5 Reasons to Try Audible This Summer (and 40% off if you sign up!!)

(This post contains affiliate links.  If you sign up for Audible through your Amazon 

Prime account, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.  Thank you!)

We obviously do a a decent amount of reading physical books around here, but we're big audio book fans as well.  I still get the occasional book-on-CD from the library, but in the past year or so we've gravitated more and more toward Audible.  It's by far, my favorite resource for quality audio lit.  

I'm so grateful that my mom clued me in to this amazing library.  I believe it's a must-have for book lovers, literary families, and homeschooling families.  In case you're not familiar with Amazon's Audible feature, I'd like to give you five great reasons why you should sign up now!  

(1) New Audible users (existing Amazon Prime members) 
get their first 6 months at 40% off!!!!

Click here for the discount on a new Audible gold account :) 

What exactly is Audible?  It's a monthly subscription to audio books.  Your monthly payment (see above link for discount!!) buys you credits to use towards any audio book in the audio library.  You also have the option of buying titles outright (it makes sense to do this for books that cost less than the monthly subscription.  See my link to a great list at the end of this post.)  Once you buy a title, it is yours for good.  You can listen to it on your phone or other device.  When you're done listening, you can remove it from the device to conserve storage space, but it remains in your library for the next time you want to use it!   

(2) Audible is tops for convenient, on-the-go literary entertainment.

One of the first things I do before we leave on a car trip (long road trip, or short day trip) is stock up on audio books.  I know from experience that it's asking for trouble to bring library books-on-CD on vacations out of state or on day trips to the local park or beach.  Audible to the rescue!  There's no losing CD's in the bowels of the van, no changing discs while trying to drive, no worry that gritty sand will ruin library property.  With Audible, just plug in to your car's audio system, and go!

Related - Even though library CD's are "free," they were not-so-free when my kids have inadvertently scratched or broken a couple.  It really stinks to buy a brand new copy of Prince Caspian and Little House in the Big Woods and then just hand it over to the librarian with a sheepish apology.....   In hindsight, I wish I would have just spent that money on an Audible edition in the first place.

(3) Listening to audio books in the car significantly reduces sibling squabbling.

I have conducted many scientific experiments and this is a proven fact - listening to audio books in the car nearly wipes out sibling car-ride squabbling.  Everyone is too wrapped up in the story to worry about who's breathing on them or who's eyes glanced in their direction.

(4) Audio books can occasionally free up the usually enthusiastic Read-Aloud mom.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm in favor of Mom (or Dad, or Grandma, or older sibling, or babysitter... you get the idea) sitting down with a book in hand and a bunch of kids on her lap and reading out loud.  I do this a lot.  And I love it.  Having a service like Audible does not replace read aloud time in our home.  However, of you're like me and want to expose your kids to lots of great stories and a variety of authors and genres, and if your kids are like my kids and they looooove to listen to stories....  sometimes a tired out mom just can't keep up.  Audible provides a healthy and much needed break for me when my read-aloud mojo is waning.  You'll appreciate the break too!  

Additionally, when I listen to an audio book along side my family, I feel like more like a fellow consumer of entertainment (as opposed to the provider ;) )  It's fun to belly laugh or gasp in anticipation along with the rest of the listening crowd.  It's enjoyable to let someone else do the voices for a change.  It's a different kind of "reading" experience.  And I like it :) 

(5) Audio books can help reduce screen time.

This is big for us, especially as we're having a daytime TV free summer.  I had been in the habit of putting on Netflix for a rainy afternoon or for when a couple kids were sick.  But we've broken out of that habit and most everyone chooses audio books during a lull in the day.  We definitely do the old-fashion family gathered around the radio thing.  I keep a bin of quiet activities (puzzles, coloring, arranging activities, etc...) in the living room and they're available for the kids to use while listening to stories.  This summer we've been listening to Swallows and Amazons,  Mr. Midshipman Hornblower (just my big boys), and  The Cottage at Bantry Bay.  And I've got plenty more lined up for when those are done because Audible recently had a great sale on titles for kids and I stocked up :)  

So are you convinced yet?  How about a trial?  Don't forget - click here to sign up!

Wondering what you should order first??  There are two things that stand out to me because we all agree listening to them is better than reading aloud.  The first is A Bear Called Paddington because Stephen Fry reading it is just *perfection.*  He nails the dry humor of ridiculous situations.  But he's British, so...   And the second is the series The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place.   Katherine Kellgren does the best voices and howling and it's infinitely more enjoyable to listen to her do those things than attempt them myself!  

Looking for more ideas??  Here are two posts from the archives you can check out --

15 Classic Audio Books for Kids on Audible (Under $6 Each!)

(I checked the old links -- nearly all the prices are still the same, and some are cheaper now!)

Audio Books and Stories for Kids (a list of what we love!)

This is an old list.  I still recommend everything on it, but we sure have added A LOT more to our list since then :)

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:

Our Top 10 "Desert Island" Picture Books

The Loveliest ABC Books for Your Little Lovelies

Our Summer Author/Illustrator Binges:

     Sarah Stewart and David Small
     Brian Wildsmith
     Jim Arnosky 
     Dahlov Ipcar 


*****

(Listening to A Little Princess)

(listening to Mr. Midshipman Hornblower)

My Favorite Audio Learning Resources for Homeschooling

It's no secret we use a lot of audio resources for learning around here.  I can't even begin to convey how helpful this has been on our homeschooling journey.  Our entire family has learned an impressive amount of information since making the intentional decision to employ educational audio materials during lessons, during afternoon rest time, and in the car.  

Even though all children have individual learning styles, in my experience, they can all learn from repeated exposure to well-presented audio information.  Can your kids sing radio commercials word for word like my kids can?  Can they repeat passages from their favorite picture books?  Can they sing the lyrics to popular songs on the radio or to the hymns you sing in church each week?   See, it works!  

We've been able to make it work for us beyond the commercials and picture books and hymns.  

For us, audio lessons are sometimes about memorization, but not always.  Sometimes we listen to stuff over and over until we know it like the back of our hands, and sometimes our audio lessons are just about being exposed to ideas and taking away what we can from the lesson.  Some of the things on this list will have already been mentioned in other posts (sorry), but I wanted to get all of our favorite audio stuff for school together in one place.  

If you have any questions about these resources or how we use them, I'm be happy to answer them for you :)  (oh, and lean in and I'll tell you a little secret....you don't have to be a homeschooler to use these!!) 

for History and Geography...

Story of the World: History for the Classical Child 

by Susan Wise Bauer

read by Jim Weiss

OK.  I'm sorry.  I know.  You're totally sick of every homeschooler on the planet talking about how great Story of the World is.  But... it is.  And as much as love books and reading, listening to this series is the best fit for our family.  During the school year the boys are assigned various chapters to read each week, but in addition to that, this series is a favorite of everyone (except Clare... she prefers music...) to listen to in the car.  We've learned an awful from Ms. Bauer and Mr. Weiss listening to these, and I am very grateful!

  Volume 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor 

  Volume 2: The Middle Ages: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance 

  Volume 3: Early Modern Times 

  Volume 4: The Modern Age

This Country of Ours, Complete Set: Early Explorers to World War 1
by Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall



This is anything but a text book!  The history of the United States is told as captivating tales.  We have enjoyed listening to it, and in fact, when my son saw this picture here, he said, "oh yeah!  We should start that up again."  I have read some reviews of the book that mention some anti-Catholic bias in the text, but we have yet to come across any.
(fyi - the link above is to the Audible version of this book.  It's only $9.95!)

A Child's History of the World



We have just bought the Audible version of this book because we've enjoyed reading it so much.  It such a different and quirky presentation of history, the kids are riveted when I read it and always ask for "just a few more pages."   Hillyer "teaches" history conversationally, and my kids seems to retain an awful lot of it, so that makes me happy :)  Keep in mind the book is from the 20's (so not always politically correct according to today's standards) and it has a Christian bent to it (he refers to the "one God as we believe in").  It is not a Creationist history though, either, so that may be something that some are keen to know.  Like with any book, you may run across topics that prompt conversations with your kids, but I don't think those topics are a reason to skip this book altogether.

Geography Songs  

States and Capitals Songs 

                           

I was astounded when my boys started singing all the countries of Southwest Asia last year.   They began working in these maps at the study center but I happened to  have the books and CD's so we've done some work on our own, into Southern Europe and the British Isles.  I highly recommend these CDs.  I can only believe that it will be very valuable some day to be able to hear the name of a lesser-known country in conversation, know that it exists, and where to locate it on a map.  Andora, anyone?  

for Grammar and Language Arts...

Grammar Songs 

The songs on this disc are sill and fun.  I associate their style with School House Rock.  They're fun for listening to in the car, but we don't use these for serious memory work.  For lists and chants that are more practical for memorization instead of fun, I recommend the next two resources, the companion CD to First Language Lessons and the Shurley English chants...

First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind: Audio Companion for Levels 1 & 2

I love this disc.  It has all the chants, songs, and poems that your students are introduced to in Levels 1 and 2 of First Language Lessons.  However, it can be used independently of the book, teaching kids parts of speech and grammar rules as well as providing you with a wonderful collection of poems for memorization.

Shurley English Jingles

My son, Aaron, memorized several of these last year, and I found they were very helpful in identifying parts of speech in sentences.  He was even humming some of the jinlges to himself when taking the language and grammar portion of his first standardized test this past spring ;)

I was planning on buying a CD from Shurley English, but happily searched for the jingles on-line and came across this free resource. Thank you, Jeremy Pitts, whoever you are :) 

Other poetry resources we love...

(for appreciation or memorization)

Favorite Poems for Children 

  Classic Poems for Boys  

Classic Poems for Girls

for Math...

Math U See Skip Count CD

We had this CD for a couple years before I decided to actually use it.  It turned out to be a wonderful addition to our audio lessons.  Aaron used it this past year to memorize skip counting and Dominic used it to brush up on addition facts.  I highly recommend it, especially for the skip counting, which has made multiplication much easier for Aaron.

for Science...

Lyrical Lifescience Songs

     

These songs are ridiculous... in a good way.  I thought they'd be annoying, but I strangely enjoy them, as do my kiddos.  Most of the songs are set to common well-known tunes, like Darling Clementine and There's a Hole in the Bucket, etc...  And the science in them is like the science I remember from freshman biology in high school.  There are accompanying workbooks available to purchase for use with these resources (the above Amazon links are to MP3 downloads) but since we just use them for a fun supplement to whatever else we happen to be studying in science, we just listen to the songs and glean what we can instead of damping the fun with workbook pages...

for Songs and Music...

Music Masters CD Collection

These CDs are collections of the works of great composers interwoven with a spoken story about their life and work.  They are not captivating stories that will hold the attention of really young kiddos.  They're more biographical.  I recommend them for elementary age kids and up.  (You can listen to a sample here from the CD about Bach - my favorite composer <3 )

Wee Sing America  

The Metropolitan Muesum of Art Children's Songs, Book 

It's important to me that my kids know the National Anthem and other standard patriotic tunes as well as the tunes from Americana that I grew up singing while my dad played the piano.  These two resources cover me - the Wee Sing America CS is GREAT for learning standard and not-so-standard patriotic songs (with a little bit of history thrown in).  The other book (piano music and beautiful artwork from the Metropolitan Museum of Art) and CD are great for more folk-ish, Americana type songs - Red River Valley, Simple Gifts, Shenandoah, I'v Been Working on the Railroad, etc...

                                                   

          



YOUR turn!!  Are there any audio resources that you've used for educational purposes or just plain fun purposes in your homeschool?  I'd love to hear about them!  Let's chat in the comments :) 

You may also like:

Adding a Little Extra Tech to Our Homeschooling

15 Classic Audio books for Kids on Audible (Under $6 Each!!)

Blog vs. Homeschool (mummies, toddlers, and coneheads, oh my!)

The New Latin for Weight Loss System!!