Reading at Bedtime
Reading at Bedtime
Every parent knows that you should read to your kids as much as you can, that point gets driven home to us by pediatricians, teachers, researchers , and everybody else who cares offer opinion!
And I’m in total agreement. Reading to your child is critical for their learning, critical thinking, and comprehension. But did you know, it could also be a non verbal cue to begin relaxing the body and brain?
There are lots of nonverbal cues we can give our children to let them know that it’s time to start getting ready for bed. A warm bath, massage with lotion, warm pajamas, and the “piece de resistance”, a bedtime story. Or five. Implementing a bedtime routine is critical to teaching children how to slow the body and brain down and sleep. So we can add as many or as few steps to this nonverbal cue that it is time to go to bed.
Books are a step that I don’t mind at all. In fact reading to my children at night while they are snuggled in my arms, is one of my favorite things to do. And you can read any sort of books before bed to your child, but if anyone knows me, they know I love a theme!
While we have books that we keep on a seasonal rotation (holiday ones, weather related ones, etc) There are a few that don’t really leave the rotation. These are the Good Night Books by Adam Gamble and Mark Jasper. I don’t receive any sort of payment for promoting them I just love their books because there is a good notebook for any child and any area of interest they have! They even have Good Night books for states and cities!
Check out their website, www.goodnightbooks.com
You will find that they are super sturdy board books and at a reasonable price of about $10 each. They last forever and are a wonderful addition to our bedtime routine.
We have read Good Night New Orleans to our son since he was six months old. He knows all about the city that his mother and father fell in love with on their baby moon when they were pregnant with him. And we can’t wait to take him there to see all of the things we’ve been reading about for years.
If you need help implementing reading into your bedtime routine, shoot me an email! We can have a quick chat, talk about your child’s interests and make a few suggestions!