Non-Fiction books/facts on CD

[The Duchess]

My six yr old dd keeps telling me how she has memorized many of her books on CD such as Charlottes Web, American Tall Tales, Five of a Kind etc. Many of these these she has not had very long. I have a 3 yr old and a 9 month old so I am finding it hard to do much with my eldest.

As she has such a sterling memory - or maybe it's just her absorbant mind... could you recommend interesting CDs that have other information, maybe even sung times tables, history etc that she could listen too?

[Ngandee]

It is not really non-fiction but we like Poetry Speaks to Children. Listening is to it is a great way to learn dozens of classic poems. Also she might like a Child's Introduction to Poetry ISBN 1579122825. She might be a little young for the book but the CD offers information about types of poetry and poems. The author of Child's Introduction to poetry also has a book and CD entitled a Child's Introduction to the Night Sky. I just discovered this. Thanks for asking the question!

I have not listened to but plan to order

Story of the Orchestra : Listen While You Learn About the Instruments, the Music and the Composers Who Wrote the Music!

We also have a CD of musical clips played by individual instruments. It is a great way to learn to discern the different sounds in musical instruments.

We have a bird call CD, although not factual, is a great skill to learn.

My library has several of the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science on cassette.

My library has Lives of Extraordinary Women: Rulers, Rebels on CD. I listened to some of it but I transfered it to my MP3 player and the sound was scratchy. I need to go back to this one because I have heard good things about it. It appears that all the "Lives of...series" have audio recordings. I just discovered that amazon has audio downloads of these books. I going to check this out.

My daughter also has an incredible memory for information that she hears read aloud or from a CD.

I keep a book blog about the books I am reading to my dd3 and ds 6 months(living in Taiwan soon to be adopted). You might like it since our children are the same age.

http://preschoolathome.typepad.com/

HTH, I know it has helped me to think about it a little more.

Nina

[moominmamma]

Boomerang!

This is a wonderful "audiomagazine" for kids 6-12, a great balance of science, history, story-telling, current affairs, humour, and the like. You can order a subscription in the mail or purchase & download from http://www.audible.com or iTunes.

Miranda

[The Duchess]

Thank you both for some great suggestions! Ngandee I checked out your blog and it is somewhat intimidating for me as I feel I am barely getting any "schooling" done, my two younger ones need me so much. Although I realized today that my dd started out the school year not knowing how to read and she is doing very well, sounding out words like "standing", also I am happy with how she is progressing in math although that it also so haphazard right now. I feel guilty sometimes becasue she is so smart and I don't feel like I am feeding her brain enough.

Maybe I am am overreacting as her favoirte thing to do is play for looooonng stretches with her little sister and their imaginary friends (they saw that Lola had one on "Charlie and Lola") Ecca, Sarah, Polly and Lucy.

I would love to find the times tables on CD in fun music form.....

[Needle in the Hay]

Have you seen the CDs on this site?
www.audiomemory.com
That might be what you are looking for.

I wouldn't worry about not doing a lot of "school" stuff. It sounds like she is learning very well and the playing is feeding her brain too! She is lucky to be able to learn in such a free way. How wonderful for the sister relationship too. It sounds great.

[Ngandee]

Duchess, I hope it wasn't my blog that was intimidating. I have one lone preschooler so I am a bit overzealous with what we do during the day. I am positive that life will be more hetic when we bring a little brother home this summer. We are also gearing up for two more adoptions in pretty quick succession, so my three year old will probably be in the same boat when she is six. On the side bar of my blog under "blogs I read" there is a wonderful blog called As Cozy As Spring. She has a six year old daughter and a two year old son. She writes about a similar struggle that you describe. Her dd6 is bright like you have described your daughter.

Take heart, I agree with Needle in the Hay, play and love are the most important part of childhood. Well that and reading.

Nina
http://preschoolathome.typepad.com/

[MSings]

Does your library have books on CD for kids? My son 6 loves some stories on CD over and over but others he listens to only once or twice. The library means we don't have to buy them. For CDs other than stories he has loved: Joyful Noise and I Am Phoenix (poems in 2 voices) by Paul Fleischman. The Story of Classical Music and Famous Composers by Darren Henley. Beethoven Lives Upstairs. Jim Weiss CDs- He and She Mythology, Gallileo and the Stargazers. Because the nonfiction CDs are generally made for older kids and history is at times violent they do bring up some potentially disturbing facts. Of these, the saddest was Gallileo- we both cried the first time we heard it because Archimedes was killed during an invasion even though the soldiers were specifically told not to kill him. Despite this the CD sparked my sons interest and we must have listened to it 10-15 times. Our library also has CDs on Explorers and Queen Elizabeth but I am holding out until my son is older as I am worried about more disturbing revelations. Tapes of Magic Schoolbus books by Joanna Cole are packed with information but also have some mildly obnoxious behavior by schoolkid characters-my son loves the books so I let him listen to the tapes. My favorite fiction CDs after Charlottes Web is Cricket in Times Square.

I actually wish my son would listen to CDs less and play imaginary games more but he is an only child and that sort of play only happens for him with other kids. Elaborate games that kids make up themselves supposedly do much more for brain develpment than learning math tables at that age and I truly believe this.

[Ngandee]

Susan,

I just ordered the Darren Henley CDfrom the library on your recommendation. Not really for dd3 but for me. Great suggestions. My dd is a first and right now an only. She does not engage in as much imaginative play as I would like. I agree with you, such play does a lot to develop the brain.

Nina
http://preschoolathome.typepad.com/