Audio for Little Kids

When I was little, a long, long time ago, my dear mother gave us an old tape player and a ton of tapes for us to play with. We loved it. Now that my baby is old enough to play by herself for longer periods at a time, I have looked up some of the things my brothers and I used to listen to so she can listen as she plays. At one point, we had almost every word and every breath memorized … it was fun.

Solomon to the Exile by Dr. John C. Whitcomb Jr. (go here for downloads)
My mother had tapes of Dr. Whitcomb from when she and Papa were in seminary. Ben and Berek and I used to know the kings of Israel and Judah backwards and forwards. I don’t remember them anymore. *sigh*

Poetry for Children (click here to download Part 1 & Part 2)
When I was eight or nine, Mama took us downtown once every couple weeks to the British Council Library. It was over an hour away and was an exciting, long trip, a mini adventure, changing trains numerous times, going up and down stairs through huge train stations. And then, utter bliss … a roomful of English books (remember, we lived in Tokyo). This is where I found all kinds of British authors I fell in love with, the Brontë sisters, Dickens, Austen, and my most favouritest of all, Sir Walter Scott. She found these poetry tapes there which she copied and we listened to over and over and over again. Beautifully read, with British accents. My friend Kudo-san converted them from cassette tape to MP3 and now Rinah listens to them often. They were from decades ago and I have no idea who read them.

Alexander the Great (click here to download MP3)
My favourite historical character and hero for many years during childhood, I listened to this tape over and over again. I would beg Papa to buy me biographies of him which after several years ended up being a collection of over 20 volumes. Even now, whenever I listen to Rimski-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, I can recite lines from memory as the music goes. This tape has all the characteristics of children’s history books that I hate now, making this homosexual mass-murderer into a great and wise hero, but it is a beautiful production, the music and the words match exquisitely, and I still love listening to it. I believe this audio recording is unavailable anywhere else online as I spent years searching for it. I found my old tape when my parents were preparing to move and Kudo-san changed it to MP3 for me. It’s from the out-of-print Ladybird children’s history books. I SO wish they were still available.

Old Testament in Hebrew read by Shlomo Bertonov (click here to download sample)
This is a recording from the Israeli radio Kol Israel. It is called the best Hebrew narration ever of Hebrew Scriptures. Listening to the language you are learning is essential and this recording is especially good for that. Every word is pronounced crisp and clear in the lyrical voice of a professional narrator. Small children soak up the sounds without understanding and it makes it easier for them to learn reading and writing later, just like when they learn their mother tongue. My brothers and I picked up the tones and inflections and memorized the first part of Genesis 1 just from listening to this over and over again. You can buy it at various places online (this place seems to be the cheapest) but not at Amazon. If you don’t want to pay for it, there are places you can download other recordings and other Hebrew learning resources for free.

Hamlet (buy), Romeo & Juliet (buy)
Both of these are starring Kenneth Branagh for BBC radio. Kenneth Branagh and the BBC … what more need I say? It’s a match made in heaven. I didn’t listen to these particular recordings when I was little, but Papa had us watch many, many BBC Shakespeare videos. My favourite Shakespeare productions are still Henry V and Hamlet.