Homeschool Audiobooks: Increase Reading Fluency and Fun

Audiobooks can be an important tool for homeschool families. Whether you are using audiobooks to encourage a reluctant reader, to help an auditory learner experience a favorite book, or even to support a child with a visual impairment, audiobooks are a great way to encourage the whole family to read. If you’re looking for more encouragement about how to use audiobooks in your homeschool, keep reading.

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Raising Excited Readers….Or Not

When my oldest son was just learning to read, he loved everything about it. He has a photographic memory, so reading came very easily for him.

At the time, I had no idea what I was seeing from him was not very typical in terms of learning to read. Especially for boys. He went into kindergarten reading and was therefore bored. I got lots of emails from his teachers that year.

Homeschooling was wonderful for him. He could read whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted…and loved it.

He devoured books. Truly I couldn’t keep enough books in the house. I congratulated myself on my “spectacular” parenting.

Then came my younger son. I bet you already know where this is going, don’t you?

He was the exact opposite of my oldest son in every way possible. Including the reading part.

He was learning to read, but it was much more of a struggle for him. He struggled with fluency and would get very frustrated with reading in general.

It was very disheartening, and I truly didn’t know how to help him.

So much for congratulating myself on raising natural and enthusiastic readers. Ha!

Racking My Brain for Answers

 For some reason, I always think I need to come up with some answer in my brain; but with this, I was truly not sure how to help him.

I wasn’t sure if he just wasn’t a “reader” like his older brother or if there were steps I could take to help him become a stronger reader and more importantly enjoy it more.

During this time, I became ill and was eventually diagnosed with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. I had to get creative to maintain our homeschool during those early days of my illness and diagnosis.

I discovered audiobooks searching for ways to homeschool with low energy, and we have truly never looked back. We started using audiobooks for our literature and history read-aloud books. Our lives have never been the same since.

That sounds dramatic, but it’s the truth.

Unexpected Results 

I started with literature audiobooks. I made sure my boys had a print book to follow along with, either on their kindles or actual books.

Sometimes they would play with Lego or cars or something during our read-aloud time, and other times they would follow along with the text.

After just a short time using the audiobooks and following along, my younger son’s vocabulary improved dramatically. He also started having much better fluency in his reading.

He still won’t win any speed reading contests, but his reading level improved several levels in just a short amount of time.

I was truly shocked. Many people spend years and a good bit of money on curriculum trying to improve their child’s reading ability. For me, it happened by accident.

I wasn’t even trying to improve his reading but simply trying to get all our school work accomplished. However it happened, I’m truly grateful, and you can take advantage of my happy accident too!

Audiobooks Changed Our Homeschool 

At that point, we made the switch to being a literature-based homeschool. It was the best change we could have made in our homeschool.

We love stories, and our family culture is now truly one of stories. We love exciting adventures and even sometimes the heartbreak of an amazing tale.

My kids have learned facts & figures, but we have also learned about character development, influenced our worldview and broadened it, and we have learned how to be empathetic to others.

All of these have been valuable life lessons that my children can take with them into adulthood, and then they can share with their own children someday. That is my biggest homeschooling goal of all!

We’ve also had a TON of fun doing it too. We love to talk about the stories that have shaped our family, and I think it really makes us unique.

Homeschool Audiobooks for Your Family

You can get access to free audiobooks with a free trial of Audible. Download the free Audible app to listen to some of these classic stories with your family. After the free trial, you can continue your Audible subscription with an Audible membership through your Amazon account. You can also get access to some audiobooks that are available as free downloads through Kindle unlimited, which can be a great way to get some free classic audiobooks.

Getting Started with Audiobooks

As a homeschool mom, it’s so easy to share great books with your kids when you add audiobooks to your homeschooling day.

History or Literature read-aloud choice

The entire family can learn about history through classic literature, explore a science book, or share a favorite chapter book. This is a great way to add an extra subject or two into your homeschool.

Free reading time

Kids often love choosing a fun audiobook to enjoy as a part of their homeschool day.

Car trips/Errands

Listen to an audiobook during long drives in the car or even during your family road trips.

Doctor appointments

Good audiobooks can be a great way to pass the time during a long wait at an appointment.

Bedtime

Young kids might enjoy relaxing with an audiobook before going to sleep.

Meals and Snack time

Don’t be scared to introduce higher-level audiobooks than you might try to have them read independently.

Benefits of Audiobooks for Homeschooling

There are so many benefits to using audiobooks:

• Improves vocabulary & spelling
• Increases reading level
• Makes reading fun for struggling readers or movers & shakers

Favorite Audiobooks in Our Family

Check out this homeschool book list of some of our favorites to get you started:

• Harry Potter 1-8 – JK Rowling
• Keeper of the Lost Cities – Shannon Messenger
• The Wingfeather Series – Andrew Peterson
• Green Ember Series – S.D. Smith
• The Redwall Series – Brian Jacques
• How to Train Your Dragon – Cressida Cowell
• My Father’s Dragon – Ruth Stiles Gannett
• Five Children & It Series – E. Nesbit
• The Enchanted Castle – E. Nesbit
• The Magic City– E. Nesbit
• Tales from Shakespeare by Charles Lamb
• The Hobbit – JRR Tolkein
• “Who Was…” Series
• Rangers Apprentice Series – John Flanagan

Using Audiobooks in Your Homeschool

You are limited only by your imagination. I don’t insist on “certain types” of audiobooks here. Rather, I want my children to read for fun as well as for educational reasons.

On the same day, someone might be listening to The Hobbit and Harry Potter.

However you choose to do it, I know that audiobooks can truly help your children love reading more, improve their reading abilities, and even give you a bit of a break while they listen.

To help you get started with audiobooks, I have included with this post an “Audiobook Activity” pack. It includes a list of activity ideas to keep hands busy while listening, doodle pages, I Spy activity pages, and even a notebooking page you can use with older kids.

Thank you to Pam DeArmon from Our Homeschool Hive for writing this guest post!