Free Printable Reading Books for Homeschool

I started writing this post in 2010 but never finished or published it. 2 of my children have now surpassed the reading levels of these books. But very shortly these resources will come in handy for my 6 year old emergent reader.

Print Free Public Domain Books from Google
So far, one of my favorite finds online has been the free primers and readers that were written around a century ago. I was pleasantly surprised the children have really enjoyed my decision to start printing them off of Google again. I rarely (almost never) find inappropriate subject matter in the books. There are some words that are no longer politically correct, but when I come across those I just explain that to the children. And if there is magic or other subject matter that I don't want the children to read then I just don't print those pages. Also, the children really like the stories in the readers.

But I know that one day the readers will be below the children's reading levels. So I'm starting to look for some free printable reading books that will present a challenge when the time comes.

Sites with Free Printable Reading Books
I wonder if Professor Garfield is a hidden jewel on the internet. There are printable books all about everyone's favorite cat in addition to a game and flash card to go along with each book to help enforce the site words in the books.

Learning Pages Ewe books has a lot of free books. And I mean a lot. I printed out a few but found the way that you have to construct them to be awkward. But the material itself is excellent for children who have just become fluent readers.

Reading A to Z is a paid site but they have some free samples you can print out.

Back to the Free Readers on Google Books

I have managed to rack up my highest library fines to date, a whopping $67.00. We check out 50 books (the limit) at a time and I am very careful about due dates because of that. But recently we had family visit from out of town and I was having so much fun with them that I didn't think about the books until they were a week overdue. And it didn't help that I didn't receive the reminder notices that I usually get by email from the library. I was missing a lot of my mail on Yahoo until I switched over to their new format from the classic one.

Anyway, so the  next time that I go to the library I am going to ask for mercy regarding my fines based on past good behavior. But in the meantime, the kids still need some good books to read. The little ones have been enjoying the level 1 and 2 beginner reader books. And I want to keep the love of reading alive. So I went through the links on my post about free primers, readers, and spellers.

Last school year Smiley was going through the McGuffey Primer. I thought about continuing on to the first reader. But  I think that he will find the first Kendall Reader much more interesting. So, I printed the book out yesterday and bound it using my handy dandy heavy duty stapler. And I then covered the spine with duct tape to keep little fingers from getting hurt on the staples.

The first Aldine Reader seems very girly. So GG will enjoy reading that one. I did not print out the stories that had fairies and witches in them. But there is still over 100 pages of reading material. So the book should keep her busy for a bit.

And I printed out Poor Richard's Almanac by Benjamin Franklin for my 12 year old. I discovered that book on the school library shelf when I was that age and I really enjoyed it. Hopefully he will too.

I also found an alphabet picture book, but; I'm debating whether or not to print that out for Jr. I don't think that the black and white pictures will hold his interest. So we'll keep using Starfall to learn letters and phonics  and I'll probably try to find some ABC books that we can read online from Netlibary.

NetLibrary.com

NetLibrary.com is one of my favorite sites. NetLibrary has saved me a lot of trips to the public library. I always search there first for a topic that I'm interested in reading about.

Check with your local library to see if they have an account with NetLibrary.com. If your library doesn't then you might want to ask them to.

I was so happy today when I logged in to NetLibrary.com and found that my public library now has eAudiobooks available. I used to listen to audiobooks from the library all the time. Lately, I haven't been able to get to the library much. So I'm looking forward to listening to some christian fiction again.

Why listen to a book? Well, I usually crochet while I listen. So I'm enjoying two fo my favorite hobbies simultaneously. As wives and mothers, multi-tasking is key :)

Anyway, in the movie I, Robot, the comment is made that all of the libraries closed because of the internet. I must admit that I don't try nearly as hard to get to the library now that I've found so many free ebooks and so much free information online. Hmmm, maybe sites like NetLibrary.com will eliminate the need for brick and mortar libraries one day.