I’ve thought about this a long time, and truly this solution will simplify everything. When my 12-year and 9-year old boys were little, they loved music and stories on tapes. During their toddler years we amassed quite a collection of stories by Jim Weiss (he always did the best job of putting them to sleep), nursery rhymes, Curious George books on tape, Toy Story on tape and their favorite book on tape, Big Red Barn. We also collected some lullaby tapes and CDs that put them to sleep every night, and if we traveled, this music was as essential as diapers, if we expected to get any sleep. So, these tapes and CDs have been everywhere.
When my oldest son started having night terrors, I introduced guided imagery CDs to our collection to play while he was falling to sleep.
Then when our second two boys came along, they fell right into the habit of listening to stories on tapes and CDs, and falling asleep to lullabies — which usually evolves to falling asleep to Toy Story’s ballad, You’ve Got A Friend in Me. A few years ago, as the CDs began to get scratched, and as I rewound the tapes back into their cases for the 100th time, I started loading them onto Itunes. From there, I burned them onto CDs.
So at bedtime, it’s beginning to take some time to search through the more than 20 story/lullaby CDs to find just the one that will appease them into sleep. In the afternoons, instead of TV, they like to sit with their books on tape, and they often get scratched while the kids stick them into the CD player.
I’m ditching the CDs, and all of the clutter, and just getting them an I-Pod that I can plug into speakers. Finding the right selection for the evening’s rest and the afternoon entertainment will be as simple as turning a dial.
Isn’t it funny how times have changed, all our music is on our computer too and honestly the ipod is so much easier than a cd player. Sounds like a great idea to me.
My 3 year old loves mine. I bring it when we have long waits and it is like he is hypnotized.
Yes, an iPod or the computer is so much easier than actual cds. Are we lazy? 😉
(believe it or not, I have a record player, and I use it!…but I use my computer and iPod much more often.)
🙂
I like this idea, but since I don’t have an Ipod yet, I refuse to get one for my kids. Unless anyone knows of a two-for-one special?
Dragonfly… I had some great records from when I was little with Rainy Day Stories on them. I converted them to MP3 files, as best I could, and I’m so glad I have them!
They’re so scratchy — they skip, and you can barely hear them… but still the memories of those childhood days come through.
What do you play on your record player… I know you’re not that old?!
Truly, an iPod is worth the investment. Julia’s CD’s don’t last long before they’re scratched and skippy. She can manage my iPod really well and it has actually been a great tool for reading! She’s learned to identify the words to her favorite songs so she can find them quickly. She knows “I Love Rock N’ Roll” starts with an I and can recognize the word “Light” because it’s the word she looks for when she wants “Light and Day” by The Polyphoic Spree.
I’m all for the iPod.
i was very nervous about buying my 6-year-old an ipod for this last birthday. what will the neighbors think!? but you know what, i got over it. he **loves** it and so do i. we taught him many years ago to love audio books and now he has them all at his fingertips. he never got into the jim weiss stuff (although i liked it) and went right into big ol’ chapter books. now he can listen while his 2-year-old brother, who shares his room, sleeps.
hopefully, though, they’ll share the audio book thing and we can play them through speakers…
Good… I don’t feel so bad!! It’s really just a move toward a different technology — that’s all.
If Ipods exsisted when my 3 boys were young, I would have done the same thing! smart mamma!