We read children bedtime stories for a number of different reasons, some a little less obvious than others. Bedtime stories are a fond memory for all of us, settling down and listening in wonder to the adventure being spun into your mind. I think that for many of us bedtime stories hold a special place in our hearts. You may well end up reading bedtime stories to your own children or grandchildren one day and it’s a magical experience at any age. They’re totally enthralled by the words coming out of your mouth, it’s a whole new world for them, but of course old favourites never really get old. Despite the magic and camaraderie, there’s a little more to reading children bedtime stories than you might think.
Bedtime stories can impose a set routine. Children, in their mentally formative years, need an element of structure to introduce them to the lifestyle humans live. Usually, when it’s time for a bedtime story, it means it’s time to sleep. This sort of structure is taught to children from when they are only mere months old. It starts this early on with when being placed in a cot, and the room is dark, it’s time to sleep. The rhythm is picked up on pretty quickly and combined with many other signs and techniques by the time they’re a few years of age it’s completely autonomous. A bedtime story means time to sleep.
Another reason we read bedtime stories to children is because it’s an important helping hand in their developmental stages. Many bedtime stories are both fun and educational and teach simple lessons about things like morals, interacting with other and words, numbers and shapes. These aren’t unsimilar to nursery rhymes, which can be an early introduction to music, a potentially life-shaping interest. Reading children bedtime stories is important to both their development and their emotional bond with their parents and should never be forgotten.
