Welcome to Brian Barratt's English language website

for creative kids, gifted and talented students & all people with enquiring minds!

A HUGE RANGE OF ACTIVITIES IN

ENGLISH LANGUAGE, CREATIVITY, WRITING, THINKING & GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

Rummage around — there’s a lot in here...

... spoonerisms; word puzzles; plurals; words with one than one meaning (homonyms); words that sound the same (homophones); anagrams; words with ie in them; your dictionary; written expression; quizzes; creative thinking; creative writing; crossword puzzles; strange pictures; Aesop's Fables; Shakespeare's English; fractal thinking; an ET hamburger; weird creatures; the Mandelbrot fractal; proverbs and sayings; dragons; the Unpeople behind the dark; curious words and spellings; 17th century books; The First Folio of Shakespeare; letters of the alphabet; potions and spells; the Seven Wonders of the World; thinking skills; nonsense verse; and much, much more.

There's another website...

The Brain Rummager Too is a supplement to this site. You can to go back through time and learn a lot more about the development of the English language. Please visit it when you have had a good rummage here. You'll find some surprises. Click here or type this URL in your browser’s search line: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~umbidas/open.htm

About 100 schools & educational websites round the world have linked to The Brain Rummager. Please add both sites to your Links and Bookmarks/Favourites!

What other teachers have said about this website...

'Entertaining as well as educational.'

'A cornucopia of info, hints, tips.'

'Eclectic and fascinating.'

'A treasure house.'

'Amazing.'

ABOUT BRIAN BARRATT

Brian Barratt, whose funny face is here, has had half a century of professional experience with books and Education. He has been a bookseller, editor, publisher, author of schoolbooks, private tutor in English and thinking skills, class tutor in creative writing for adults, writing group leader in several schools, mentor to gifted students, judge of many writing competitions, and curriculum editor for Australian national Tournament of Minds... among other things.

He is a moderately/severely hearing handicapped (that's a politically correct way of saying very deaf) elderly gentleman who explores the history and usage of the English language; writes whimsical articles and film reviews; researches and writes about his ancestors, including many in the Book Trade during the past 300 years, and an elusive Gypsy; listens to recordings of Enrico Caruso, John McCormack, Kathleen Ferrier and other great voices from the past; relishes fine music from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte to  Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony; uses over 50 dictionaries; digs into the palaeopsychology of religious beliefs; rummages around in people’s minds; talks to dogs and birds, and to the possums that live in his shed.

Since 1936 he’s lived and worked in four countries, in this order: England, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Australia.  He's lived in Melbourne since 1971.

SOME FACTS AND FIGURES ABOUT THIS WEBSITE

There are about 140 activity and information pages and over 380 working files.

There are nearly 3,000 internal links to help you move around.

There are over 200 pictures.

There are 20 external links to safe websites.

There are links to The Brain Rummager on about 100 other websites in Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Britain.

The Brain Rummager is visited and used by people in many, many countries. It is not possible to know who the visitors are. This site does not use cookies or spyware.

Over one-third  of visitors are in Australia.

Nearly one-third are in the USA

About 11% are in the UK.

About 7% are in New Zealand.

There are no pop-ups or advertisements. This is a free service to schools, teachers, students and lovers of words, with no commercial interests.

Please send your comments on how you use this website.

Substitute the usual punctuation in this address, which is formatted to stop spammers from picking it up:

umbidas(AT)tpg(DOT)com(DOT)au

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More than

visitors to this Home Page plus thousands to other pages.

 

First version created by Brian Barratt September 2002.
Revised September 2003, May 2004.

This version April 2005.

Additions May, June, July  2005, March, April, May 2006.

Modifications July, October 2006, May 2008.

Home page & Index revised  19–221/6/09. New sections added 24–28/6/09. Updates 6/7/09, 17/7/09.

Home page revised 7/10/09, 2/10/10. Major additions 10/10/10. Modifications 13–15/10/10

New section 11/11010. Modifications 13/11/10.