 6 year-old son and his friends and the content was a hit. We have downloaded quite a few books and games and once they are on my computer they are there for my son to play and read anytime, anywhere, off the Internet. He can create a "playlist" of books and games and his own pictures and email them to a friend or receive a new book read to him by grandma - an aspect still to come, but in the works.

If you haven't listened to Larry Hitchcock's interview (linked above), I would strongly encourage it. It will give you a better picture of what kind of treat we are all in for as this service grows. The possibilities and potential for it to be used in general and special education is tremendous. With a switch to activate a mouse click, orthopedically impaired children have the ability to turn pages of some of the great childrens books out there as they come available on kidthing. I believe it will be the premiere source for interactive games and literature on the Internet for children in the next year or so. Yes, you heard it here! (and could probably hear it from other places too as it continues to grow)

To support my belief, I share with you a release I received from their marketing director a day ago. This is HOT NEWS right out of the horses mouth! National Geographic is partnering with kidthing to design content specially designed for the kidthing player. I am thrilled but not surprised because Larry shared in his interview that they had a list that reads as a "who's who" of children's publishers in the wings to provide content. Having National Geographic as a resource for content secures the longevity of kidthing as a resource in education for children in the home and at school.

I am presenting the complete press release for you below. I couldn't say it any better. Enjoy!

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY AND KIDTHING PARTNER TO BRING WORLD TO KIDS
Wide-ranging strategic partnership will bring one of world’s most recognized brands to kidthing’s innovative learning platform

LOS ANGELES (July 8, 2008)—National Geographic and kidthing are partnering to bring National Geographic learning games, read-along stories, creativity products, videos and more to children, parents and friends through the kidthing service.
The partnership will engage kids in better understanding the world they live in and inspire them to care about the planet in a fun manner. kidthing’s proprietary sharing tools will let kids personalize their content and share it with their friends, families, classmates and other kids around the world.
kidthing is a leading Web 2.0 digital platform that provides a safe environment for children to explore and learn. kidthing is a free downloadable digital media player and a connected store filled with a broad variety of entertaining and engaging content from the world’s leading publishers and content providers. At kidthing, parents choose content for their children by browsing, previewing and purchasing rich digital versions of their favorite books, interactive games, creativity products, digital videos and more. Products are available for purchase in the kidthing store on an a la carte basis for as little as 99 cents — and there are no ads or subscription fees. kidthing puts parents in charge of their children’s digital media experience.
As part of the multiyear, wide-ranging relationship, National Geographic titles about animals, habitats, space, geography, dinosaurs and more are being specially created for exclusive distribution on kidthing and will be featured in National Geographic’s own learning area within the kidthing store. This learning area will open in fall 2008.

“kidthing plays an important role in National Geographic’s mission to inspire people to care about the planet. The kidthing service is a unique platform that promotes exploration, personalization and sharing in an environment that is completely safe for children and families, providing a rich, meaningful learning experience,” said John Dumbacher, senior vice president, licensing, at National Geographic. “kidthing’s powerful and secure publishing and distribution platform creates an important new distribution channel for National Geographic.”
“National Geographic has been inspiring a greater understanding of the world we live in through its unique content, brand and global initiatives for more than 100 years. All of us at kidthing are honored to be working with the National Geographic Society to bring this inspiring content in a digital format to kids around the world and to help them learn to be good global citizens,” said Larry Hitchcock, kidthing CEO.
The partnership with National Geographic lines up well with kidthing’s mission to keep kids safe while using the Internet to have fun learning, sharing and getting to know the world around them. kidthing has established publishing relationships with some of the world’s top publishing companies and content providers in arenas such as children’s books, games, animations, learning materials, music and movies including Dr. Seuss, Penguin Young Readers Group, Stuart J. Murphy, Charlesbridge Publishing and Tocali Games, among others. kidthing opened its general access beta release during the first week of March and has downloaded 40,000 players.

All the best to you!

Lon

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New and Exciting Topics Update No Limits to Learning During Summer Months

I am happy to say that I have FINALLY set up wireless Internet on the mountain here in Oregon where my family spends most of the summer and fall. I have been writing posts at my office and doing 2 or 3 days at a time to post automatically so I could save a little gas expense of driving to town everyday (30 miles) to do a post (since I am supposed to be in summer vacation mode). Because of having to work that way the past 2 weeks or so, I feel like I have kind of lost some continuity and relevancy in my daily posts, but now that I am sitting in my easy chair up on this beautiful mountain enjoying writing to you from my favorite setting, I can breathe a sigh of relief, relax and enjoy sharing with you on a more personal and daily level again. I can work a short amount of the day and play the rest!

New Projects, News and Interviews Coming...
Dynavox: I have had some very exciting highlights this past month, and getting to share with Ellen Witham on the AAC strategies she used with her son was one. Since she works for Dynavox, I am coordinating a Blog Talk Radio interview through them with the SLP that designed the InterACCT software for Dynavox. We will discuss the levels of communication you can graduate through and how to get the most use out of each level, as well as some of the foundational principles around the InterACCT system. Ellen will join us as well, so it should be a dynamic session for anyone using the Dynavox system or anyone considering it. I will give you more on a date as the session pulls together.

Kidthing: I have received breaking news from kidthing that is very exciting. The news was just released yesterday (July 8) and it will be my post for tomorrow. Since kidthing posts have been top-read posts and my interview with Larry a top-downloaded interview for me on Blog Talk Radio, I have wanted to keep everyone up on what is happening there - so check in tomorrow for all the details on what is going on with them.

gh Accessibility: I have been working on an interview with the CEO of gh Accessibility. We have just have to nail down a date for the interview and it should be coming up the end of July or first of August. ghAccessibility provides a player for digital talking book files that are compatible with DAISY and NIMAS formats.

DAISY Consortium: The interaction between the DAISY team and this blog has been a jumping off point for some nice correspondence via email and an invitation for the DAISY Consortium to share in an interview on No Limits 2 Learning Live. It is a go, and the plan is to have George Kerscher, the Secretary General, on to share, but again, we are coordinating schedules to get the date set and layout our topics. You can look forward to this interview sometime before summer is over - hopefully in August.

AT Summer Institute from Seaside, Oregon:
August 11, 12, & 13 I will be at our state-wide AT workshops. I will be doing a day workshop on designing interactive activities and using switch accessibility with them. While there, I will have the unique opportunity to get some folks on live for some interview sessions, so I will be planning a couple of those either as live podcasts or live interviews on Blog Talk Radio. More specifics will be coming. If you are in Oregon or Washington state and want to attend a session or all three days at Seaside, the sessions are open to anyone. Go to the summer institute page on the OTAP website for more information.

Special Education Pioneer Interviews:
I have the great fortune to have an amazing pioneer in my own family. My uncle, Hubert Thornburg, is a retired special education teacher in Oregon, now in his late seventies and living outside of Portland. While visiting he and my aunt last fall, I began to ask him questions about his past experiences in teaching. What he began to tell me was amazing. I realized that I was talking to a man who started teaching special education in the late 1950's when no one knew what it should really look like or what was best for kids. He was starting into a new field of study where special needs kids were still puzzles to be figured out. There were no protocols in place and certainly no assistive technology.
I will be going down to spend several days with family in Portland, mid-July and will be taking the time to interview him, so there is an archive of his recorded history. My plan is to release these interviews as a series of podcasts this fall so we can enjoy hearing his reflections on an era most of us can't relate to. I know I was floored to hear about things we take for granted daily in our work with special needs in education that didn't even exist at that time.
You will not want to miss these interviews. I think they will give us a huge reference point to see where we have been and what we have accomplished over the past 60 years or so. Something to look forward to - I am excited about doing that series of interviews!

Also...The Assistive Technology Blog Carnival Edition 5 will be up Monday, July 28. If you would like to submit a blog post on AT - we will just keep it open on what you would like to share - please send the link to me by Friday, July 25 at: lonthornburg@nolimits2learning.com

There is much more, but...
There are more projects, more posts, interviews and reviews planned, but I won't write anymore about them right now. I do want you all to know though, how grateful I am that you read this blog. I don't take for granted that you have a choice of many online blogs and podcasts to read and listen to, and that out of them all, you choose to spend some time here at No Limits to Learning.
I think of many of you as family more and more as I hear from you through comments, emails and even some Mp3 voice files! My hope is to provide you with a fresh perspective on AT, special education and news about the folks that are providing us with so many great tools and services.

All the best to you!
Lon

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"kidthing" Has More than Meets the Eye

I spent a valuable hour yesterday with Larry Hitchcock, the CEO of the new children's web 2.0 site, "kidthing". We discussed Internet sites for kids, safe spaces and how kidthing gives children both. I had spent time exploring the free application/player that downloads from the site and plays all the media you buy or get in demo/free versions. I had not quite understood the mix area, and the stand alone power of kidthing.

Think of it as an itunes type of service for your children with ad-free lists of books, pictures, educational games and videos. A parent can drag a game, some family pictures from the computer, a book, some more pictures and a coloring activity to the mix bar and create a multi-media activity session. Parents or teachers can set a time limit on the mix and then let children play. You could think of these as "playlists" that can be saved, used again and shared. If you send me a mix, you have the option to share it, which means it is off your computer accessibility until you return it - just like borrowing a real book, or you can give me the option to purchase the items I don't have in my archive to add on - then you still have the book and game you shared accessibile to you. My son and I could build a mix with his favorite games and books mixed with family pictures and video and share that mix with his cousin in Illinois. They can share and swap mixes.

The company is developing a relationship with various publishing companies that, talking to Larry, sounds like a "Who's Who" in children's publishing. They are also working hard on a recordable application so a grandma can buy Hop on Pop , record herself reading the book and then send it to the grandchild to have on their book list to read anytime. Larry also pointed out that to record and save your child reading a favorite book at 6, 7 and 8 years of age would be a priceless memory later on.

Larry said they have been working on a cooperative program with the "Read Across America" program, to take the selected titles and feature one a month for a download that coincides with the program that is promoted in schools across the country. He shared that the publishers are allowing kidthing to give away these free downloads for a limited time to support literacy. I am sure that this also helps them promote their titles. This is a great way to get some free books to kids that need them in an online download instead of shipping heavy boxes of books around the country to schools and homes.

I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to sit with Larry on the phone, have my kidthing player up on my computer and have him personally walk me through the resources. I would encourage you to go to "kidthing", download the player and then do the same. Go to my Blog Talk Radio player and play the interview archive or link to it here. While you are listening, have the player up and explore. If you are a teacher or a parent - trust me - you will be thrilled with the potential of this new tool.

All the best to you!

Lon

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"kidthing" Interview On No Limits to Learning Live

One of my most popular posts - still ranking as the most read, is the post on kidthing and the free download of their virtual edition of The Lorax. The site is a wonderful resource for students with print disabilities. For about $3.99 to $7.99, cheaper than most books at the store, you can have in a permanent archive, books that are narrated, animated and turn pages with the click of a mouse. There are games as well under topics that work like the concentration matching pairs activity. More games are in a demo format soon to be available in full versions.

You download a free player that becomes an application on your computer. You log in and then access your library of games, videos, books, pictures, etc. The company is striving to offer free downloads every month for limited times of various titles.

CEO and Founder, Larry Hitchcock, will be my guest tomorrow, May 29, at 10:30 a.m. Pacific to share about this innovative new site. In the works is a safe web 2.0 style social connecting area where kids can have a friend list, share favorites, etc. This area is still in development. It will be interesting to hear his comments on this idea for small children. We will also discuss the features of the site and assistive technology applications.

You can go to the segment info here at blog talk radio: "It's a Kid Thing: The New Children's Web 2.0 for Learning Site" The archive of the show will be here on my blog on the sidebar through the Blog Talk Radio player.

All the best to you!

Lon

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Horton Hears A Who is Free Virtual Book on Kidthing

"Horton Hears a Who" is the new free offering from Kidthing. One of my most popular posts that keeps getting read on my site is my post on "The Lorax" as the free book download on Kidthing. I feel bad because the free downloads change and unless you buy the book, the free ones are gone when the promotion is over. So, I have folks coming to my blog to find that the Lorax is no longer free. Well, at least Kidthing offers new titles each month or so, so you can enjoy another download for awhile.

To read my review of the Kidthing site, go to my old post "The Lorax Free on Kidthing". HERE

I love the site and I think it is a very economical way to buy talking story books for kids. I was a collector of all the Walt Disney Records with the big books built in when I was a kid - still have them and play them for my son from time to time. This IS the wave of the future. The company has invested a lot in the site and I think it is going to pay off. Check them out. I have asked them if the CEO would like to be interviewed on No Limits to Learning Live - but haven't heard back yet. Maybe we will get them on one day. I would love to hear their vision and share on childrens literature through text to speech.

All the best to you!

Lon

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