Bedtime Stories; Goodnight Little Moo

Bedtime storytime is my favourite part of the day. I work full time, and as we live in London (long hours, long commute!) I don’t get home until 6.45pm. My wonderful hubby usually has the girls bathed and ready for bed by the time I arrive back so I can concentrate on snuggling up with them for a chat about their day and a bedtime story (or ten!).

It’s such a lovely way to finish their day. S is now 3 so she’s old enough to choose her stories and has a range of books to choose from – books of her own, books from the library or the latest book she has borrowed from pre-school (a fantastic initiative). Children love repetition so she’ll often choose the same book several nights in a row and we’ve recently been going through a Wizard of Oz phase! But we usually read three or four short books so we do get a bit of variety!

We have been reading bedtime stories to S since she was born. At first I’d just read her a simple story as she lay on the bed beside me. It became more challenging for a while when she wanted to just grab the book and wasn’t interested in sitting quietly! But now it is a really wonderful experience to cuddle up and read a story together.

B is 16 months so she’s at that wriggly stage and it’s definitely more challenging for her to sit still long enough to listen to a story! But she loves to have a board book of her own, looking at the pictures and turning the pages herself. So I’m delighted to see that the seed of loving books has been planted!

Reading a bedtime story is a great way to settle the girls down for sleeping and reading books about bedtime routines has been really effective in building their own routine. One of S’s absolute favourites for about six months was Goodnight Little Moo. It features Little Moo going through her bedtime routine of having a bath, brushing her teeth, putting on her pyjamas and having a hug with her mum. The story is told in a delightful rhyme, but one of the best features is the integral night light on Little Moo’s nose! You can use it as a comforting night light (which will automatically switch off after 15 minutes), but S preferred to switch the light on before we read the story and then she switched the light off at the end as we said ‘goodnight Little Moo’. I think she loved the ritual of it and it definitely became an element of her own bedtime routine for a long time! I’m sure I will be able to recite that story when I’m drawing my pension!

You can buy Goodnight Little Moo on Amazon or even better hunt it down at your local bookshop!