Audio for Kids

I adore audio books as a parenting tool. It is the best of all worlds for kids and parents alike, and kept our kids looking forward to car trips and also taking daily 1-hour rest times until they were school-age. Number one best thing to accompany laundry-folding or lego/block-building. And on top of that, the kid ends up being well-read and having a broad, powerful imagination. One of our boys had been slow to dive into reading, but since he loved audio books of all types, I knew it would only be a matter of time before reading was the same experience, and now he can't get enough! It's awesome. Poor August, I haven't gotten into many female-oriented books, so we've left the girly-girl genre mostly unexplored, though I am looking forward to that new arm of audio! Here are some of our favorite audio books, and authors in general, kind of in order of age/understanding level.

AUDIO BOOKS

 *Little Bear Series

*Dr. Suess anthology

*Toad and Frog, and Mouse Tales by Arnold Lobel

*Berenstain Bears by Stan and Jan Berenstain
*Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, read by Cyril Ritchard, Celeste Holm, Borris Karloff, Hershey Kay
(don't accept substitutes, this was how they were meant to be read)

*Fat Cat and Friends by Margaret MacDonald and Richard Scholtz

* 24 Fairmont Avenue by Tomie De Paulo 

(fantastic auto-biography read by famous children's book illustrator)

*Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgrin (read by Ester Benson, Pippi incarnate)

*Box Car Children Mysteries by Gertrude Chandler Warner

*The 3 Tales of My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles

*Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osborne

(here is someone who can captivatingly teach history and problem solving to young kids)

*Charlotte's Web by (and read by) E.B. White

* Ralph, Mouse on the Motorcyle, Runaway Ralph by Beverly Cleary

*Dick King-Smith stories

*Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series

*Animal Tales, and Classic Fairytales retold by Jim Weiss 

(the kid gobble up any audio we can get with him narrating, including Story of the World)

*Laura Ingalls Wilder series

*There's a Light on in the Attic by (and read by) Shel Silverstein

*Encyclopedia Brown series by Donald J. Sobol 

*All Roald Dahl has to offer, read by him the crazy cuckoo!

*Henry and Ribsy, and the other Henry stories by Beverly Cleary 

*Homer Price by Robert McCloskey

*Igraine the Brave by Cornelia Funke

*The Borrowers by Mary Norton

*Mary Poppins by Dr. P. L. Travers and Mary Shepard

*Cricket in Time Square by George Selden

*Raggedy Ann Stories by Johhny Gruelle

*Dinotopia by James Gurney

*Narnia series by C.S. Lewis

*Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

*Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol (read by Sally Field) 

*Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
*5 Children & It, The Railway Children, and other books by Edith Nesbit

*Frindle by Andrew Clements

*Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls (gorgeous faith-inspiring book)

*Betsy and Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace (pure magic when I was a girl)

*My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

*Sign of the Beaver (and other books) by Elizabeth George Spears

*Never Ending Story by Michael Ende

*Princess Bride by William Goldman

 

...

For music, most of the stuff on the radio doesn't teach great things, kids really learn from what they're listening to, and we spend a lot of time in the road! I am so glad there are fabulous musicians out there that take time to make kids tunes so kids can sing and hear goodness while they're building their ideas of the world. My favorite labels and CDs are those that compile different artists, resulting in varied songs and the cream of the crop performance-wise. Also, the best listening ever is audio of musicals, including Disney movies. There is a great variety of instruments, voices, and sound effects; it's a lot of fun for long car rides. If I tell the story about the movie and set the scene for the song, the kids are totally zoned in and can't stand it when the music is paused! Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is our favorite right now, but I guess I'm eating my words as far as listening to correct principles with a lyric like "Bless your beautiful hide / You're just as good as lost / I don't know your name / But I'ma stakin' my claim / 'Lest, your eyes is crossed." Oh and that bit about sofa sparkin'. And them sobbin' women...

MUSIC

Shakin' A Tailfeather (Gospel-style classics)

Sea Tunes for Kids (Brent Holmes)

A Child's Celebration of... Show Tunes, Broadway, Folk Music (Music for Little People, great label)

Starfishing & Coconut Moom (Green Chili Jam Band)

Dance on a Moonbeam (Bill Crofut)

School House Rock

Gift of the Tortoise (Ladysmith Black Mambazo)

A Child's Garden of Songs--Poetry of R.L.Stevenson (Ted Jacobs)

Dinosaur Rock!

Putuyamo Kids World Playground & Dreamland (great label)

Songs from the Street (Sesame Street collection)

Primary Colors & Sharing Time (Inside Out)

Here Come the ABC's (They Might Be Giants)

Dog Train (Sandra Boynton)

Take It Outside (Okee Dokee Bros.--bluegrass)

(We get all of this from our library. If there's something we love and can't bear to say goodbye to, we order it used from Amazon for less than $10 usually.)

*Post Note: Almost any children's classic is on audio. Seriously, don't discount your kids' ability to listen to complex language when it's read well. Also, once you love a book, explore everything that author has written for kids. It's so fun to immerse as a family into an author's writings!