Apr. 17, 2007 - IPod School -- Using Your mp3 Player in your Homeschool -- Finding Audiobooks
IPod School
Using Your Mp3 Player in Your Homeschool
Where Can I get Audiobooks?
Audiobooks are fantastic tools in your homeschool. You know reading aloud is important; but sometimes health and life stop us from reading as much as we want to. Sometimes listening is possible, when reading aloud is not -- like in the car. This morning my children sat around the kitchen table working phonics and math and handwriting and I did breakfast cleanup and other cleaniing while we listened to The Wheel on the School Meindert DeJong. We were all completely caught up in the story, and listened for two hours straight while getting our work done! That is helpful...
A limited number of audiobooks are available for free -- legitimately -- from internet downloads. Of course, an even greater number is available for cost. In addition, audiobooks on cd can be purchased from a number of places and downloaded into your computer and then onto your IPOD.
How do I get FREE Audiobooks?
Librivox -- Volunteers read books, poems, and political speeches and these recordings are available on the web-site or through podcasts. All of Aesop's Fables are available, as well as Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, and many children's books. More books are being added all the time. Books must be in the public domain to be available here. Volunteer to read, and even more books will become available! Here is a link to search by specific genre, including children's literature: Genre Search
AudioBooksForFree.com -- This site has many children's authors as well, however this site is not a volunteer site for readers; they make money by offering higher download quality for a fee. I chose to download my files in the best available FREE format.
Where can I buy downloadabe audiobooks?
Audible -- Books can be purchased instantly or through a subscription. Credits can also be earned from referrals. Audible is pretty straightforward once you get the hang of it. You can purchase any amount at once, or sign up for one of their monthly subscriptions. The subscription we have is $22 something per month, and I get 2 audio credits. One book is generally 1 audio credit. So, that’s two audiobooks per month for $11 apeice. Occasionally a book will be more than 1 credit — like the NIRV Bible.
Once I have paid for them, they move into My Library. Then, I can download them to a certain number of computers and they stay in My Library forever. When I crashed my computer last month; I e-mailed Audible because the new files I tried to download didn’t recognize my partially new computer. They reset my account to remove the “old” computer and were really fast. I e-mailed at night and by morning it was fixed.
To pick out what I am getting for my subscription credits; I browsed the books and added all the books I wanted to My Next Listen. I then prioritized them; and now the top two books download automatically each month unless I go in and use the credit to get something not in My Next Listen before the end of the month. (Like this month, I decided I wanted Boundaries for Kids; and I wanted it NOW lol. So I went ahead and used one of my April credits to get it. It wasn’t in My Next Listen.) You can also choose to pay for 12 or 24 credits all at once for the subscription rate; and then download the books as you please.
If you'd like to, enter my name for referring you, just type jewel73 into the text box that appears when you click on the View Past Referral Entries link in My Account section.
Homeschool Estore also has a selection of audio recordings available for download. I am currently listening to A Fractured Mind, My Life with Multiple Personality Disorder which is fascinating. I can't wait to purchase Lad: A Dog; and I enjoy Jim Hodges material.
Where might I want to purchase CD copies?
Vision Forum has several books on CD not available through download and hard to find elsewhere. We really love the Elsie Dinsmore series.
Greathall Productions is Jim Weiss's site and he is a wonderful storyteller. Some libraries carry them. We prefer to purchase them. Amazonis also a great place to buy CD's like Little House on the Prairie, which is not available through Audible.com yet.
Focus on the Family Radio Theater records Absolutely Amazing dramatized productions of classic books like Chronicles of Narnia, The Hiding Place, Anne of Green Gables, The Luke Reports, A Christmas Carol. We love them all. These are abridged versions; but they are abridged in an amazing way to make them perfect for dramatization without detracting from the brilliance of the work.
Renting Audiobooks Simply AudiobooksThis is a CD rental service, which works like Netflicks. You get so many selections at a time depending upon how much you pay per month (from 11.95/14.95 for 1 selection, all the way to 36.95/39.95 for 4 selections). So the only limit to how much you can listen to is the time it takes you to listen, send it back, and receive your new one. The lower price is for an annual payment.
The bottom line is; We try not to insist on parent-led learning or gravitate toward child-led learning. We try instead to focus on God-led learning and ask for His input and perspective on every aspect of our home school. That way, when others fuss about what Dan and I are doing and make me second guess our decisions -- I can go back to our decision process and find God's fingerprints, reminding me that this is His way.
