How to Painlessly Add More Books to Your Reading Schedule

Posted by Jimmie | 0 comments

“So many books… so little time” is a common refrain among bibliophile homeschoolers. Laundry has to be folded, meals have to be cooked, and errands must be run. As much as we love reading aloud to our children, homemaking often keeps us from doing it as often as we would like. And we are not the only ones who are busy! Our children attend music lessons, help with household chores, and need time outdoors for free play.

Despite our busy lives, I’ve discovered a secret for injecting more books into our schedule – audio books.

Whether downloaded for free, borrowed from the library, or purchased at a retail store or website, audio books are a super way to “read” more books with your children. We store our audio CDs on the shelves along with our books for constant access. Our family rule is that you must ask permission to watch a movie, but listening to audio books is okay anytime.  I love that my daughter reaches for an audio book when she’s bored instead of watching television or playing video games.

My daughter’s favorite time to listen to audio books is while she cleans up her room. The story engages her mind and helps her forget the drudgery of her task. I love that she’s hearing good fiction or classic biographies while I’m busy with my own work elsewhere in the house.

Of course, we listen to audio books together as well. That’s the best situation because we can discuss what we’ve heard and share the memories of the book together, even weeks later.

Here are some great times to sneak in more books with audio books:

• During meal preparation and clean up
• While drawing or crafting
• As you assemble a model
• When sick in bed
• During a trip in the car
• As you wait for an event or a doctor’s appointment (use headphones)
• While folding laundry

An average juvenile fiction novel at Audible.com is around 3 hours of listening time. So if you listened to an audio book only half an hour each day, you could easily add fifty titles to your yearly reading list.

Will you choose audio books for fun or for academics? That’s up to you. You can certainly choose historical fiction to match your history curriculum. Or you may want to choose some literary classics that aren’t scheduled in your language arts curriculum. Look at some of those great books lists that you never seem to get around to reading, and choose some titles to listen to on your computer or MP3 player.

Do you use audio books? What time works best for listening? And do you have some suggested titles that were big hits with your family? Please share them in the comments.

Jimmie is a former public school teacher turned homeschooling stay-at-home-mom. A sense of humor, faith, and creativity keep her “pressing on” in her unique situation — living and traveling abroad with an only child in a bilingual environment. Visit her blog at Jimmie’s Collage.