The best way that two of my children learn is by listening. They are auditory learners. How do I know? They are drawn to any sort of recording. Audio books. They love for books to be read aloud. They both even love a lecture type setting.
Back when my eldest children were preschoolers we started a habit called morning room time. Some friends of ours told us about it. My husband and I took turns recording our voices. We said our address, the ABCs, Bible verses and we sang hymns and children’s songs. It was a wonderful way for our children to build the habit of independent learning. And we continued that habit through the rest of our five children.
When my mother heard that my son loved the Audubon First Field Guides, she took the stack and read them aloud – recording her voice. Then, during afternoon quiet time, my son would sit and soak up all that information while he listened to Nana reading.
Read aloud science time with our elementary children usually includes free play while they listen.
Auditory Learning With Apologia
Along the way we have been blessed by certain resources. One resource that truly stands out is the audio textbook series by Apologia. You may remember that last year we thoroughly enjoyed Exploring Creation with Astronomy. Well, we finished the textbook in April. But this summer my son has been going back through it – with the audio version.
Listen to an Apologia audio book while completing notebooking activities.
How We Use Audio Resources in Our Homeschool
- This summer my son has asked to listen to Astronomy. So we put the CD right in the DVD player in the family room and listen.
- Pull audio tracks into our iTunes library to have mobile listening capability.
Do you have auditory learners? We do! This is THE complete audio recording of the course as read by author Jeannie Fulbright. My techie husband put this on a memory stick for us so we can listen to it in the car. Astronomy on the go. Road school!
- Take the iTunes library to the car and listen while we get all those errands done around town.
Apologia Instructional DVDs – another level of learning!
Apologia Resources We Love
- Apologia Swimming Creatures – elementary
- Apologia Land Animals – elementary
- Apologia General Science – middle school
- Apologia Biology – high school
- Apologia Marine Biology – high school
- Apologia Chemistry – high school
- Apologia Constitutional Literacy – high school
- Writers in Residence – middle/high
Explore all the audio and digital resources by Apologia at the Apologia website.
Tonight! 7/28/16 Apologia Facebook Party with special guest, Jeannie Fulbright (author of the Young Explorer series of science textbooks and the voice of the auditory series as well!)
In summary, I encourage you to offer learning in several different ways and simply have it ‘available’ for down time. (More on my Favorite Resources for Auditory Learners). You just may notice that your child thrives in learning a certain way. And, ultimately, what you will be doing is building a love of learning.
I love how Apologia offers so many resources for learning that meet the needs of our wide range of learning styles.
Homeschooling since 2000, Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos with five children. She has seen the fruits of home education with three grads so far! With their You ARE an artist art curriculum she, "Nana" and her family are passionate about growing a love of art. She also shares helpful homeschool habits at Hodgepodge and is author of the book, Help! I’m Homeschooling! She and her husband, Steve, are owners of The Curriculum Choice.
Hi I have a query ( I hope that’s ok to ask you?).Is there a DVD/ Video instruction / MP3 ( I’m not sure of the correct option here as I’m not technically very clued up!)that goes with the Apologia Exploring Creation with Chemistry? I know nothing about this subject & am trying to find some kind of tutorial help for my 2 Grade 9 & 10 children to use. They are due to begin this course soon as they are on Module 10 of the Apologia Biology.I appreciate any ideas you can goive me ….if you have the time. ( I live in Cape Town South Africa).Thank you very much.
Hi Kate! There is a streaming video instruction of Exploring Creation with Chemistry. You can find it here: http://www.apologia.com/home/474-chemistry-streaming-instructional-video.html
Oh my goodness, thank you SO much for this information! My oldest who is seven is an auditory learner and I struggled last year with figuring out how and what to use to help her learn and enjoy learning. I loved the notebook in the picture you included, does that go along with an audio series, did I read that correctly? I am so excited that you shared all of this great info!
Jen – It has been such a blessing for us to have this layer of learning! Apologia offers notebooking journals to accompany their science texbooks. Here is an easy link to explore more: http://www.apologia.com/187-k-6th-grade
Thank you So much! 🙂
Is there any way we can access Nana’s recordings of the first field guides? I have some auditory learners and they LOVE hearing Nana’s voice!
Aw! That would be awesome. Right now they are on cassette tapes. Maybe we can transfer them sometime. Great idea 🙂