We liked d'aulaires on audio, also Jim Weiss and Atticus the storyteller on audio.

Heads up for any Great Courses fans who are audible members, or who plan to join even for a short time. You probably already know about the mobile app and the free Great Courses lectures on there (about 8-10 miscellaneous lectures from different courses). What I didn't know about was the single lectures that you can "purchase" as a member for free. I found them by searching for "great courses" on the website (instead of going to great courses in the drop down menu). I just "bought" 29 lectures for free on a variety of topics. Of course, they won't be as useful as a full course, but if you or your family likes listening to them for fun, or 30 minutes of thought-provoking content in the car, it is a good deal.

That's great. My kids are actually good on getting around our city but I agree that using maps to walk around, public transport, etc., is a much neglected skill these days.

Thanks so much! I had a feeling you would reply since you are the storehouse of knowledge!

I think I have seen this discussed here before, but I'm having no luck searching. My older son and I have been discussing practical life skills to have before leaving home. My family wasn't very intentional about this and I ended up with lots of holes. Not a problem, but I would like to expose my kids to different sorts of things that they would need to know how to do / how they work as a functioning adult. I'm imagining day to day sorts of things, but if there are items that are longer term and would fit into a gap year that's great too. The sorts of things that spring to mind are various sorts of basic cooking, how to handle checking accounts and tax returns, but I'm sure there's a ton of things I'm not thinking of. I seem to remember a book or checklist that someone recommended along those lines. Any ideas?

Chiming in late, but my high schooler and I are listening to Foundations of Eastern Civilization, a Great Courses available on Audible. We're both finding it very enjoyable and rounding out what has been a Western Civ heavy exposure to history. With the Audible app, he and I are both listening separately while we each go for walks, work out, travel time, etc., and we discuss later. You could do something similar with the Great Courses app and downloading the videos if you didn't want to stream them away from Wi Fi.

Yes, it is a bummer that there isn't more Marrin on audible. My kids loved audio books of his on cassettes from the library. I remember one on Lincoln that was especially good.

My kids love audiobooks but it has taken me a while to get as into them. For me, I find they really help me do monotonous household chores that I used to dread or delay (cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc.). Maybe start there before using them while driving?

Last I saw on Facebook, she was asking for opinions on types of narrators, maybe a couple of weeks ago? That makes me think it is a ways out.

She has said that it would be there.

I'm listening to it right now. Yes the material is painful. Very well done book and great on audio. I'm encouraging my high school son to listen.

Sorry not to reply earlier. I guess what I figured out was by trial and error and may not be correct. I first joined as a typical monthly member. We were still using CDs mostly and I only joined to get things that I couldn't find that way (some titles were just not on CD). I was so not focusing on my membership that I think I let a credit lapse since they only let you roll over a certain number (which I think is awful). I think if one is still on the typical monthly plan that Great Courses are still a very good deal. Just make sure to not wait to use your credits too long or you will hit the rollover limit. Anyway, we got into using Audible almost exclusively as a family, and over the years between all of us we were using a lot of credits, so I became an annual member. A lot of credits but it works out to about $9.50 per credit. So I only buy things with credits usually that we need for school and cost more than 9.50 on sale or when we need them (because I don't always plan ahead), or there's something someone really, really wants. Most of my personal listening comes from Daily Deals (which I check every day) or on the low cost or free ones that are sometimes available. There are great threads in the forums on goodreads and mobilereads that alert me to sales or specials. Amazon at times has classics available for free or very little. There are threads on WTM about that. Part of the advantage for us with Audible is the mobility of it. My older son is on the bus and listens to a book he downloaded. My younger son wants to listen to something at home that we own and I just download it no matter where we are in the house, or if we are at grandma's. I want to go back to some of our CD titles with him but it is hard since Audible is so convenient.

Britannia looks great. I did notice at least 4 titles on Audible (2 marked for kids) that are overviews of the Kings and Queens of England. For kids: http://www.audible.com/pd/Kids/Kings-and-Queens-of-England-Audiobook/B00B8Z5EJ8/ref=a_search_c4_1_4_srTtl?qid=1429406185&sr=1-4 http://www.audible.com/pd/Drama-Poetry/Kings-and-Queens-Audiobook/B005WKP6L6/ref=a_search_c4_1_4_srTtl?qid=1429406412&sr=1-4 not specifically for kids but a summary: http://www.audible.com/pd/History/Kings-and-Queens-of-England-Audiobook/B0036GRGRU/ref=a_search_c4_1_3_srTtl?qid=1429406185&sr=1-3 this one says it is a brief history but is 14 hours: http://www.audible.com/pd/History/A-Brief-History-of-British-Kings-and-Queens-Audiobook/B00BM7J8A8/ref=a_search_c4_1_5_srTtl?qid=1429406304&sr=1-5

When I was a young adult, I did a class (done through my parents' church, who had partnered with a local Jewish congregation) where we visited about 12 different types of Christian and Jewish services (different denominations). It was very interesting and something I wish I had gotten myself together to do with my kids, and tried to expand beyond those two religions. We read a book called "How to be a Perfect Stranger" which was helpful.

That Island Story audio looks great. I think my 12 year old would like it.