TheAttachedMama Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 Hi, Does anyone know of any living science books on audio? I am planning on using audiobooks as much as possible next year to make things less stressful. I love SOTW, is there anything similar for science? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Targhee Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 I don't know what ages you are looking at but I hear that SWB's The Story of Science is going to be available on Audible. We have used some wonderful fiction audiobooks to enrich science (Cosmic, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, A Wrinkle in Time, Carry on Mr Bowditch, Journey to the Center of the Earth, etc) but I don't know of any, other than the above, to use as a spine. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertflower Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 I don't know of any, but here's a link to my thread on living science books. In it there's a link to living science yahoo group and perhaps they can help you there. Listening in for more info. Hth! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAttachedMama Posted July 3, 2015 Author Share Posted July 3, 2015 I don't know what ages you are looking at but I hear that SWB's The Story of Science is going to be available on Audible. We have used some wonderful fiction audiobooks to enrich science (Cosmic, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, A Wrinkle in Time, Carry on Mr Bowditch, Journey to the Center of the Earth, etc) but I don't know of any, other than the above, to use as a spine. My kids are in 2nd and 3rd grade. :) We already read aloud LOTS of living science books. However, my toddler is making read aloud time feel stressful for me. I started using audiobooks for some other subjects and it made things feel a lot better. (I am free to keep toddler occupied.) I was hoping I could find something similar for science. Maybe someday the Quark Chronicles will be on audiobook. :) (hint, hint.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerileanne99 Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 We just got the Steven/Lucy Hawking books for kids on audio! http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1111741.George_s_Secret_Key_to_the_Universe 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAttachedMama Posted July 4, 2015 Author Share Posted July 4, 2015 We just got the Steven/Lucy Hawking books for kids on audio! http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1111741.George_s_Secret_Key_to_the_Universe I've never heard of those books before. They look great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 What If? and The Disappearing Spoon are on audiobook at Audible. Holt Science and Technology has Guided Reading Audio CDs you can purchase. It might be too old for your kids right now as they are middle school level textbooks, but something to keep in mind for the future. I think Apologia has something similar. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAttachedMama Posted July 5, 2015 Author Share Posted July 5, 2015 I have tried to listen to the Apologia books on tape, but I think they are REALLY dry. I am always surprised because I always hear people rave about them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistyMountain Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 My kids loved George's Secret Key to the Universe and the other books in the series on audio that others have mentioned. My dd even begged to watch a Steven Hawking documentary afterwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plink Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 I have tried to listen to the Apologia books on tape, but I think they are REALLY dry. I am always surprised because I always hear people rave about them. Agreed. Apologia audio is awful. We have the Human Anatomy one right now and are extremely frustrated with it. Even worse than the dry-as-toast-ness is that it isn't formatted correctly so when you import it into iTunes you need to go back and re-name each and every individual track with numbers so that it will play correctly. (No, I'm not making that up, we contacted the author and the re-numbering was their brilliant suggestion to remedy the problem). So frustrating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Could your children get into Kindle reading to them? There are several voices to choose from. DH and DD like the default female voice, but I like Brian, who has a slight English accent. Nomad Press has a great series of project books that have engaging text before each chapter's projects. Check your library's digital database. Ours has many. I haven't tried the Kindle versions to see how they read and deal with sidebars, though. The Who Was... series is great for science biographies. Audible has some. Otherwise, Kindle can read them. Again, our library has many in their digital holdings. The Magic School Bus has several audiobooks (CDs, I believe). As stupid as they are, DD likes them and learns a fair bit from them. There are some Magic Tree House books that can also be used for science. Steve Jenkins has several that Kindle may be able to read. I'm not sure how the text is on those...whether it's graphic (which Kindle can't read) or plain text. I know our library has several of Gail Gibbons on CD. I think there are more science books available on CDs than in digital format. Try running some subject searches with your library's catalog and then filtering by books on CD. Do you have access to BrainPOP, by chance? I am going to be using it heavily for science this year. That and the Nomad Press books, although I'm reading the text aloud on those. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 National Geographic Kids has several Kindle books...again not sure how they read. Would have to test them. Seymour Simon too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluegoat Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 My Family and Other Animals is on audiobook on Youtube. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAttachedMama Posted July 9, 2015 Author Share Posted July 9, 2015 Thanks PitterPatter. Great suggestions from you as always. We are actually so low tech, we dont own a kindle. I didnt know kindle will read to you. But now I think we NEED one! :) Maybe that will be Christmas this year. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 There are usually pretty good deals around Black Friday (and all Christmas season long). It's Kindle Fire that can read to you. I believe all current versions of Kindle Fire can, but keep an eye out for deals on the HDX or better, as it also has speech-to-text capabilities and is Bluetooth compatible for cordless headphones. I was able to snag one for around $120-$130 last year via Staples. We have five working Kindles in the house...two Kindle Touch, two second-generation Kindle Fire (which can read text) and one Kindle HDX. All were Christmas deals. We use them religiously. Thanks PitterPatter. Great suggestions from you as always. We are actually so low tech, we dont own a kindle. I didnt know kindle will read to you. But now I think we NEED one! :) Maybe that will be Christmas this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAttachedMama Posted July 9, 2015 Author Share Posted July 9, 2015 Thanks so much! I was going to get the kindle "kids" version, but you are saying the HDX is better? Here is another "dumb" question: Are the kids going to be distracted by a bunch of games and stuff on a kindle? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 The kids version looks like it's an HD, which would have text-to-speech (where Kindle reads to you). It also has Bluetooth. Not sure whether it has speech-to-text. You may not use the last feature anyway, but I plan to experiment with it a bit to see whether DD can compose text with it. May just end up using our PC for that. It's suppose to have such ability, but I haven't tried it yet. HD may work plenty fine for yours needs. I hadn't looked into the kids version. DD actually has a second generation Kindle Fire that I bought two Christmases ago for $70 or so. She carts it around constantly and it hasn't broken yet. DD does have some games she plays on occasion (in the car mostly), but I don' let her surf around for new ones or anything. She's more interested in listening to books, so it's never been a problem. I turn off the internet on it, unless I'm downloading something for her. With limited memory, it can only hold so many games anyway. (Please disregard typos, as I'm having a migraine with aura right now and can hardly see a thing I'm typing. Just started up at the beginning of this post.) Thanks so much! I was going to get the kindle "kids" version, but you are saying the HDX is better? Here is another "dumb" question: Are the kids going to be distracted by a bunch of games and stuff on a kindle? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 The Kindle Fires have really strong parental controls. You can knock out wi-fi and pretty much everything except Amazon itself with passwords. That is how we keep our kids from getting distracted on them. Literally the only thing they have access to when the parental controls are on is books. :D 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAttachedMama Posted July 12, 2015 Author Share Posted July 12, 2015 (Please disregard typos, as I'm having a migraine with aura right now and can hardly see a thing I'm typing. Just started up at the beginning of this post.) Thanks for taking the time to reply even though you weren't feeling good. I hope you are feeling better now! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IfIOnly Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 subbing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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