This Thanksgiving weekend we spent a lot of time in the car 15 hours to be exact.
7.5 hours from Cleveland to New York and then 7.5 hours back. That does not include the time we spent in traffic visiting all the people we needed to while we were actually in New York.
To help us pass the time we listened to a lot of audio books or books on tape. (Just for fun, if you are a wordie: My son and I were looking up the definition of oxymoron and ‘books on tape’ was used as an example.)
My husband and I have found that audio books for kids hold our interest as well. They are light, fun, and the good stories are actually good. And if you doze off, when you wake up, you can usually pick up on the storyline without too much trouble.
Here are some of the books on tape we have enjoyed:
The Great Brain (Great Brain, Book 1)
Ramona the Pest (Ramona Quimby (Pb))
The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy
Frindle
No Talking
Mr. Popper’s Penguins (Enhanced Edition)
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (Fudge)
This time I also got LingualFun, the French edition. The blurb on the package promised that we would learn French in no time. I was hoping my family would be fluent in French by the time we arrived in New York so that I could impress my cosmopolitan cousins with my kids jo’ie de vi’vre and sophistication. It was a no go. My suggestion to learn French was met with protests, eye rolling, and groans. I had to resign myself to the fact that my kids would have to just wow the relatives with their knowledge of their native language, English. Boring! Maybe next year! Oui Oui!