We’ve covered “How to Manage Kids in the Home Office” and provided “10 (More) Tips on Doing Productive Web Work with Kids in the House.” But neither article included one resource we’ve come to rely on in my household: TumbleBooks.
This online collection of lightly animated, talking picture books keeps my five-year-old engrossed long enough for me to get through that client call without interruption. Best of all, it’s a free service offered through the public library where I live. All you need on your end is a high-speed connection and a flash reader.
The entire collection is offered in English, but your kids can also listen to a few of the titles in Spanish or French; you simply have to set the language preference.
We set my son up on his computer, pull up the site, and then let him click at will on any of the nearly 100 books he wants to listen to. Most, such as Abra Cadabra and the Tooth Witch or Round is a Mooncake, are between three and eight minutes long. A few, such as Zoe Sophia in New York and Hannah is My Name, are between 10 and 20 minutes long.
Each page of the book appears with a bit of animation and a voice that reads the story as the words on the page are highlighted. Older kids can choose to listen to a few non-illustrated audio books, such as The Jungle Books (3 hours and 46 minutes) and The Saturdays (5 hours).
I did a quick check of 10 public libraries around the country to see if TumbleBooks was considered a necessity these days. Apparently not. Six of the libraries — Phoenix Public Library, Nevada County Library, Des Moines Public Library, The New York Public Library, Los Angeles Public Library and Portland Public Library — subscribe to the service. Four — Wichita Public Library, Spokane Public Library, Orlando Public Library and Baltimore County Public Library — do not.
If yours doesn’t, you have a choice. You can simply click through from a library system that does offer TumbleBooks (thereby stealing a freebie from the taxpayers of that locale) or you can get a family subscription for $29.99 for the year.
What’s most frustrating for my guy (and the source of a potential work disruption for me) is when he clicks on the image of a book and gets no response at all. That happens when a book is added to the collection but listed as “coming soon.” Once he knows a particular book is coming soon, first thing in the morning, he insists on checking the site to see if it’s arrived. TumbleBooks, if you’re reading this, could you please expedite delivery of The Night I Followed the Dog? My kid’s driving me crazy.
And if you know of other kid-friendly story sites, share them here!
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