Books on CD

I don't know what you get to listen to on your car rides, but for the past few years, my kids have been stuck on the same music CDs that we listen to over and over (and over and over...) Then they get sick of a particular song and want to skip it, then they start arguing over which one of them gets to pick the music, etc... It is very frustrating.

Enter books on CD - we listened to them anytime we drove anywhere this summer and, with the exception of the person narrating the book, the car was silent. The kids really really liked listening to books this way. Lots of times when we would get home from somewhere and be pulling into the garage and a chapter wouldn't be finished yet, they would beg to keep listening just a little bit more. The only arguing I had to listen to was whose turn it was to swap the finished CD for the next one. As a bonus, we borrowed all of these from the library, so they didn't cost us a penny!

Here are some of the titles we listened to this summer:

We listened to the entire collection of the Wayside School books - Wayside School, Wayside School is Falling Down, and Sideways Stories from Wayside School. This collection was the #1 favorite of both kids. The whole collection was something like 9 hours long, so it got us through quite a bit of driving time this summer. Each chapter is about a different kid in a class at school that was built 30 stories high with 1 room on each floor. Very silly and fun.

The One and Only Ivan was a book I hadn't heard of before, but it is based off the true story of a gorilla who lived in a shopping mall and the people who freed him and took him to live at the zoo. This was really good, much more serious than Wayside School, but the kids liked it almost as much. We were really rooting for Ivan and little Ruby while we listened and were quite pleased with how the story ended.

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books were a favorite of mine when I was little, and I found they stand the test of time because the kids really enjoyed hearing about how Mrs. Piggle Wiggle cured kids of things like never wanting to go to bed, being the pickiest eater ever, talking back, etc...

The one we finished the most recently was My Father's Dragon, which is about a little boy rescuing a dragon from an island and the adventures they have along the way. Also a big hit. In fact, everything we listened to this summer was a hit. I will definitely be checking some more books on CD out of the library soon.