At What Age Do You Stop With the Bedtime Stories?

[Manybooks, Fiction Club host]

Cheryl wrote: "I agree. If we don't keep in touch with that part of us that is still childlike, how can we be effective parents, teachers, or leaders? How, even, can we be healthy and well-rounded people oursel..."

That is very similar to what one of my favourite German children's authors once said. That only those who remember their childhood and embrace their childhood experiences even as adults, are real human beings.

[Steve]

At 71, I still read aloud bedtime stories to myself. Right now, using an awful Irish accent, it's Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two-Birds I'm having a go at, doling it out 2 pages a session so as to make the delightful prose last a goodly stretch of time.

[Cheryl, Host of Miscellaneous and Newbery Clubs]

At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien for the link. :)

[Sheree Bonita]

I think you should read to your child until they decide they want to take over! That's what my mom did with me. I think I was about 4 or 5 before I took over myself :)

[Cheryl, Host of Miscellaneous and Newbery Clubs]

That's a neat idea; I think it would work well in many (but not all) families.

[Anne]

Gundula wrote: "Cheryl wrote: "I agree. If we don't keep in touch with that part of us that is still childlike, how can we be effective parents, teachers, or leaders? How, even, can we be healthy and well-rounde..."
I don't know about "real human beings," lol, but I do know that remembering what it was like to be a child - and valuing it, rather than trying to get over it - is vital to being a good author of kids books, a good teacher, and a good parent.

[Elspeth]

my daughter is almost 4 and sadly bedtime story books had to stop as i would find her hours later under the duvet no glasses on and the smallest torch with a small mountain of books. So we have a no books after 5pm rule however she still gets a story that i read from memory or make up as i go along and i will tell her storys at bedtime untill the days she decides she doesnt need them. (which i hope is never.) We went camping this weeked and the tent behind us were in fits of gigles, they were having dinner or something and all they could hear was me "reading" a story about fitzsnaglerac to thealie and she insisting that "no mummmy you forgot the page where .... go back a page mummy."

[Crystal]

I just had to share that I am so excited my daughter is now old enough for me to read her my first children's chapter book. For the past 3 nights we have been reading a chapter or two as a family. I am enjoying myself. It is so fun to hear her say things like, "One more chapter please!" or "I wonder what is going to happen next?" She can't wait until it's story time. Truth be told, I can't either! She has only read one other chapter book with her dad so chapter books are new to her. She already wants to read my book to her baby brother (not due until October), this just makes me giddy. These years are such fun. I agree that it is very important to keep in touch with our inner child. It makes life much more enjoyable!

Elspeth wrote: "my daughter is almost 4 and sadly bedtime story books had to stop as i would find her hours later under the duvet no glasses on and the smallest torch with a small mountain of books. So we have a n..."

Making stories up including your child is a great bonding activity. I did this with my brothers and sisters as we were growing up and now I do it with my little girl. I would ask them questions about what they wanted to hear a story about. Then, while telling the story, I would pause to let them fill in the blank. For example, the name of the main character and so on and so forth until we completed the story together. Sometimes the story would continue for days. Or we could revisit the same character in a whole different story in the future. If you haven't already tried this you really should you can create some really great stories together.