June 19, 2012 9:06 AM
Audio book CDs for family travel, vacations
It's summer and time for vacations, so rerunning this. I hope you will consider adding audio books to your family's bonding experience.
We've listened to audio books cross-country and our travels to Nags Head each year. They have added more foundation to the things we share as a family and my grown-up kids frequently reference them in conversations together. A truly worthwhile investment:
My daughter Maddy was an audio learner. She LOVED listening to stories on tape and reveled in the huge collection of Adventures in Odyssey series* passed down to her by many older brothers and sisters.At 17, Maddy is now a fairly enthusiastic reader, but I think that her enormous audio appetite kept her vocabulary and thinking skills up and built a bridge which eventually translated into more interest in books.
I remembered this today when I noticed someone had purchased The Screwtape Letters through my Amazon link - which reminded me that some of you might be interested in these audio resources too.
Our whole family has enjoyed the marvelous dramatizations produced by Focus on the Family. Like the Odyssey series, they have the highest production values - fantastic voice talent - and will rivet the attention of even those who are not audio learners. When we traveled cross country from California to Virginia in 2002, we listened to them all again. Still enjoying them today:
* The Odyssey series serve up doses of history, philosophy, theology, psychology, and lots of vocabulary while delivering solid stories about everyday people and everyday situations - all with a strong moral message and biblical perspective. Here is a sampling of what's available - it's hard to pick, since there are over 50 volumes. Each volume contains six tapes:
There are lots more - and Amazon gives you the content so you can choose age -appropriate episodes. Odyssey has tackled everything from dishonesty to divorce to abortion - but in a way that leaves kids better equipped to face the realities of life as Christian boys and girls - eventually men and women.
Comments
Funny you mention this now...we have been borrowing Odyssey episodes from the library of late...even my "big kids" are enjoying them.
Posted by: Chrissy | June 19, 2012 9:45 AM
I loved Adventures in Odyssey growing up! They have a new series of episodes based on Focus on the Family's Biblical worldview training series, "The Truth Project." It's called "The Truth Chronicles":http://www.amazon.com/The-Truth-Chronicles-Adventures-Odyssey/dp/1589975391/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340123875&sr=8-1&keywords=adventures+in+odyssey+truth+chronicles
Another favorite was the "Dan & Louie" Bible story series told by ventriloquist Dan Betzer and his lovable little dummy.
www.danandlouie.com/
Posted by: Rachel | June 19, 2012 12:41 PM
Our children have recently been enjoying the Winnie the Pooh books read by Peter Dennis and we are working our way through the Little House books right now!
Posted by: Emily | June 19, 2012 6:45 PM
I have a huge collection of children's audio stories.... The latest " hit" is the original Sugar Creek gang audios. ( I can't think of the site that sells them right now- will try to post it later) My 9 year old really loves them, but he really does NOT like to read. Barbara, is this the way it was with Maddy for awhile? My mom keeps saying that she is concerned about him, but I tell her that God made us all different. He is a hands-on type of guy, but really does not like academics... I am just hoping that he will eventually learn to love reading. Does anyone have thoughts or experience to share?
Posted by: Lisa | June 20, 2012 12:11 PM
So funny, Barbara ... I just bought the Odyssey "Wish you were Here" series and am waiting for it to arrive. My older kids had it on tape but we need it on CD now for my younger ones. I find that set to be so funny I want to have it for car trips this summer.
Posted by: Ellen | June 21, 2012 11:52 PM
One that my kids really liked to listen on car trips are the Classical Kids CD's we got when we were homeschooling. Favorites include Beethoven Lives Upstairs and Tchaikovsky Discovers America. We are loaning ours to another family for the summer.
Posted by: Jane Duquette | June 22, 2012 11:39 PM
