Our Family's Favorite Audiobooks

OurFamilysFavoriteAudiobooks

Our family listens to a lot of audiobooks for 2 main reasons: 1. My littles love them and 2. They learn so much.

I couldn’t even begin to count the times my littles have quoted a line, asked a question, or made a connection based on a story they’ve heard. We borrow from the library or buy favorites. When we buy, we usually get the CDs, burn them to our computer, and download them to our iPods. This grants us lots of flexibility. We can listen to the CDs in the car and on our iPods around our home or anywhere, alone or together.

Here are 6 of our family’s favorite audiobooks:

1. Chronicles of Narnia. This is truly awesome. Different than a typical audiobook, it is audio theatre. Think voice actors, sound effects, and music. Two enthusiastic thumbs up from each member of our family.

2. Story of the World. I list this as one, but really it’s 4 volumes making up over 40 hours of stories. You cannot do better than this for learning history at a young age. Heck, at any age! My husband and I have learned so much.

3. Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. Such a rich story and it’s not just the chocolate. Somebody please tell me if any of the movies made live up to the greatness of this book. I’m guessing no, since they basically never ever do.

4. Sherlock Holmes for Children by Jim Weiss. I’m mentioning Sherlock Holmes in particular, because it’s one of my children’s favorite Jim Weiss recordings. But we have listened to ten so far and they’re all great. I’m ready to add to our collection soon with these titles: King Arthur and His Knights, Galileo and the Stargazers, and The Queen’s Pirate.

5. Jonathan Park. Again, not just one, but many volumes —  (I believe) 9 to be exact. Since we’re just talking parent to parent here, I’ll tell you these are a bit dated and hokey. But don’t tell my littles – they have no idea! Perhaps it’s because they don’t recognize the “beep boop bope” sound effects as the internet dial-up, but I do. Having said that, these are still worth listening to, because they encourage so much critical thinking and offer so much scientific information. I just discovered they have special editions for zoo, aquarium, and Amazon animals that we might need to add to our collection soon.

6. Pippi Longstocking. She’s silly in a way that has never been repeated. Do your family a favor and laugh through this one together. Don’t make the mistake of thinking this character is just for girls.

 

I can already tell you our next favorite – Pilgrim’s Progress.  About two years ago, we read this children’s version. (It retained the great story plus had 50 captivating, watercolor illustrations. It’s definitely a good starting place for this classic book.) Over this past school year we’ve been reading the original. My littles have been enjoying it with me and surprisingly following along very well. But it i’s slow going. Now with our summer schedule, we’re reading it less and less frequently. I’m hoping an audio book will help us finish strong. I just love this book and I can’t imagine the audio book will turn out wrong.

 

Okay, I told you mine, now you tell me yours! Since we’re planning our next great adventure for our goal of 50 States Before They Graduate, we’re going to need some great audio books to fill the long hours in the car.

 

Comments

  1. Hailey says

    This post makes me so happy!!!! We recently got the Narnia and I’m looking forward to listening. Recently I met Jum Weiss and stocked up on his audios. My children adore his work. Sherlock Holmes and King Arthur are their favorites. We recently listened to Hatchett by Paulsen. My boys in particular loved it and have listened to it on their own during quiet time. Our favorite Audios are lamplighters audio dramas. Teddy’s Button and Sir Malcom and the missing Prince are the boys’ favorites. They are 6 and 4. Great post!

    • Beth Watson says

      Ooo, you are gonna love Narnia, Hailey!! I’m excited for you. 🙂 Thanks for the recommendations! I’m gonna add them to my amazon wish list 🙂 We’ve watched the lamplighters movies on amazon prime for free, but I didn’t know they made audio dramas too. My guys would love them, I’m sure.

  2. Hailey says

    All of your other audios listed are fantastic!! This is a great list to start with if you are new to listening. We have a 8 day road trip coming up (60 hours in the van with 5 under 8) and audios are our saving grace! Right now we’re listening to Paddington. Thankfully our library has a tremendous selection. I haven’t done the iPod thing yet….but I just might try now that you mention it. Thanks!

    • Beth Watson says

      I forgot about Paddington! We loved that one too!! Now, I’m definitely sure we would like your other recommendations. Seems like our listening preferences are the same 🙂

  3. says

    Thanks for the suggestions! We have a lot of the same favourites, but I am always on the look out for more! You can find my recommendations on abcbookreviews.wordpress.com. Type in “audio” in the search box. Our kids are 7,6,4,2, and 1.

  4. Julie says

    Oh, we LOVE radio dramas too! With 4 kids under the age of 10, it makes for a nice quiet car ride. Here are our favorites…from Focus on the Family, Anne of Green Gables & the Secret Garden. And, from Lamplighter Publishing we love Sir Malcom & the Missing Prince!

Leave a Reply to Beth Watson Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badge

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.