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Give your voice a break, listen to an audiobook!

Books we will read out of today

We read out loud a LOT in our family. We read out loud for school but also just for pleasure-snuggle time or bed time or while the boys play legos. Pictured above are the books we have on the agenda for today. This picture does not include the  multiple picture books that C will ask me to read at some point today. Sometimes this mama's voice just needs a break. So, one of our favorite ways to experience a story together is by using audiobooks. We use several different sources and I wanted to share a few of them with you today, in case your voice needs a break too.

But! Before I share my favorite resources, I want to get rid of any idealistic fantasy you may have about what this may look like. When we have read aloud time, unless it is bed time or they are captive audiences in the car, there usually is some other quiet activity going on. I do not expect my boys to sit still and calm while I read Peter Pan to them. Instead, I let them build legos, play with silly putty or maybe color and draw. It may seem like they aren't paying attention, but they are. Ask your children questions after, discuss the story with them, you'll see.

Ok, so where do we find these audiobooks?

Playaway
  1. You can go to your local library and check out all sorts of different audiobooks on cd. Our library also has some on a device called a Playaway that my boys adore. It's like a little MP3 player that has a book preloaded on it. Cost? Free
  2. Another option at your local library may be to use Overdrive which allows you to check out audiobooks digitally with a library card, then you can listen directly from your phone with the app! Cost? Free
  3. We also like to use a subscription service called Audible. You pay for a monthly credit that you can use to purchase audiobooks and listen on your mobile device with the audible app. You can also purchase additional audiobooks for a reduced price. We use this mostly for my husband's listening as his books can be upwards of 40 hours and he would never finish them in time from the library. I also have purchased several children's books for VERY inexpensive. You can try it out for free for a month and then there are several subscription options. Cost? Free trial then subscription
  4. The last site we use is called librivox. It also has an app you can use but the concept is different than audible. Instead of books for purchase from professional readers all the books on librivox are in the public domain and are read by volunteers. As such, the readers can be a bit hit or miss. We have listened to some wonderful books on this site, including the Wizard of Oz and Peter Pan, but I would recommend that you sample the story first. Many have more than one version and some are definitely better than others. We use this resource a lot for books that are listed on Charlotte Mason style reading lists as they focus so much on classic literature that is in the public domain.
    Cost? Free

That's it! Those are all of the sources that we use for audiobooks. Go look around a little and see what treasure you can find for your next family listen!
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