Free audio downloads from SYNC

I don't know anything about SYNC but during the summer they offer two free audio books for download each week, the catch being they are only available that week.  They tend to pair a classic with a more recently published  book with some connection to the classic.  The False Prince, which has been featured in a post here earlier and we also enjoyed listening to on a trip, is featured in late July.  SYNC schedule

Nitrotype Typing Practice

I have found a awesome typing practice website called nitrotype. It is a typing website that allows people worldwide to race with words against each other It does not offer any lessons but it does give lots of practice. Nitrotype also has a counterpart named typingweb.com. This gives structured lessons on typing. You can sign up for nitrotype here, just so you know, I am boyawesome.

 I find it fun because when you race you get money, and when you get money, you can buy cars ranging from jeeps to a NASA spaceship, but you have to level up to unlock more cars, and you have to get EXP to level up. But have no fear, you get EXP every time you race. You can also race against your friends, get achievements,buy nitros which skip words for you, but I don't use them often. They also have their own blog post on their website, and I like to look at it because they have some really interesting posts. You can put yourself up against top typists on the scoreboard. Hope you have fun!

KISS Grammar

http://home.pct.edu/~evavra/KISS.htm

The website won't wow you, but the explanations of everything grammar are straight forward, the exercises come from classic children's literature, and it's free!  The lessons build on one another and the author frequently reminds you that you are expected to make mistakes and we're slowly getting better as we keep practicing the old while we learn the new.

Periodic Table of Videos

http://periodicvideos.com/

Put together by the University of Nottingham, we've enjoyed this Periodic Table of Videos.  They are a combination of chemistry discussion that's over our heads by this wild-haired professor guy and experiments done by students that are very real science: sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.  Ask my kids what happens to a sodium car (a car made of sodium) in the rain!