Hi all! My husband and I are taking our 1 and 3 year old girls on a long road trip over the holidays. The drive will likely take 8-10 hours depending on the number of and length of stops. We have travel art supplies, toys, and an iPad but we thought audiobooks would be a fun distraction for them as well. Any suggestions on audiobooks for that age range? Bonus points for ones with music/singing or in an anthology of sorts with multiple books on a CD. I assume most are fairly short and I don’t want to have 20 different books/CDs with us in the car.
-
Not exactly a book but my kids love the sparkle stories podcast! You could download a bunch of old episodes free and play off your phone. I also think on their website you can buy some anthology type ones that go together ... last year there may have been some sort of Christmas collection?
Huge bonus: the reader has a really soothing voice and it’s not “kid annoying” at all.
I can also check out audiobooks from our library using the Libby app (our library got it this year so not sure how wide spread) and it makes it really easy to browse and play audiobooks using my phone. We got a Beatrix Potter collection and a bunch of Junie B Jones (the latter kids like But I find annoying). Probably a bit old for your kids but to some extent I think they just like hearing the readers regardless of content!
-
We love the Stories podcast! Lots of short (30 min or less) stories that can be downloaded for free. Most have songs incorporated and all have good lessons. I don't mind listening to them a few times but my boys have favorites they want to listen to over and over again so headphones would be a great investment. I like LilGadgets Connect with Shareport.
-
Oh awesome - I was wondering if there were kid appropriate podcasts! I figured they probably wouldn’t be fans of the murder mystery and political podcasts we usually stream ha.
-
I tried Sparkle Stories when my DD was 4 and she wasn't ready for it. On trips she did best with stories that she can already visualize which is pretty much all of Disney. Now that she's almost 6 she's able to follow along better with stories.
-
If you have Spotify, there is a playlist called Disney Stories and it is basically every Disney movie ever condensed into a 15-20 min story with the actual character voices and music. My daughter loves it.
-
My girls love the Circle Round podcast. It’s folk stories with famous actors doing the voices, and you can print off coordinating coloring sheets from their website if that would help your 3 year old focus. My now 4 year old has loved it for a year or so. Our other favorite podcasts might be over their head, but Read Aloud Revival is great for recommendations.
Our library has an audio books section too. Most of the toddler books are short but come with a coordinating picture book to follow along, which might be helpful for getting the concept. Otherwise we listen to some of their favorite easy chapter books. The Princess in Black was the biggest hit on our last road trip.
-
@castilrm: if you have a library card, you can most likely check out audiobooks via the Overdrive or Libby app (which is so much more portable than 20 CDs). Check out the Read Aloud Revival website and podcast for book recommendations. She also has a book, The Read Aloud Family which helped me understand that my kids aren't going to be ready to go from short pictures books to chapter books overnight and it takes time to build that listening endurance.
-
@caitlanc: agree about Stories Podcast! My LOs are 5 and almost 8 and they love it. They don’t do any activities in the car because they get motion sickness easily. But we listen to tons of children’s podcasts and we also have a bunch of French language story CDs. My kids seem more than happy to listen to stories and don’t ask for other things to do.
-
The Winnie the Pooh audiobook is awesome. The actors really get into it.
-
I just downloaded the Frozen storybook for my daughter (only $5 from Audible) and it’s 27 short stories. She liked it so I’ll probably get more.
Reply
Subscribe to our newsletter
- Google Plus
- Stumbleupon
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Pinterest
- Favorite0
10 comments