In my family audio books are a real hit. Not only for the children, but my husband loves listening to them too. I seem to fall asleep to them, and for me it’s often ‘How to’ books or podcasts, but maybe that’s because I listen to them at bedtime!
For my younger ones we have a Tonie Box and they absolutely love listening to the different stories and characters as part of our bedtime routine: we normally have a story that they read to us, then we read a story to them, and then we say goodnight, leave the room with their night light on and put on their favourite audiobook on to drift off to sleep to. I’ve found that if the story is too interesting, they will struggle to fall asleep, so often we pick a story that they have heard so often that they easily drift off! 😉

Most people have heard about the Tonie Box by now – and it really is a great way for even very young children to be able to put on an audio book when they need a bit of downtime. Even things like ‘fast forwarding’ is easy – you simply gently tap the left of the Tonie box to go forward and the right side to go back again. Magic! (Although we didn’t read the instructions and that little feature took us a while to figure out! 😊)
They are available in most stores now – including amazon and they also have their own site . There is a huge selection of stories available too – and in different languages for those that are bi-lingual out there! My little ones love the Octonauts, Thomas the Tank Engine and the Disney books. And more recently we’ve noticed there is a Spidey package – which is one that’s on the list to try!
In terms of audio books, we tend to use Audible, as you can get a free book a month if you sign up for a subscription and it syncs with your Alexa, phone and other devices.
The Harry Potter series is a firm favourite in our house – and it is narrated by the brilliant Steven Fray – who genuinely makes each of the characters sound like a totally different person. The kids have listened to these books, over and over – on long car journeys, at home when they want some down time, or even at the breakfast table when the story got too exciting to wait!
My daughter has recently started listening to the Magic Faraway Tree (narrated by Kate Winslet) and a whole host of Roald Dahl books – some of which are narrated by Roald Dahl himself, which is a lovely touch.
And then they also like listening to books such as the Wimpy Kid Diary series and some of the David Baddiel books, including The Boy who got accidentally famous.
And finally, my husband recently started listening to Game of Thrones – and has found that it’s a great way to immerse himself in another world and switch off and relax.
What do you do to relax and have a bit of down time? I’d love to hear your favourite reads or ‘listens’.
Have a lovely rest of your week,
Anika
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