Welcome to this Treasure Chest of Free Stuff.

The purpose of this blog is to highlight free downloadable programs and online resources of good quality that may be of value to educators and their students, especially those involved in special education.

When I look at websites for kids, I am always on the lookout for sites that present content that is accessible for students who require alternative access methods. Although I haven’t tested it extensively, I believe that the suite of websites I am featuring today has the potential to be unusually accessible. I have tested kapili.com’s sites with Kurzweil 3000′s “Read the Web” function and found it to work very well indeed. Andrew Rader is to be commended for creating and sharing such an extensive and practical educational resource. This one is filed under Content & Curriculum.

kapili.com (online resource) Previously available only by paid subscription, kapili.com is now a free suite of excellent science and math websites geared primarily for elementary and middle school students. There are 6 separate websites in the suite: CHEM4KIDS; BIOLOGY4KIDS; GEOGRAPHY4KIDS; COSMOS4KIDS; PHYSICS4KIDS; NUMBERNUT.COM. Content is extensive. It is presented in an appealing manner that is respectful of students; and it is helpfully organized.

The kapili sites are of value to all students, but I believe they can be especially valuable for students with learning disablities. I have tested kapili’s science sites with the PC version of Kurzweil 3000′s “Read the Web” function and found it to work well, especially using the Firefox toolbar available in K3000′s Version 10.

The web pages of kapili.com are relatively uncluttered. Kapili.com is ad supported, but only with Google ads of the inobtrusive variety.

The screenshots below show the starting points for each of the six sites. (Click to enlarge. You can use your browser’s back button if you wish to return to this blog.)