10 reasons why audiobooks are lifesavers on car trips

Since our children have been babies we have taken long car trips.  When our kids were three and under we drove to South Carolina for my brother’s college graduation.  The next year we drove up to Wisconsin for a family reunion.  The year after that we drove to California.

You get the point we take a lot of LONG car trips.

What made each of those car trips not just bearable, but fun?  Audio dramas

When the kids were little we listened to Adventures in Odyssey episodes.  We have over 30 Adventures in Odyssey sets.  I have listened to more hours of them than I care to recall.  They are amazing audio dramas with full casts and great sound effects, but my kids are outgrowing them, and there are only so many times I can listen to the Novacom saga.

Enter Heirloom Audio.  They produce audio dramas, think an audio book on steroids with sound effects, a full cast, and fast-paced.  What was even more cool, to me, was to discover many of the same people who worked on all of the productions we loved with Adventures in Odyssey are working now with Heirloom Audio.

A short detour, that is mostly related.  For years I would hear in homeschool groups on Facebook, get the G.A. Henty books, get the G.A. Henty books.  Then I started hearing, get the Heirloom audio of the G.A. Henty books, get the Heirloom audio of the G.A. Henty books.  It was repeated over and over again, and I did get a lapbook for “Under Drake’s Flag,” because my husband’s family is distantly related to Sir Francis Drake, and I have a soft spot in my heart from my childhood for that privateer.  But, I didn’t get the book, because I kept forgetting to do so.

Now, I’ve listend to the audio dramas, and I understand why everyone kept saying get these, and I’ve been scouring my library for the books, and it looks like Heirloom Audio is going to be busy for years producing these (and with John Rhys Davies as one of the actors, I will happily listen away).

My boys are obsessed with audio books, and Princess even got in on the action when listening to the Dragon and the Raven.  We would leave the car and the kids would beg to listen to more of it.

In honor of the fun we had listening to the Dragon and the Raven (and my intended plan to purchase Under Drake’s Flag, and their Civil War drama I bought a set similar to the one you’ll find linked throughout this post yesterday) I give you:

10 Reasons Audiobooks are lifesavers during car trips

This is in no way shape or form in any order.  It is very much in the order I thought of it.

10.  You drive for 8 hours before you get out of Texas, and most of it looks like this.

A photo posted by Ticia (@ticiam) on Jun 26, 2015 at 7:10pm PDT

9.  Audiobooks inspire pretend play, in our house using LEGOS.

8.  My kids cannot all agree on the same music.  Actually, my boys would simply boycott music.  Audiobooks cut down on arguments.

7.  You learn while you’re listening to the audio books: history, science, vocabulary (such great vocabulary, and since they are HEARING it, they won’t have the problem I do of not knowing how the word is pronounced)

6.  I don’t want my kids absorbed in screens for 8 plus hours a day.  Looking at a car full of kids each with their own headset makes me want to cry.

5.  Because you are not supposed to tape your kids’ mouths shut, but they will be quiet while listening to audiobooks.

4.  Audio dramas create great discussions.  Like what does honor mean?  How would you respond to (situation in audiobook)?

3.  Audio books can inspire more learning after you’re done.

2.  You should not read aloud while driving, and audiobooks don’t tire your voice out. I’ll bold this one because I like it that much.

And this one is the most important reason why audiobooks are lifesavers in our family

1.  Audiobooks keep the driver awake.  I think that alone is a lifesaver right there.

Get your own copy of The Dragon and the Raven audio drama

First you could win it:

• Heirloom Audio on Facebook
• The Extraordinary Adventures of G.A. Henty (this has more generic information about the author as well as info on the audio dramas)
• Twitter (there’s some info on their next project here, as well as on their FB account up top, and it looks so cool)
• Heirloom Audio on Pinterest (some fun looking ideas on here, I want to try the scone recipe)