Why Homeschoolers Should Have an Ipod or MP3 Player!
Can MP3s and Ipods improve your children’s reading comprehension and speed? Can it help same you time teaching and story reading? Here are 7 reasons to use MP3 in your homeschool including listening to the classics, homeschool software , improving reading, Bible study, where to get FREE downloads, and more.
- Free Books: Overdrive and NetLibrary offer free books online. These are simply the best resources I’ve seen in twenty years of homeschooling! All you need is a library card number and computer to open the door to the world of classics. But to really take advantage you should have an mp3 Player. To download the free books you have to use a compatible player. (iPods will not download freebies from the online libraries.)
- Save Time: You can listen to Christian classics or fiction while you do housework, barn work, walk, in the car, doctor’s office, in bed, etc. I just finished listening to Believing God by Beth Moore (excellent!) while doing yard work.
- Story Time: Children’s audio books are great. As I write this post I am downloading The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew for my boys to listen to today. I bought a cheap set of speakers from Walmart ($10) for the mp3 and now, instead of me reading aloud, we listen to the story together. I have the speakers in my bedroom so we can crawl into bed for story time. We will continue to have our read aloud time but all the classics are available on audio so why not take a break once in a while and let someone else do the reading. See sample books available here and below.
- Memorization: Allow children to listen to learning song to memorize Scripture, math facts, foreign language, and more.
- Help Reluctant Readers: Improve basic reading skills and reading comprehension by pairing books with audio books. This will increase their word recognition and improve fluency.
- Record Audio Books: Many mp3 players have record options. Let your child make his own audio book. Have him read into the recorder. Research has indicated that as your child listens to himself and hears his own reading becoming better, his skills will likely improve.
- Educational Software: There is homeschool software available for the MP3 and iPod from kindergarten to high school math and the preparation for SATs.
Sample of Free Books Available
I listed a sampling of downloadable books in another post and below are some more of my recommendations from Overdrive. Browse the site for many more
Important Notes: The list below is just to give you an idea of available books. These are from my library. You need a library card (click through to sign in to your library). Some books are only available for 14 days- (but you can get several at a time and go back for more when you are finished). Many books you can download to CD or MP3 and keep forever (they are marked).
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The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane |
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| Following its initial appearance in serial form, Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage was published as a complete work in 1895 and quickly became the benchmark for modern antiwar… | ||
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Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan |
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| Next to The Bible, The Pilgrim’s Progress has probably been more widely read than any other book in the English language-and rightfully so. It is considered by most critics as the… | ||
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Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen |
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| Called “the greatest novel ever written” by Malcolm Muggeridge, Pride and Prejudice captures the affections of class-conscious 18th-century English families with matrimonial aims and rivalries…. | ||
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Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson |
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| In this spirited and romantic saga, a young heir named David Balfour meets his miserly uncle Ebenezer, who has illegally taken control of the Balfour estate. Ebenezer kidnaps David and plots to have… | ||
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The Problem of Pain by C. S. Lewis |
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| For centuries, Christians have been tormented by one question above all: “If God is good and all powerful, why does he allow his creatures to suffer pain?” C.S. Lewis sets out to disentangle this… | ||
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In His Steps by by Charles Sheldon |
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| An all-time best-seller, this timeless classic, written at the turn of century, has blessed millions of people who have asked the vital question, “What does it really mean to be a Christian?” Sheldon,… | ||
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Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe |
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| Shipwrecked and cast ashore onto an uninhabited island, Robinson Crusoe ingeniously carves out a solitary, primitive existence for twenty-four years. Eventually, he meets a young native whom he… | ||
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Amelia Earhart: Young Air Pioneer by Jane Moore Howe |
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| Did you know that Amelia Earhart built her own roller coaster before she was ten years old? And what do you suppose happened to her while she was exploring a spooky cave and sledding down a steep,… | ||
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Black Beauty by Anna Sewell |
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| The treasured story of a courageous horse. | ||
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The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare |
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| After witnessing his father’s crucifixion by Roman soldiers, Daniel bar Jamin is fired by a single passion: to avenge his father’s death by driving the Roman legions from the land of Israel…. | ||
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Celebrate America by Twin Sisters Productions |
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| Original, fully orchestrated vocal arrangements of time-honored patriotic classics rich in history and tradition, tributes to those who defend our freedoms, and marches. | ||
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Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White |
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| For decades, E. B. White’s charming, bittersweet tales of friendship and adventure have enchanted audiences young and old alike. The magic of CHARLOTTE’S WEB comes to life in a delightful-and… | ||
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Cheaper By the Dozen by by Frank B. Gilbreth |
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| Count ‘em—a dozen carrot topped, freckle-faced kids. Dad, a jovial optimist, successful inventor and efficiency expert is fond of doing his work at home. Mom, a psychologist, is busy putting… | ||
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David Crockett by William Groneman III |
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| Perhaps no other figure in American history is more shrouded in myth and legend than David (“Davy”) Crockett, the Tennessee frontiersman whose death at the Alamo in 1836 ensured his place in the… | ||
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Elsie Dinsmore
by Martha Finley
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| Book One in The Original Elsie ClassicsElsie Dinsmore is an endearing eight-year-old girl with several bewildering problems. She has never known her mother, who died when Elsie was a baby,… | ||
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Thanks for this info. I was planning to buy an MP3 player for my daughter because she likes music I didn’t realize it can be more than that. Thanks!
earthlingorgeouss last blog post..Wear The Suit Not The Other Way Around!
You’ve inspired me to work with my MP3 player more. We do listen on the computer for some books. But, I have yet to download to my MP3 player. I like the speaker idea to take anywhere we want.
Thanks for visiting my blog, too!
This is an answer to prayer! I’ve been wanting to find books for my kiddos to listen to, but everyone else kept mentioning having to buy them. I just can’t do that right now. Thanks for sharing this with me. I will be browsing through all of this.
Thank you also for stopping by my blog! and for the compliments.
GfG
Grateful for Graces last blog post..Works for Me: a Bowl Full of Medicine
I didn’t realize all the sources for free e-books out there. I’m thinking this is a great tip to pass along to my DN for her children. Thank you!
And thank you for the kind words about my blog! Glad you stopped by.
DW
dws last blog post..Works for Me Wednesday: Keep those receipts
Thank you Robin for sharing so many free books, especially those geared toward older children/teens. On of our favorite websites when the kiddos were younger was the Homeschool radio shows..it includes “stories” of many classics that are shortened to a half an hour for younger listeners. Their website is http://www.homeschoolradioshows.com/
Blessings
Deanne
Deannes last blog post..The Ultimate Meaning of a True Woman
I was quite excited when I read about these great resources! But, upon checking them out, they seem to be limited to certain areas and/or certain libraries? What a bummer! Thanks for sharing though.
Nessas last blog post..Wordless Wednesday – Ashley’s 9th Birthday
Hi Robin,
Thank you for the reading list with brief descriptions. I am so thankful for a list from one I can trust. I tried the links but it was only for your state Tenn. I wanted to let you know after many hours of searching I finally succeeded by searching – overdrive/audiobooks/with my county name and found my libraries site for these great audios. They did not have it on their home page and it was not very user friendly. They are clearly not advertising this to everyone. I hope this leads others to a quicker find of this FREE Treasure of books in thier area.
I’m so happy to have found this post today! I was just thinking about such a thing this morning, but didn’t know of any sites that had free audio books. Super-duper!
Mother Hens last blog post..Our Day
The very MP3 player you recommend is the one my mother gave my oldest for her birthday! Thanks for the great tips. We will be using this!!!
Don’t forget Librivox! A ton of free books to download all in the public domain. You can also volunteer for the project and read and record books for others to enjoy.
This is great info! My son has some processing challenges so we have been wanting to listen to more stories and work on comprehension. I am excited about checking into these great references! Thank you!
Thanks Robin for sharing the article, the reading lists, the how-to’s etc. I didn’t realize there was such a wealth of free resources. Thank you also for all the encouragement and wisdom over the years through your books and site. You’ve been a blessing. Debbie
Thanks Robin. I did not know that I could check out audio books from the library via the internet. I just used my library card and have checked out several!
My kids are just beginning to read so I use a slightly different approach. I load all of our listening center type books with cds into I-Tunes and then I look up the book cover artwork on the web and put it in as the album art. I make sure that it’s an edition that looks just like the book we have. If you run I-Tunes in Cover Flow mode (on your computer or Ipod), you can flip through the artwork to find a book you like, located the right book in the listening center bin, and then click on it to listen and read along. To make it easier for them, I currently only have the reading with ‘turn the page’ signals turned loaded. The different tracks might make it confusing. Also, this keeps little hands off the original cds. If you go in and make sure each on is marked as audiobook, they will all stay together quite nicely.