We love audio books. Audio books offer many benefits, not only do we get to make good use of all our “car time” but Momma doesn’t mangle the names!!
We used to live where “going to town” meant 45 minutes one way, and we started listening to audio stories mainly downloaded from http://www.storynory.com. In fact, save The Secret Garden, we have almost everything there. I download them as Mp3s and then put them on my Ipod for listening in the care. We have listened to full length books (The Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland) and so tons of short stories and famous fables and myths. There are some newer stories that I need to download and add to our collection.
The boys enjoyed the Troy stories I downloaded so much that I bought Tales from the Odyssey Audio Collection by Mary Pope Osborne for our long drive back from Georgia to the Midwest. We have listened to the whole thing at least three times, and the ending more than that. Little Brother seems less enthused but Big Brother will ask for “Natasha” (the narrator from storynory that they like) or the Odyssey.
We just finished The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. We listened to it for the first time this past week on a drive to Kansas (3 hour drive, 2.5 hour audio book) and we’ve listened to the whole thing again and are on our third “trip” though Narina now; all in less than a week. I love the opportunity to “put to use” time that would otherwise be dead time, in such a beneficial way. We share stories that become part of our shared lives. We get to hear many more stories, using car time for “reading” than we would if we simply had exposure to what momma reads. I am also only choosing unabridged versions; I don’t want the beauty of the original watered down; and especially since they are not young readers tackling these stories in print on their own, I see no reason to alter the originals.
We have a apx 900 mile drive coming up next week and Momma is prepared with more audio books. I bought The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio CD] and on a lighter note Farmer Boy [Audiobook, Unabridged]. Over the next 12 months the boys and I will log a lot of miles and I can’t wait to get to our new library and dive into their audio book collection. We ought to be able to listen to maybe even three audio books per trip. I try to keep my selections more classical, not books that the boys will be reading on their own any time soon (like The Boxcar Children – but as we drive back and forth so much, and depending on what the lib has to offer, I am not ruling anything out), more challenging than they are ready to read on their own. I also try to use this time to introduce longer stories that would take us a long time as a read-a-loud but when you are driving 8 or more hours, well that IS a long time.
On my short list, books I want to experience over the next year:
In fact I had a hard time choosing our second books (to go along with Robin Hood) for this trip and was torn between the one I did buy (Farmer Boy) and these two.
- Little House In The Big Woods [Audiobook, Unabridged]
- Little House On The Prairie [Audiobook, Unabridged]
Life, faith, homeschooling, growing and FUN 