Don’t beat yourself up if your schedule doesn’t allow much time for read-aloud books with your kids. Learn how you can enjoy read-aloud books with your kids despite a busy schedule!
I began this school year with high aspirations. As my firstborn is now in 1st grade and my youngest is three, it was high time we moved on from short children’s books and dove headfirst into chapter book read-alouds.
Until.
It became apparent that:
1. Our schedule is a bit too packed for long read-alouds each day.
I could say I wish it weren’t, but I also kind of love our set-up.
We part-time homeschool, so that means that three days out of the week we aren’t at home until the afternoons.
Then, the girls need to stretch out and play–especially outside. I need to get dinner ready. And, at night, we place priority on reading our Bible story book.
2. Although our girls have now all exited the baby and toddler stages, they are still not all on the same attention span–not at all!
I’ve learned that a 3-year-old and a 7-year-old do not sit still for anywhere near the same length of time!
Quite by accident, I discovered a way in which we can still enjoy read-aloud books with our kids despite a busy schedule and without making our 3-year-old sit still for too long.
Enter: audio books.
I had heard friends raving about audio books for at least the past year, but I had never given them a try until the print copy of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up had a nine-person waiting list at our library, but the audio book was ready for check-out.
Try Audible and Audiobooks for FREE for 30 days!
Not sure if audiobooks are for your family? I think you’ll LOVE them once you give them a try, and there is no better way to find out than to take advantage of a FREE 30-day membership! Audible offers 1 free book, and Audiobooks.com offers 3 free books.
I borrowed it on a whim, really.
But as I began listening to the soothing voice of the narrator read through the book on our mini van CD player (the only CD player we owned!), something magical began to happen: My girls loved it!
Listening to that audio book together opened up all kinds of conversations with the girls about how to keep a home tidy and organized.
Sure, much of it probably went way over their heads. Still, this showed me that they were, indeed, ready for audio books. And, just maybe, this could be one way we could enjoy read-aloud books together!
After we finished listening to The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, we started the audio book of The Secret Garden, which I had snagged up at a children’s consignment sale.
I then opted to look for more audio books in the children’s section of the library.
A life-long lover of Little House on the Prairie, I checked out Little House in the Big Woods first.
Not only did my girls and I delight in listening to the first book in this series as we were riding around town, going back and forth to school and church, etc., but, to my utter surprise, my husband (who is not a life-long lover of Little House on the Prairie) also began to fall in love with the Little House series!
We are now almost finished with book two in this series, Little House on the Prairie.
The books are teaching them (well, us too, if I am honest!) American history and tons of life lessons. Plus, listening to them is something we all look forward to every time we get in the car.
(And in the car, my 3-year-old can’t wander off when she gets bored! If she wants to tune out the audio book and daydream, that is fine by me!)
Discussing what we are learning from the Little House audio books is the norm right now. I can’t wait to introduce more quality read-alouds to my girls this way.
If you’ve been beating yourself up because you see all of these other moms or bloggers talking about how many wonderful read-aloud books they are conquering with their children, give audio books a try.
I’ve found that many of the moms who are able to read plenty of read-aloud books with their children homeschool full-time.
Not everyone can (or even wants) to do so, and, if we’re honest, it is harder to fit in reading to your children when you are not all home together all day every day.
Listening to audio books in the car together can be a great alternative to enjoying read-aloud chapter books with your children.
Resources
If you aren’t sure where to get started with read-aloud books, check out the following resources. I’ve found them incredibly helpful in even knowing what books to read:
Among Lovely Things and the Read-Aloud Revival Podcast
Overdrive App for audio books and eBooks
Sparkle Stories (a fun podcast for kids that can help you gauge whether or not your kids are ready for audio books yet)
Try Audible and Audiobooks for FREE for 30 days!
Not sure if audiobooks are for your family? I think you’ll LOVE them once you give them a try, and there is no better way to find out than to take advantage of a FREE 30-day membership! Audible offers 1 free book, and Audiobooks.com offers 3 free books.
Marsela
Yes we love audio books! Also, our library has little audio media players with a single book recorded. Just use our own headphones and a AAA battery. My girls are 4th and 5th grade and love these at bedtime. Right now they are loving the Dear America series.
Erin
Oh that is so neat! I will have to see if our library has something like that! I have never heard of the American Dream series! I will have to check it out! Thanks for sharing, Marsela!
Alayna
When my husband and I were first married, we started reading aloud on car trips…we lived a long ways from our parents. That has translated into reading aloud and audiobooks every car trip( even short ones) and our kids love it!
Erin
I love that!! I can’t believe we just now got into them! We take a long car trip to see my husband’s parents at least once (if not twice) each year, and I am really hoping we can enjoy audio books on these rides as well!
Mel
Even though my kids attend public school, I still want to be a big part of their reading. We listen to audiobooks in the car too and our whole family LOVED the Little House books (including my husband and 2 sons who had no interest in listening at the beginning)! I also highly recommend Anne of Green Gables (Focus on the Family Radio Theatre) -another great read that my husband and sons would have NEVER read but really enjoyed! Listening to the same book is a great shared experience and offers lots of opportunity for discussion. We also enjoy the Boxcar Children books.
Erin
Thanks so much for the Anne of Green Gables suggestion! I LOVE Anne and cannot wait to introduce her to my girls (I have 3 girls). The Boxcar Children was one of my childhood favorites, too!
Morgan
My oldest daughter has medical issues that requires many weekly trips to various therapies (some near, some far). We listen to audiobooks in the car & absolutely love them!! It makes good use of what would otherwise feel like wasted time.
Erin
I agree that it fills like it helps to redeem the time so nicely!! I’m glad you and your daughter can enjoy that time together!
Susan
I started this with my boys in January. We get books on CD from the library. We’ve enjoyed listening to the Hardy Boys, The Cricket in Times Square and The Mouse and the Motorcycle. My boys like to read, so the benefit of listening to books is we hear books they probably wouldn’t pick on their own.
Erin
I am going to add those titles to our list!