Read-Aloud Story Time in the Car or Van

In a recent post, I mentioned that we have pieced together a microphone system that allows me to read books aloud in the van so that everyone can hear me through the vehicle's speakers. Before having this, I would sit in the front passenger seat and twist myself to be heard by the kids in the middle and back rows. In addition to turning my torso, I had to speak loudly. The driver (Paul) felt like I was shouting right in his ear. My back ached, and my voice quickly grew tired. Now, I can sit comfortably in my seat, speak in a normal voice, and be clearly heard throughout the van.

The first piece of this puzzle is the FM transmitter that I highlighted here. There are two more pieces necessary to make it all work.

This is the speaker/amplifier from Radio Shack.

And this is the clip-on microphone from Radio Shack.

This is what worked for us. There could be better and/or cheaper solutions. One thing to note on the microphone is that it needs to be a mono (phonic???) as opposed to a stereo (phonic???) microphone because the speaker/amp requires that to work. We had to figure that out when getting our setup working.