Mesmerize Kids on Your Trip: Bring Back Books on Tape

Recently, my family of six embarked on a dreaded 15-hour road trip. Worse, we were taking the car without the DVD player! (However did people make trips such as these without video entertainment?) Luckily, all was not lost, thanks to a stop at the popular breakfast restaurant, Cracker Barrel.

Waiting for a table, we browsed the gift shop and my husband stumbled across the CDs available to rent; books on tape. These days, I guess they would be called "Books on CD." Either way, it was a pretty good deal where the shop charges you for the CD set, then refunds almost all of the cost when the CD is returned at any other Cracker Barrel in the Nation! Nice.

For an impromptu idea - it was worth a try. So, we purchased the popular book - on CD -, Eclipse (Little Brown Books, May 2010), by Stephanie Meyer. Due to this rental, it was the fastest trip of our lives. Time flew. I was totally unprepared for how captivated my kids would be and how quiet the ride would become...for hours! Let's take a look at the fabulous benefits of books on CD, so you can change your next road trip into a learning frenzy.

A Shot of Vocabulary!

If we had a DVD player, we could have rented a movie. But a movie will never be a book. What can be accomplished in a single screen shot takes 2 pages to describe in writing. As the words filled the car and the hush of noisy kids quieted, I was attune to the vocabulary of the author. I realized there were so many words that my kids have likely never heard, or wouldn't hear for years. In context, of a story that peaked there interest, they understood word meanings beyond their years. They were learning. Books on CD aren't just entertainment, they are an education.

Imagine This!

Staring out the window, or lying on a pillow in a backseat with eyes closed the kids imaginations took flight. I could see it on their faces with raised eyebrows, or frowns, so many random expressions that revealed they were seeing something in their mind. Listening, they were forced to use their brain in a way that would be void staring at a screen. They had to visually picture the scenes. It wasn't as passive as watching a movie, though we were all sitting. It was active brain use and something about that was gratifying as a parent.

I wondered if they were seeing what I was seeing. I wondered if their minds picture was on screen, how closely it would compare to mine. It was neat to understand that the story was becoming tailored to their realm of understanding and their limits, not filmmakers...and not mine. For a moment, I glimpsed the joy of what my parents describe when they talked about sitting around the radio in the early 50's. Something about that throwback in time was refreshing. Imagination reigns.

Bye Bye Miles

In all this learning and imagining, time rolled by. If you haven't rented or purchased a book on tape lately, I would encourage you to turn off the DVD and schedule it for your next road trip. You might be surprised how quiet the car becomes when your mind wraps around the story that takes you all to the doorstep of your destination.