Parenting – How to Get Your Child to Be Quiet

The kids are restless and bored. What can you provide them that will:

Have them sit quietly while you get some work done?

Help your kids improve their reading skills without asking them to read?

Grow their vocabulary without giving them spelling assignments ?

Entertain them with funny characters?

The answer is to play audiobooks.

When my youngest son was six years old, he loved to listen to music tapes. He would turn up the volume and sit there enthralled with the beat of the bass. He then would go around the house singing in his childlike voice, "Get on the bus, Gus. Pick up the key, Lee, Do not be so coy, Roy …"

We bought him a set of cupped headphones and he thought that was the coolest thing ever – much better than a toy.

Just think how your child could be entertained and educated at the same time by listening to audio books in bed or while traveling. Young children, especially, love to be read to.

Somehow, through the years, audio books have been discarded in favor of videos. Yet video does not let your child express his or her imagination like a book does. Check your local library to see if children's audio books are available for check-out.

Make a list of your child's favorite storybook characters: Charlotte's Web, The Velvet Rabbit, Bearenstain Bears, etc. for young children. My young 8-year-old daughter loved the classic Judy Blume books.

Besides storybooks, there are also educational informative books available. And, if your child has a special interest, do a search on the Internet for CDs they can listen to for a new learning experience.

Although picture books can bring a story to life, an audio book can better bring your child's imagination to life as he or she visualizes the characters and storyline.

Children who can not yet read have an abundant intellectual capacity. They understand material that is vocalized to them.

Listening to audio books helps increase your child's comprehension level, giving them a boost for academic achievement. And, listening to a story can be a pleasurable and exciting experience which may advance your child into learning in later years.

I used to read to my children all the time. They developed a love for books from an early age.

As a special treat for a special occasion, record your own voice onto a CD and let your young children hear Mom or Dad reading their favorite stories to them. They will treasure it into adulthood.

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