4Real Forums: Listening Devices and Systems

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Nurturing the Years of Wonder ( Forum Locked)
4Real Forums : Nurturing the Years of Wonder

Topic: Listening Devices and Systems

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CrunchyMom
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Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 3:00pm \| IP Logged

We must be the last family on earth who does not have an mp3 player. We have a cd player in the kitchen and on the laptop. We have had two cheep cd players die on us, and I'd like to have something upstairs.

I have looked at this player as an option. I like that it has a speaker so you don't have to wear headphones. I also like the mp3 for uploading librivox instead of having to use the computer.

However, is having to use the computer or go to the kitchen for cds self limiting? Should I limit the amount of book and story cds they can listen to so they aren't programmed to want noise all the time? Would buying an mp3 player encourage my child to go listen to these things alone too much?

Any thoughts? What systems do other families have in place for listening to stories, books, and music? Ds1 cannot read but is a bookhound who spends hours looking at books, even more adult ones without many exciting illustrations, and I do think that listening to the stories might help fill that need since I can't read aloud to him that much, or also, leaving me more time to read the 3 year old's requests which are obviously different.

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JodieLyn
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Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 3:11pm \| IP Logged

I don't care for the ones that go in the ears and severely limit that.. but I love the mp3 players for transporting music.. like we'll get one of those tape deck converters.. it looks like a cassette tape on one end and plugs into ear phone jack on the other end.. and will play through a cassette player whatever is plugged into the ear phone jack.. great for in the car.. we take our music and there's no bumping and skipping cd's or big boxes of cd's or tapes to manage.

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SusanJ
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Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 3:42pm \| IP Logged

Well, if it makes you feel any better we don't have an MP3 player. I'm not even entirely sure I know what an MP3 is. I think my new phone will play music and stuff but I'm just clueless. I think being a poverty-stricken recent college grad at just the wrong time contributed to this.

Anyway. We have a nice CD player (Bose) in our kitchen on top of the fridge and it is right next to the countertop where the computer sits. We play actual CDs or sometimes stream stuff online via Pandora and when I'm feeling really fancy I plug the computer into the Bose for better sound. This is also our only movie/tv setup and it's working for now. I just lost the debate on which computer to get as an upgrade so this rather inconvenient set up persists.

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ekbell
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Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 6:24pm \| IP Logged

That looks like a neat mp3 player! It's certainly a nicer idea then all the 'music' playing toddler toys I've received and had to remove the batteries from for sanity's sake.

As for your concerns, whenever I buy something that I am concerned may be misused or over used, it's kept under my control and the children must ask to use it.

This way I can put limits on use(time or location) as part of permission to use it.

With the mp3 player I expect that the rate at which you load new material on it will also be a natural limiter to how often it is used.

As for the six year old who loves to look at books.

The fact that you can't possibly read as much as the six year old would want you to is just more incentive for the six year old to learn to read.

On a more serious note audiobooks may be useful as a source of stories when you are busy, but I'd be wary of considering audiobooks to be a good subsitute for being read to. There are a number of pre-reading and early reading lessons that are part and parcel of being read and which an audiobook wouldn't be able to provide.

Your son will still need to be read to even if you mostly pick books that both children can enjoy (simple books are useful for children approaching literacy and many three year olds can enjoy fairly advanced language).

My rule of thumb is to have a chapter book on the go for the oldest child to be read to, reading one chapter a day but also reading books oriented to the younger of the listeners [currently reading _The First Christians_ to the eight year old, _The Complete Brambly Hedge_ to the six year old and lots of different story books to my three year old (plus my one year lap hogger)]

anitamarie
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Posted: Oct 27 2009 at 9:45pm \| IP Logged

If you like the mp3 format, but not the earphones or sitting by the computer, you can get an iHome docking station. It "broadcasts" the contents of the mp3 player. We have one in the kitchen for my iPod. I love it. It can also be battery operated so it is portable.

Anita

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