7 Great Benefits of Audiobooks for Kids

Do your kids listen to audiobooks? If not, they are so good for kids and provide a lot of benefits to parents as well. Here are seven reasons to love audiobooks!

Last summer, while visiting my sister, we were driving our kids around town in separate cars. As she got out of the car at one point, she groaned about how the kids in her car were being chatty and (quite frankly) a tad bit annoying. We love ’em, but seriously… sometimes… stop talking. 

I recommended she put on a podcast or an audiobook next time she got in the car. She seemed to shrug off the idea, thinking the kids wouldn’t pay any attention. I reiterated that they work magic in our car, and we continued on with our day. 

At our next stop, as we all piled into our respective vehicles, all the kids clamored to ride with my sister. I looked at her confused and, with a smirk and an eye roll, she quietly said, “I played that podcast for them… and the loved it.”

BOOM! All hail the glorious serenity of someone else’s recorded voice creating a peaceful car ride with kids. 

In this case, the podcast worked its magic, but audiobooks can garner the same affection and attention. Many times in the car, my two boys can’t keep their hands to themselves. When I turn on an audiobook, silence and stillness overtake the backseat, and it’s bliss. 

If you’re thinking that audiobooks will put you to sleep, I know plenty of people might expect the same. But audiobooks have come a long way from the days of slowly narrated stories on a box full of CDs. 

With so many audiobooks available on our smartphones, features to change the speed, and an increasing number of audiobooks with amazing narrators, you might be surprised at what wonderful peace audiobooks can bring to your parenting life (I’m 100% not kidding). 

7 Reasons To Love Audiobooks For Kids

If you haven’t tried turning on an audiobook for your kids, let me give you seven reasons to try them out. With just a small investment in setting up one of the best audiobook apps on your phone and downloading a few great kids’ audiobooks to your playlist, you may have the magic parenting fairy dust for which you’ve been longing. I can’t make any definitive promises for your family, but I can assert they are pretty darn awesome.

Hint: Libro.fm is my favorite audiobook app.

Audiobooks Are a Great Babysitter

Call me a lazy parent, or maybe a smart parent, but my boys become engrossed in audiobooks and will play with Legos or draw and color for quite a while as they listen to a story. As I mentioned above, they also work wonders in the car when antsy kids can’t keep their hands off of each other. Audiobooks are a fantastic babysitter to take a little pressure off the parents to entertain, engage, or intervene when we need to focus our attention elsewhere (… like on the road while we’re driving…). 

Immediate Download

I love that I can download an audiobook whenever and wherever. If my kids need a fix, we can lock into a story I’ve already downloaded or grab a new one in just a few minutes. Of course, you can do the same with podcasts too, and these are a few of our very favorite podcasts for kids. 

Related Reading: 9 Early Chapter Books Series To Introduce Children To Audio Books

More Family Reading Time

Audiobooks totally count as reading time. If it “counts” when parents read to their kids, why would it not “count” when someone else’s voice reads the same darn words? Thus, audiobooks create more time for family reading. For example, we can listen in the car, a time we wouldn’t otherwise be able to read, increasing the total time we can enjoy books together. 

Save Our Voice

If my voice is tired, and I’m not necessarily up for a long session of reading to my boys, audiobooks are a great alternative. I can relax and listen as well while someone else does the hard work of reading all those words. 

More Complex Language and Vocabulary

Children can listen to books at a higher level than they can read on their own. Thus, incorporating audiobooks into a child’s reading repertoire gives them a chance to hear stories that might otherwise be above their reading level. They are exposed to more complex language structures and advanced vocabulary. 

Audiobooks Take Up Zero Space

Books are heavy and can be pretty expensive if not borrowed from the library. Audiobooks are easy to carry and great for travel. Accessible on our phones, they are probably nearby at almost any moment, no matter how far we are from home or our local library. 

No Library Late Fees

You can download audiobooks from most libraries through a few different apps (depending on what your library uses). Audiobooks are returned right on time so you never have to worry about lugging books back to the library or racking up late fees. 

Have you tried listening to children’s audiobooks with your kids? Do you have any favorite tips or books to share? Leave them in the comments!