Now, coming from a former English teacher, you might wonder why I think using audio books in your homeschool is a great idea. I’m very big on having your children read for at least 30 minutes per day and parents reading to their children for at least 15 minutes per day minimum. But, I love audio books and here’s why!
Audio Books Help Expand Vocabulary and Develop Fluency
When your child listens to an audio book, this helps expose your children to more complex vocabulary words in the context of a story. If your child listens to the audio book multiple times, the more often your child has the chance to make those words their own and in the proper context! Your child might not have learned that word at this time if you are relying on what books he/she is reading independently or what you are reading aloud with them. This way your child can be working on vocabulary before they are actually ready to read books that might include those words.
As your child listens to the audio books, they listen to how the sentences are recited and the different expressive ways to say a sentence with its punctuation and pauses. This helps to develop fluency when they read sentences aloud. If you combine the audio book with an exact copy of the book and have your child listen to the story numerous times and then have him/her read that a bit at a time on his/her own, they will naturally repeat the voice fluctuations they have been listening to in the audio book.
Audio Books are Great for Auditory or Challenged Learners
If you have a child that prefers to listen to books instead of looking at the book when reading, audio books caters that child’s preferences as well as assists that child in his/her independent reading. I have used audio books for both reasons.
We used audio books for quiet times, either in the morning when it wasn’t time to get up for the day, nap or quiet time after lunch, and at bedtime to unwind and fall asleep. This was in addition to the independent reading and reading aloud time we had together as a family each day. This allowed my children to choose stories they wanted to hear whenever they wanted to listen to it.
We also used audio books when reading was a challenge. I would find audio books that exactly matched a book at my child’s reading level and allowed him to follow along with the recording while looking at the book. This took some of the stress off my child during independent reading time and still gave him the opportunity to have that reading experience while I worked with my other son on another subject area. This assisted in bringing down the frustration and stress level so he did not get turned off by reading and could enjoy a good story.
Audio Books are Great for Road Schooling and Vacations
Every time we got into the car, we had a bag or small crate filled with audio books to listen to for the car ride. If I was driving through traffic and could not have a conversation with my guys, they enjoyed listening to the audio books and talking with one another about what they were listening to. It usually related to history we were learning at the time, so it was a win-win for all of us.
Audio books were welcome companions on long car rides to see relatives on holidays or drives on vacations. I would also pick up some new books on tape (I know I’m showing my age) or mp3 cd’s for portable mp3 players they had with headphones. Of course, we also had cd’s to put into the car cd player throughout our journey. But, the quiet time was nice sometimes.
Audio Books Free Up Your Time and Provides a Quiet Time Activity
I also loved audio books to help in our homeschool to free up my time for working one on one with a sibling as well as occupied my guys during our quiet time, providing fewer issues with getting them to stay in or on their beds. During our afternoon nap or quiet time when they were younger or at bedtime, I had fewer issues getting them to take a nap or stay in their beds in the evening when they had audio books to keep them entertained. They loved it and it really helped with their language skills and in developing their love of reading!
Supplement your Learning in all Subject Areas
If you are looking for something different to do for math, science or history, audio books are an easy go to. I used to go to the library or make online requests for interlibrary loans of audio books or books that came with an audio for all subject areas that tied into concepts or skills we were studying as a different kind of activity to include in that study.
There are also plenty of online resources of audio books or stories for these different subject areas as well.
Here are some places to find audio books to get you started:
Download the appropriate Overdrive App for your listening device and look at your local library catalog online for audio books provided through Overdrive.
This site is great if you are looking to get your child reading and they have a free plan with one book per day!
Storynory has a variety of kinds of stories to listen to for free from fairy tales to classics to poems and music for free.
Loyal Books has free books for all ages, even classics for highschoolers! There are also popular history anthologies told in story formats that homeschoolers love to use. Make sure you check these out!
Light Up Your Brain has a variety of short stories to listen your children will enjoy. This site also color printables and online coloring pages and games.
Librivox Recordings for G A Henty Historical novels. My guys loved these as young as third grade!
Here are more Children Stories at Librivox Recordings
Learn Out Loud audio books, mostly classic literature for your older children.
Free audio and ebooks for all ages and genres.
Reading Bear for very beginner readers – free site to learn letters and beginning reading skills.
Bee Line Reader – great site for challenged readers, beginner readers, and those with trouble tracking. Color enhanced online “readers” to assist students in their reading skills.
Story Line Online provides movies with actors reading books and comes with comprehension type activities to enhance the learning experience if you wish to use this to help promote your child’s reading skills.
If you would like to add videos as a curriculum resource to your homeschool, you’ll want to read Educational Videos Resources and How to Use them in your Homeschool. Here, you’ll find a list of free video resources and how to implement them in your lesson plans.
Enjoy! You and your child will benefit from adding different kinds of learning resources to your day!
