Lately when I get into the car with my children (currently almost 3 and almost 1), I’ve been wanting an alternative to turning on the radio. My kids aren’t interested in most of the podcasts on my list, although we do listen to them now and then. Recently though I started to wonder–why aren’t we listening to audiobooks? We know how important reading is for kiddos. Children with typical hearing and those with hearing loss need to work on listening skills and building their auditory brains, so audiobooks in the car is good for all of them. And what a great listening activity to do together as a family. Here’s the best part–If you have a smartphone and a library card, the Hoopla app lets you download books for free. Now who doesn’t like free?

You can sign up for Hoopla through your public library, and download the app on your phone. For our local library, they include a guide on their site for how to do this. Check with your local library for how to get started.

Once you’ve done that and open Hoopla on your phone, you can search for books. They do offer ebooks as well, but for our littles who are working on listening and building their auditory brains, the audiobooks are going to give us the most impact. One of the easiest ways to find children’s books is to click on “Genres” in the upper right hand corner.

Once you’ve downloaded the book, you have 21 days to listen to it, though this may vary depending on your library’s settings. If your child uses technology to listen like cochlear implants or hearing aids, consider what accessories you might use in the car to make the audio more easily accessible to them.

We’ve just started listening to Curious George and Pete the Cat books, and it seems to capture my kids’ attention. The toddler is even asking for “more stories, Mommy!” The one downside I’ve seen so far is that we are limited to 6 downloads per month, and when you’re downloading children’s books that are just a few minutes, you hit that limit pretty quickly. The good thing is kids like repetition, and it’s actually really good for their language acquisition and literacy skills. Also, it’s free, so the price is definitely right.

Check out Hoopla for yourself, and let me know what you think in the comments below or on our Facebook page.