Bedtime stories

Sleepy boy. 

We've read to Espen all of his three year life. When he was a baby it was board books and cloth books with simple words and phrases, and then at some point we started reading picture books with longer stories, and I assumed that is where we would stay for a few more years. Then one bedtime, almost by accident, Espen picked up a copy of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle from a box we had been unpacking, and we have been reading chapter books and novels to him ever since.

I loved the picture books, I really did. Children's picture books and capable of capturing profound ideas simply and eloquently enough for children to understand, and sometimes they do that in a way that is both beautiful and breathtaking. Some picture books make me cry (The Giving Tree! Or Song of the Stars) and some have made us laugh and giggle together. But now that Espen has the attention span and interest to listen to a story without pictures to keep him focused, I can't help but feel like this is it! There is such a wonderfully fantastic world of books and stories and ideas out there, and now we can start exploring them together. I have especially loved sharing some of my favorites from my own childhood with him.

The next book he picked up after Mrs Piggle-Wiggle was The Little Prince, which I thought was going to be much too hard for him to be interested in. But he listened quietly, night after night until the book was finished. After that I chose Kipling's Just So Stories, which he also listened to and loved. I have such good memories of being allowed to snuggle down beside my big brother and giggling and giggling over the sailor inside the whale and how he "stumped and he jumped and he thumped and he bumped, and he pranced and he danced, and he banged and he clanged, and he hit and he bit, and he leaped and he creeped, and he prowled and he howled, and he hopped and he dropped, and he cried and he sighed, and he crawled and he bawled, and he stepped and he lepped, and he danced hornpipes where he shouldn't, and the Whale felt most unhappy indeed." It makes me so happy to be able to share that with Espen. 

After the Just So Stories, we've just moved onto the Chronicles of Narnia, starting with The Magician's Nephew. We got off to a slightly rough start on the first night when he woke up at midnight and was worried about where Polly had vanished to and how Digory was going to get her back. But since then he has been completely riveted and can in fact be bribed into bed with promises of being read to, which is hard to beat. 

Oh, except I can beat it! When we read to him, he falls asleep. Priceless. 

How about you? Do your kids like to be read to? Do you have any favorite bedtime stories?

Comments

  1. Its surprising what a 3 year old will enjoy. Our grandson loves to be read almost anything. I still have lots of books which belonged to his mum and he happily picks one for a bedtime story. Never too early to foster a love of books

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    1. Espen had a wonderful time picking out "new" books to read from the hoard that me and my brother had growng up. And it's fun for me to revisit a few old favorites too :)

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  2. I love that he loves books! My mom showed me an article that said to make sure dads read and read to boys too. Typically boys have a harder time reading lots compared to girls, but this is supposed to help. I'm sure Nick reads too.

    My sister-in-law just read Anne of Green Gables to my niece and she adored it! She just turned 4.

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    1. We take turns reading to Espen, so he gets a fairly equal dose of both of us. Of course it means that Nick and I only get every other chapter, so have to catch each other up on what happened while the other one was reading! :)

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  3. What an adorable li'l guy.
    I love the way he has his left foot tucked.
    Our Daisy needs to go for a drive before she finally clonks out for her nap!

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    1. He doesn't nap anymore unless he falls asleep in the car, which is what was going on in this photo. We put him on his Granny's bed and enjoyed the peace and quiet. :)

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  4. It's wonderful how much he loves books. That's a credit to you as well. Both of my children enjoy reading and I've been reading to them since birth. They both read at an early age too, which makes me proud but also is a nice reminder of the importance of all that time I spent reading to them.

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  5. And ultimately it's a credit to my mum and the countless hours she clocked reading to us growing up. I grew up in a house of readers, and wouldn't have it any other way! Hopefully our kids will continue to love it too.

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  6. Vel - at jeg ble en lesehest var vel nesten tilfeldig. Jeg ble riktignok lest for, men ikke i store menger. Men jeg hørte masse på kassettene med Hakkebakkeskogen, Peter Pan osv. Så åpnet selvfølgeg en helt ny verden seg for meg så fort jeg knakk lesekoden - og den lesegleden har jeg jo alltid hatt med meg. Vesla har også blitt lest en del for, men hu har ikke den roen som skal til for å høre lange historier - håper jo at det kommer med årene og at hu vil få like mye glede av bøkene som jeg har hatt - er jo en grunn til at yrkesvalget ble bibliotekar også;)

    Gøy at Espen er så interessert - han virker som en veldig smart liten tass:) God lesesommer :)

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