I don't like it when my kids want to watch television or play video games all day long. And I find that I hear "Mom, I'm bored" a great deal when I limit their television or video game time to a few hours a week. Something we enjoy when the kids are bored is read aloud time. While the kids draw or play quietly in the room, I will read a few chapters to them from our current read aloud book (right now we're reading "A Cricket in Times Square").Sometimes, though, its just not possible for me to sit and read to them for half an hour to an hour. In those instances, I like to have on hand some audio books. We own several audio books, but since they are often more expensive than buying the book, we don't buy them very often. To get new audio books to listen to, we visit our local library. Most libraries have a nice selection of audio books to choose from, and since you don't have to invest lots of money in these, you can try out different things that you might not otherwise choose.
I love to see the concentration on my kids' faces while they listen to audio books (or me reading to them). You can almost see their mind drawing pictures of the scenes they are hearing described. I love that audio books not only entertain, but help stretch their imaginations in ways that television, movies and video games can't. And I love that I get to enjoy the story as well, even if I'm in the kitchen preparing lunch.
Here is a short list of some of the audio books we've enjoyed:
Charlotte's Web (read by the author E.B. White!!)
Trumpet of the Swan (also read by E.B. White!!)
Where the Red Fern Grows
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (performed by Michael York)
The Indian in the Cupboard (read by the author, Lynn Reid Banks)
What books or audio books have your children enjoyed?
Find more boredom busters at We are That Family and Works for Me Wednesday.
7 comments:
You know, you can access public domain audio books & download them to an MP3 player. Even the library has free downloadable audio books for Mp3s!
We've listened to The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings (we did that one on our road trip to Maine), all of the Harry Potters. The library had some Star Wars books on tape, etc.
Now that they are reading big chapter books, we don't do the audio books anymore, but it was so nice for them before they could read so well. I heard somewhere that when you watch tv, your brain cycles down into a sleep like state, but when you listen to audio books (or someone reading to you), your brain cycles up and you're actually creating brain cells (something like that LOL).
(btw, this is motherhen68. You don't have the option for an open id)
PaulaB52,
I changed the setting to include OpenID. Sorry about that. I've been blogging for almost 2 years and still, I don't understand much about what I'm doing, lol.
Thanks for the reminder about public domain audio books and that some libraries have downloadable audio books. I wish ours here did. I miss that. We load lots of them onto our iPods for traveling, as the boys often don't want to listen to the same books.
We still listen to books and read aloud even though we have a reader in the house for the exact reasons you cited about building up their minds. I've read in The Read Aloud Handbook and many other places that reading aloud is beneficial even into adulthood.
BTW, I am very impressed with your cleaning posts on your blog. I wish I could motivate myself to do some deep cleaning. I blame moving 3 times in 2 years for my lack of motivation ;o)
I love the name of your blog. I'm such a book lover, too, and I've tried to pass that on to my own kids. We all love to read to a certain degree (some more than others) and I always took the them to the library as they were growing up. My husband loves to have me read to him, too!
Hi DarcyLee,
It is nice to meet a fellow book lover :o) Hubby and I read aloud to each other, too. We are both book lovers - you should see how many shelves of books we have - and that is rubbing off on the kiddos. Thanks for stopping by and for your comment. :o)
Lori
My boys love audio books, too! (And Trumpet of the Swan?? LOVE!! My favorite EB White book - I don't understand the obsession with Stuart Little when Trumpet was so much better. Even EB White didn't understand it, and didn't even like Stuart Little much when he finished it.) Have you tried Story Nory? It's a weekly podcast with 10 - 20 minute stories. Great for car rides!
Melanie,
We love Trumpet of the Swan so much better than Stuart Little, too. "N" also loves Charlotte's Web and hasn't even seen the movies yet because we don't want to spoil the way the story "looks" to him in his mind's eye.
I have never heard of Story Nory, but I just went to the site and subscribed through iTunes. How exciting to have another source of audio books. We'll be in the car for many hours in the coming weeks and I'm sure we'll enjoy having new things to hear. Thanks!!
Lori
Lori, do you still have your library card from Lafayette? You could access that library and download the books from online :)
Girl, I've done nary a cleaning project the whole time we've been homeschooling. I tried doing some deep cleaning during Christmas/Easter breaks, but that's full of liturgical celebrations and I can't take off from those to deep clean a toilet!
thanks for changing your blog to suit me. After all, it's all about me (kidding!)
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