5 Days of Homeschooling Essentials, #5: Our iPod

Posted on by

(This week several members of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew have been giving everyone a glimpse into their daily lives by sharing “5 Days of Homeschooling Essentials.”)

ipod photo: ipod -----.jpg

My last “essential” might seem odd to some people, but I use iPods a lot in our homeschool.  It’s a way to change things up a bit from traditional school methods, and it works well for all of us.  The boys like listening while they do other things (not realizing it’s actually “school”), and I like being able to multi-task and get school done while I’m driving, cooking dinner, etc.

Our “Listening Lessons” have been a regular part of our day since I first started doing preschool with Ian.  It started as just stories (see “Learning as we play…and drive…and live“), but then I realized I could do a lot more.  Now we spend lots of time each week listening to Bible passages, Scripture memory songs, catechism questions, poetry, songs about Bible stories, podcasts, radio dramas, classical music and any other audio resources I find that fit in with our current lessons.

To make it easy to find what I want during the week, I like to plan ahead.  I create playlists in iTunes with everything I want us to listen to related to our lessons.  Sometimes I’ll create multiple lists, like one for Bible and one for the composer we’re learning about.  For example, here is my Bible “Listening Lesson” from our week on “God Creates Man“:

At the same time we were studying Beethoven, so I had another playlist for when we wanted to do composer study:

I am amazed at how much my children have absorbed just from turning on the iPod as we drive or as they play.  I often hear Ian retelling a Bible story using the exact words from the ESV because he’s heard it several times.  I’ve gotten numerous comments on both the boys’ extensive vocabularies, which I think are a direct result of the hours they’ve spent listening to quality literature as they fall asleep each night.

It might seem overwhelming at first to know where to look for things to add to a playlist for your kids, so here are a few of my “go-to” resources.  (I’ve also shared many playlists on blog posts over the past few years so you could search this site for “listening lesson” and/or “playlist” to see other examples.)

Favorite Audio Resources:

Of course, don’t forget to check your local library.  Ours has a wonderful collection of audiobooks in the children’s section.  It’s also a great place to find classical music.

And that wraps up my top five!  How about you?  What would you consider top five essentials to your homeschool experience?

In case you missed them, here are links to my other posts in this series.

Essential #1: God’s Guidance

Essential #2: My Husband

Essential #3: Books, Books, and More Books

Essential #4: The Internet

Click on the picture below to see what the rest of Crew has blogged about this week! 

5 Days of Homeschooling Essentials

Or if that list is too daunting, get started with these blogs:

Marcy @Ben and Me

Lisa @ Golden Grasses

Tess @ Circling Through This Life

Victoria @ Homemaking with Heart

Kayla @ The Arrowood Zoo

Joelle @ Homeschooling for His Glory

Melissa @ Grace Christian Homeschool

Beth @ Ozark Ramblings

Rebecca @ Raventhreads

Posted in Our Vision tagged with ,

One comment