Learning History Through Audio Books - Freebie & Giveaway
Monday, September 10, 2012 at 5:00AM
Becoming familiar with Jim Hodges Audio Books has been a tremendous blessing for our family. Listening to audio books on our way to and from co-op, baseball, and running errands has allowed us to make good use of our time AND enjoy that time as well!
It should be no secret that we love learning about history through living books. While I love reading to my children, it's not possible to read aloud to them AS MUCH as I did when they were both elementary aged. They still, however, need to hear quality literature each and every day.
An author I was not familiar with was G.H. Henty. (If you've never heard of him, you should take a minute to learn about him.) We had been missing out on a wealth of wonderful historical fiction! Over the past month we have had the joy of listening to In The Heart of the Rockies, and True to the Old Flag, two of the many Henty books on audio by Jim Hodges.
{For more information listen to "How Henty Helps with History, Geography, Vocabulary, and Character." }
About Jim Hodges
Mr. Hodges and his wife, Monica, homeschooled their three children all the way through high school. He is a 20 year Navy veteran. His dream was to read and record books and his wife supported him in that dream. The result is a vast collection (101 Henty titles to be exact!) of quality audio recordings that are of tremendous benefit to the homeschool community.
Mr. Hodges told me his misson is:
To help parents in training up Godly, well-educated men and women by providing historically accurate, exciting, entertaining audio products that model the morals and character of Christ.
The Audio Books : Format and Downloading
The books come on a .mp3 CD, which means they can be played on an .mp3 CD player or on your computer. These CDs are on average $25. When we received our CDs I immediately put them on the computer and they automatically downloaded into iTunes. They were then easily transferrable to my daughter's iTouch.
(Many of the books are also available as an instant .mp3 download, which is quite convenient. The downloads average $18.)
I created a playlist for each of the Hodges audio books and we were set to listen! One of the books we listened to together (In the Heart of the Rockies, because we are visiting Colorado in a month), and the other my daughter listened to independently.
There's something very "mature" about carrying your iTouch for doing "schoolwork". The technology combined with the quality literature was a big hit with my daughter.
I'm pleased to share a FREE DOWNLOAD of a G.H. Henty book with you so you can hear firsthand what one sounds like. Stories of the Pilgrims is available for immediate download. You simply have to provide your email address and the download code IHSPilgrims.
Henty Audio Book Extras
Many of the books come with downloadable vocabulary guides. One of our books, True to The Old Flag, has an accompanying vocabulary guide. As you can see, the guide is comprehensive and can be used to enhance listening. (This is just a snippet of what I downloaded.) In this way, you can use these books with a variety of ages. My son is seven and has been listening intently, but for my eleven year old daughter I want something MORE to do with the book.
Our Impressions of the Jim Hodges Audio Books
- I have found these books to be a wonderful addition to our homeschool. Not only are they VERY age appropriate for my sixth grader, but my second grader also is listening.
- Mr. Hodges has a very natural reading style. My daughter explained it to me perfectly. She said that he wasn't TOO dramatic, but just interesting enough in his reading style. You see, we have been listening to a dramatic reading of another book (NOT a Hodges book) and the theatrics almost got to be too much. They distracted from our listening.
- The format of an .mp3 CD is perfect for our family. Our mode of listening is now mostly iPhone and iPod and transferring the books to our devices was quite easy.
- The vocabulary guides are an added bonus. Use them or not, but it's nice to have the option!
I have good news!
Jim Hodges Audio Books is offering Any 2 Audio CDs to one lucky reader. This giveaway will be open until MIDNIGHT, September 16, 2012.
*I received this product free of charge. I was financially compensated for this post. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience and not influenced by financial compensation.
Reader Comments (33)
We are fairly new to audiobooks in homeschool but are using the Mystery of History audiobooks this year.
Would love love love to win this! We adore audio books and I like Jim Hodges voice! Pick me!
We would love to win!
We started listening to audiobooks this summer. My girls and I listened to all of the Little House Books and LOVED it!!! We liked listening at lunchtime. My 2 year old will walk up to the CD player and say "Wawa" because she wants to hear a Little House story!!
Sounds Great!
We listen to Bible stories in the car all the time, and my kids LOVE it! I'm anxious to try other things with them.
We use audio books all the time! The kids just finished another this weekend and started DragonSpell today (daddy recommended it!). We have the Stories of the Pilgrims one already and it's great. That has been our favorite book to read for years in November, getting it on audio last year was a wonderful blessing.
Mary, you know we love audio books! What a great giveaway! I haven't ever listened to any of these by Jim Hodges before.
We LOVE audio books and are always looking for valuable new titles!
We use them sometimes for literature, especially when I cannot read aloud for whatever reason! I love audiobooks!
I have two boys who will love Henty in a couple years. We'd love to win!
We love listening to audio books!
I'd love to win these CD's. My boys would love them.
Yes I try to use audio books as much as possible. We seem to do a lot of car schooling so they come in handy.
Would love to win these. We are new to homeschool but are using Living Books and would really enjoy these.
Wow!, what a great history resource!
I do use audio books. My adopted daughter has beed diagnosed with dyslexia this summer so to assist her with books at her grade level and interest.
Yes my kids love audio books
We listen to audiobooks in the car all the time. We use CDs from the library.
We would love to win this! We love audio books and are big Henty fans!
We love audiobooks. My DD9 has started listening to GA Henty from Librivox dot org. Many of his books are recorded there. It's a FREE website. Sometimes the person who reads though has a heavy accent or the recording is not as clear.
I checked the sample on Mr Hodges website and yes, his voice is lovely! Very nice cadence and not too dramatic. His tone is perfect.
We would love to get ANYTHING from Mr Hodges. So, yes, count us in!!
We love audio books, and just discovered Henty ourselves. {Downloaded a bunch of his titles to the Kindle.}
We love listening to audio books! Recently discovered the Sugar Creek Gang stories.
Here is what we thought about them (if you are interested) http://www.grantuswisdom.blogspot.com/2012/08/sugar-creek-gang-review-and-giveaway.html
We do listen to some audiobooks in our homeschool. Would love to win this.
Yes! It is very important to our homeschool!