when you buy your kids audio books, do you..

[kfeusse]

buy them ones that they have either read before or have had read to them, or do you buy ones that they have never be exposed to hoping they will enjoy the story?

[In the Rain]

The vast majority of our audiobooks come from the library. My kids have them checked out at all times. Some are favorites that they have already read. Some are new books they think look good, or titles I check out for them. If there is a book I want them to read, but I don't think they would read it on their own, I'll just check out the CD version. I've only bought audiobooks our library didn't have available.

[PeterPan]

I buy books I don't want to take the time to read aloud or that are enhanced by the voices and perks the narrator brings. The entire series of Little House is WONDERFUL as an audiobook. Narnia comes alive with audiobooks. I have my ds4 listening to Charlotte's Web to build his vocabulary. I haven't read it to him, and I know it'a classic he'll enjoy listening to over and over that will build toward my goals (understanding more complex language structure, adding vocabulary).

[Aurelia]

Most of the ones I have bought have been ones that DD has not been exposed to before. If I've already read it, I don't really want to spend the money on another (generally more expensive) copy of the same book, KWIM? The only exceptions are the rare ones where the audio is like a radio show (different voice actors, sound effects, abridged storyline, etc) - in that case we will both read the book and listen to the audio.

[lailasmum]

Ours are a mixture of well loved stories and new stuff.

[momtoamiracle]

Mixture.

 

Some are ones that would be too much for me to read.

 

I have bought only a couple. We get them from the library and librivox.

[redsquirrel]

We get the audio after a book has been read.

[EmilyK]

We do more audios than read aloud. So for us, it is a good way to get them exposed to books that they might not read except for the audio. My younger son is now in vision therapy and has had a harder time reading, so it is a good way to get his brain fed at his level without worrying about him reading for long stretches. We generally get more repeat use out of audios than the hard copy of books.

[Χά�ων]

I haven't bought audio books in ages but I check out audio books from the library all the time. I do not read them first but I generally have a good idea if it is appropriate or not. Right now DS is listening to The Mystery of the Middle Ages which I am not fond of. He loves it though.

[Hockey Mom]

I get them new stuff. I *try* to get them the first book of a series on audio, so that it will entice them to read the rest of the story on their own. This works really well with DS8. He's now reading the second book of the Percy Jackson series on his own, and has asked for the rest of the series for Christmas.

[Erica in OR]

The only audiobooks we have ever purchased are the dramatized versions of the Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings. The kids had done maybe one of the Narnia books before that. Those were really for the whole family, though.

 

The rest of our audiobooks come from the library. We've done a mix of checking out those that they've read already (Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, for example) and those we haven't. If you do purchase them, I wonder if there's a way to check if you like the reader or not—we're listening to the first book in the Fablehaven series right now and the reader is making me want to ditch it.

 

Erica in OR

[kalanamak]

I (we) love the Naxos Junior Classics, and I can't find them in print. So, he gets them there and no where else. Others are well above his reading level (he loved, e.g. Island of the Blue Dolphin when he was 5. No way he could have read it!). He might read them later

[Lizzie in Ma]

All of the above.

[Hunter]

I tend to pick audio books by the quality of the READER, not the author. I use them to model read aloud skills, or as an opportunity for the student to HEAR vocabulary they don't otherwise hear pronounced properly.

 

Sometimes I buy an audio book because it's not available for loan.

 

The McGuffey Readers audios I bought because I use them so often.

 

But always I'm SO picky about the READER. I care more about his/her skill than what he/she is reading.

[RootAnn]

I tend to get them books that they can't read yet, but that I know they'd enjoy. My dd#2 started out this way with Magyk by Angie Sage. We got the mp3 through our library. She loved it & wanted the next one. The library didn't have any more in the series (in audiobook format), so I bought her the next one on Audible. By the 4th book, she was actually READING it. :hurray:

 

So, I try to expand their horizons.