Audio Books

I am a firm believer in reading aloud to kids. When I was a teacher I read both fiction and non-fiction books to my students. For students who were struggling readers, improving verbal reading comprehension skills and vocabulary often were ignored at the upper elementary level. Reading aloud did not prevent students from working on independent reading skills. Instead, it strengthened listening skills and gave them a chance to access material they might not have independently.

One long standing gift giving tradition has been buying books in combination with toys for presents for the kids in my family. I asked one relative for some book recommendations for his daughter. He credited me with buying, Alcatraz Versus The Evil Librarians on CD for his daughter. I have often lost track of which books I have bought for which kids. I come from a large family. My brothers and sisters now have kids and some even grandkids. Keeping track of which child has a certain book can be challenging. However, the CD was the key. I realized I rarely buy books on CD. Unless I know a parent is going to play them in the car, or the child will listen at home, the gift can be more of a burden than a help. If the parents request them, I will look. Normally however, I stick to print.

Sadly, this was the only book in the series that had been issued on CD. I bought the set that has been published to date in print for the child. It was a hit and by vacation's end, even Grandma had finished the first book before her flight back to Florida. It did get me rethinking the benefits of audio books.

Recently I started borrowing audio books from the library to listen to while exercising. I hate exercising and need distraction. I have tried music and TV, but they are not enough of a distraction to make me forget that I am torturing my body. After thinking about how excited the whole family got over listening to this book while traveling to and from school and errands, I got to wondering how distracted I might get while listening to a book and working out.

The first book I borrowed was Stephen King's The Colorado Kid from the library. I had been watching the TV series Haven that is loosely based on this book, but lacked the patience to wade through the book. My exercise times doubled as I found myself wanting to finish the disk. I am currently working on Salem's Lot . My exercise time is up to an hour and a half.

I have one of my favorite Agatha Christie novels and the book that started my interest in audio CD's on request from the library to keep my exercise routine going.

This could also be a great strategy to increase literacy time for families. Many spend a great deal of time in the car traveling. This time could be utilized to improve comprehension and listening skills by adding audio CD’s to the travel time. Libraries do carry a number of titles or these books can be great presents. Choose titles that make kids frustrated when the car stops. I had forgotten how useful audio books were during my MBTA commutes to work years ago. I would hate to turn off the story if I was at a good part when I arrived at work. It made me look forward to the trip home so I could return to the plot.

Choose stories for interest more than education. If you want to improve listening and comprehension skills, there are many good titles will keep kids coming back and improve those valuable skills. If they are bored, they will lose interest in the exercise.

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Nursery Rhymes, Mother Goose, and Rhyming Activities

Nursery Rhymes and rhyming books are an important education resource for children and parents. Children learn a great deal from hearing and imitating rhyming sounds. Parents and early childhood programs benefit from including nursery and other rhymes in their programs.

Coloring Pages

DLTK Nursery Rhymes with Activities

Education.com Nursery Rhyme and Phonics Activity

Enchanted Learning

Enchanted Learning Rhyming Worksheets

First Schools Nursery Rhymes

Gayle's Preschool Rainbow

Mother Goose Collection

Nicky's Nursery Rhymes

Quiz

Rhyme a Week

Step by Step

TLS Books





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Literacy Improvement Using Extended Family

Some relatives more than others are willing to be involved with children’s education in a productive manner when they are given a direction or specific method to “plug in” to help. When a specific path is provided it can provide less friction and positive outcomes.

One area literacy experts are still pushing is encouraging parents not to abandon is reading aloud to children when children have mastered decoding. While children should be increasing the amount of independent reading they do, it is important that children still be exposed to books at higher comprehension levels and are still hearing models of decoding. Reading aloud provides both activities.

It is also important to vary the materials children have access to in order to insure that they are developing reading comprehension skills in all genres of fiction and non-fiction literature. As adults we tend to have our own preferences and these may or may not influence our child’s choices. However, introducing them to people who do read and enjoy genres that are different than what we are naturally drawn to can help children learn to enjoy different types of literature.

One book I would strongly suggest parents read is Jim Trelease's The Read-Aloud Handbook. This give parents great strategies and specific resources on continuing the read aloud process. It also can be useful in helping engage extended family in choosing books to share with your child.


Not all relatives are going to get on board but many will if you can make the commitment simple and easy to handle. Even for distant relatives there are many technologies available that allow them to share a book with a child with or without a visual.

Also consider answers to those challenging what to get the child for birthday and Christmas questions. Some relatives truly do not know how to approach shopping for a child. Consider some easy literary options. Magazines are easy for most adults to purchase subscriptions for and many age with the child. You will need to tell the person when the child is ready for the next level but this can be a great learning opportunity for your child and a simple and often not overly expensive way for a relative to remember your child’s special dates. You can click this link to find some of the magazine links but there are many magazines for children that follow general and specific interests.