One fun way to create a life-giving family culture in your home is to listen to great books together! It’s amazing how stories will knit you together as you all get drawn in, guess together what’s going to happen next, and are stirred by the same powerful moments that you can then re-live as a family.
Our family LOVES listening to audiobooks together and it’s helped create such a fun atmosphere of common language we share, inside jokes, adventure, laughter, and lively discussions about something we’re all enjoying.
We love to listen on road trips, while running errands, sitting around the table at lunchtime, folding laundry together, or just relaxing in the evenings by the fire before bed.
Today I’m excited to share some of our very favorites that have brought so much life, laughter, depth, and joy to our home and family life. I pray they bring fresh joy and connection to your family as well!
(As an Amazon associate, I make a small commission when you purchase from some of these links. Thank you for supporting this ministry and business! You may also be able to find some of these books for free on a library app like Hoopla or Libby.)
Ok, here we go – Our Favorite Family Audiobooks and Podcasts:
For All Ages:
The Narnia Series – This is one of our family’s all-time favorites and we’ve listened to the whole series multiple times together. We each get something new out of it every time and will continue listening to it for many years to come! So many spiritual and life lessons and conversations have come from these books in our home.
Little House on the Prairie Series – Our other favorite series for all ages! These stories never cease to inspire, challenge, and delight us. We’ve listened to them many times over and have learned deep lessons in thankfulness, simplicity, and hard work from the Ingalls and Wilder families.
Winnie the Pooh – I love how these stories not only delight the youngest members of our family, but also the oldest members as we laugh and are convicted about how often we can be like some of these characters :).
Charlotte’s Web – A classic that we all love!
Trumpet of the Swan – Another of our favorites from E.B. White. Such a fun story!
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew – We love this story full of fun adventures and happenings in the Pepper family, as well as lessons in hard work and what it means to work together and be a family.
All-of-A-Kind Family – The story of this simple, hardworking Jewish family captures our hearts and reminds us to be thankful for all we have and to find joy in family traditions and simply living life and working together.
Elementary Years:
*While our 4-year-old has listened to all of these with his older brothers, some of them have more intense content that may be too much for younger ones or the language might be a bit hard for them to understand.
The Bark of the Bog Owl Series – This is one of our all-time favorite series as a family! It’s an allegory of the story of David and Goliath and then David’s journey to becoming King. Full of so much adventure, funny moments, and heroic exploits, no one in our family ever wants to turn these books off. We can’t get enough of them!
Understood Betsy – A classic that we all loved about a scared and anxious orphan who goes to live on her aunt and uncle’s farm where she transforms into a confident girl full of love, joy and life! This was a great one for my boys since they can tend to to live more on the anxious side of life and could relate so much to Betsy. It inspired me as a mom as well in many deep and life-changing ways!
Christian Heroes Then and Now Series – Fun, adventurous, and inspiring missionary stories by YWAM Publishing. Our family LOVES these books and we are always so inspired by these amazing heroes of the faith! George Muller, Jacob DeShazer, and Gladys Aylward are some of our favorites.
Little Men – Such a fun sequel to “Little Women” (you don’t need to read Little Women first). My boys loved all the adventures and predicaments the children at Jo’s boarding school got into, and Michael and I were deeply inspired as parents by the way Mr. and Mrs. Baer raise the wide variety of children in their care. This book is such a treasure!
Tales of the Kingdom – A fun set of audio CD’s that we’ve listened to on road trips that inspire great spiritual conversations and reflection. A fun spiritual allegory like Pilgrim’s Progress.
Real Cool History for Kids Podcast – Our entire family LOVES listening to this podcast together! Such fun stories from history and it always sparks great family conversations when it’s over. This is my kids’ first request right now when folding laundry or running errands in the car.
The Bronze Bow – A powerful fiction story that takes place during the time of Jesus. We all loved this story, were deeply moved and challenged by it, and loved learning more about Jewish life at that time and what they would have expected the coming Messiah to be like.
Jotham’s Journey – This is a great book to listen to at Advent Time as a family! Another story that brings you into Jewish culture through the life of a boy who gets caught up in the story of the Messiah’s arrival. Full of adventure and suspense, our family couldn’t wait to listen to the next part of the story each day of Advent!
Boy of the Pyramids We listened to this book during our ancient history study and we were all hooked on the adventure and mystery in it! Even Dad didn’t want to miss a moment of it if we were listening at lunch time – he always had to come out from his office and join us :).
The Golden Goblet – Another favorite of ours when learning about ancient history! Mystery, adventure, great characters, and such deep lessons in integrity, character, hard work, and friendship.
A Single Shard – A beautiful story of friendship, hard work, honesty, humility, and adventure that our entire family LOVED and was deeply inspired by!
A Long Walk to Water -This story of children in Sudan brought such great conversation and perspective to our family as we were drawn into the realities of life there and what it means to be heroic and give our lives to care for others.
Other audiobooks and podcasts our kids have loved:
Sometimes our boys listen to audio books on their own during nap or quiet time, or once they are tucked into bed at night. Here is a list of some of the ones they’ve loved during those times that aren’t listed above:
Timeless Tales of Beatrix Potter: Peter Rabbit and Friends
James Harriot’s Treasury for Children
Abide – A Christian App with peaceful, Biblical stories to help them fall asleep. Our boys love the kid’s sleep stories in this app!
I pray these books bring fresh depth, laughter, joy and connection to your family and home! If you have favorites that I didn’t mention, I’d love to hear them in the comment section below!
With love,
Kierra
