Back in the dinosaur days a long distance Grandma like myself could read stories into a tape recorder and mail those tapes off to her grandchildren to listen to as they went to sleep every night. This allowed her grandchildren to get to know her through her voice and stories.
I’d like to do this today, but neither of my daughters have tape players, only CD players in their children’s bedrooms. Is it possible for me to read a story and record it somehow on my computer and burn that to a CD for my grandchildren to listen to on a conventional CD player? If so, please teach me how. Thank you.
Yes, it’s easy.
You will need a microphone - you can get these at any computer shop - plug it into the microphone socket on your computer - nearly all of them have one - on more modern machines, it’s got a pink rim around the socket.
Download and install Audacity - it may need a little tweaking, but recording with this is pretty intuitive - just hit the red button and start talking (try moving the slider about if it looks like the recording level is too high).
When you’ve finished talking, click the stop button - you could save the audio file just like it is, but you can also use Audacity to very easily edit out the hesitations, mistakes, lead-in silence etc.
Export the audio as a .wav file - save it somewhere and give it a memorable filename so you’ll be able to find it.
Close Audacity, open Windows Explorer and locate the saved file, right-click on it and click Send TO>CD-RW drive.
Insert a blank CD and tell Windows to open the writable folder when it asks.
Click ‘write these files to CD’ - one of the questions you will subsequently be asked is whether you want to create a data or audio CD - choose Audio and click through all the other options.
When the CD pops out, it should be done - try playing it in a domestic CD player.
Wow, that was fast Mangetout , thank you very much! You’ve made this Grandma very happy with your easy to understand instructions. I can’t wait to get started 
If you want any tips on using Audacity, or any other part of the process, I’ll be happy to help.