Monday, August 24, 2009

Audiobooks - Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner

Not quite a year ago, my husband indulged me with an iPod. For the longest time I thought they seemed a bit silly, but then I discovered their uniqueness that was very handy. (Not crazy about their battery replacement life though or having to give the iTunes people my credit card just to download free music, which I still haven't and probably won't every do.) Lucky for me the podcasts are free and come in audio and video.

Anyway, this past spring/summer I had the unfortunate event of dealing with the ominous breast tumor surgery,etc.. Fortunately, it is all working itself out and healing is still progressing. My awesome four year old bookworm though had it tough from time to time with limited mommy time. However, we did discover she really likes audiobooks. The story goes like this.

It was just a spur of the moment idea that I had one day as I headed out once again for the umpteenth time to the doctor's office. I thought hum, the awesome girl likes to hear me read I wonder if she would listen to someone else through a headset? She loved the music station with headphones at preschool, maybe this can work. So, I perused the download section from the library and there it was. One of the awesome girl's favorite friends. Pooh and his buddies available for download to the iPod just like checking out the book itself. How cool. (We started with Winnie-the-Pooh then ventured over The House at Pooh Corner, which includes stories with Tigger.)

Since the awesome girl had shown previous interest in mommy's little apparatus, I asked her if she would like to try it. Oh, the excited response. (Probably thinking something different to to keep her from getting bored or restless). Little did I know how she would be hooked. We arrived at the doctor's office and I set the iPod up. Made sure the volume was appropriate for little ears and set part one in motion. -- It was approximately a 55 minute part with three individual pooh stories read by the same guy who did the narration of the older shows. These two audiobooks are divided into 4 parts with 3 to 4 separate stories within each part, which makes it easy to listen too. --

As the doctor and I were reviewing the most recent issue, the awesome girl sat quietly in the corner listening and being very still. Mind you she has always been exceptionally good at doctor visits, veterinarian visits, dentist...well you get the picture. How I was blessed with this very active child being so still when it is really needed only God knows that. Anyway, after the visit was all over with I let her know it was time to turn it off. Oh, the look and attitude that came with it. Finally, I convinced her we do not go into parking lots listening to anything on an iPod and that she could start it up in the car.

We have since downloaded a few more books from the library and made a list of those she would like to try. We found a number of early chapter books like The Magic Tree House series and the Mercy Watson series all available and appropriate for her age. I can't say that all four year olds are up to audiobooks, but I'm sure there are a number of six and ups that would really get into it. Our library provides downloads in a number of formats and not just to iPod (that actually was just provided in the past few months). We are even trying some from the library's regular collection on her CD player. If you haven't already, think about giving audiobooks a try. The key though is who the narrator/reader is and how they read the story.

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