Bedtime Stories

In this modern day, where technology is such a huge part of our everyday life, it can be easy to forget the quality of a good, quality, physical book.

Story time is such an important part of the day for young children, and is a perfect way to unwind at the end of a busy day, when getting ready for bed.

Sharing stories creates a perfect opportunity for bonding, building beautiful memories for parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles.

Books are crucial for language development. When you read books with your child, you expose them to speech skills which is an excellent pre-literacy activity.

Reading aloud and talking to your child feeds the child’s brain 10 million words of raw data each year in the first three years of life, and enables their neural pathways to develop in different ways.

Don’t worry if your child gets distracted easily, this may be because their concentration span isn’t ready for a full story yet, you can build this up by starting with just one or two pages, and building it up gradually. For younger children, lift-the-flap, noisy, and feely books really help to capture their attention.

Let your child take ownership at story time, by choosing which book they would like to read, and by turning the pages.

When reading the words on a page, run your finger underneath the words as you read them, this will help your child to understand from an early age, that the English language is written, and read, from left to right, and top to bottom.

However, you do not always need to read the words! It is good fun to make up stories by looking at what is going on in the pictures. Wondering what is happening on a picture is a great way to develop your child’s imagination, laying the foundations for them to become a successful writer later in life.

Please listen to our bedtime stories, read by members of staff from Sandy Lane Nursery and Forest School. These will be added each Monday. Enjoy!