What makes a good bedtime
story?
Once upon a time... you remember, don't
you? You got tucked into bed. Your favorite book clasped
in your arms. You listened closely for the sound of a parent's
footsteps coming down the hall, toward your room. For just a brief,
wonderful time before falling off to sleep, you knew you'd hear the words
of a story that you cherished. It was a soothing anecdote from the
day's rigors of flipping baseball cards or learning arithmetic or
practicing the piano or chasing the Good Humor ice cream truck down the
street with a dime and a nickel clenched in your sweaty palm.
Before video games, computers, DVD's, MP3
players and all the rest of the
techno mumbo jumbo that has since invaded kids' worlds, there were bedtime
stories. Simple, enchanting, endearing bedtime stories. The
kind of stories that engaged a young mind and sent it off to an imaginary
place. When parent and child spent quiet time together, both in
wonder over the story unfolding before them. That's what
Brown
Bag Bedtime Books®
are all about.
Cat Sauer has created a splendid cast of characters
for these children's stories, from
the adorable flop-eared bunny "Flip Flop" to the mind-reading Owl,
"Hoot." The adventures they share in the forest and the field are
those which children will want to hear over and over. A good story
doesn't need pictures to tell the tale. It's all in the words.
Let your child work their own imaginations in creating the visuals.
Picture books are fine for the very young, but as the child grows you want
them to stretch their minds. Bedtime is a perfect time to place a
little tale in their heads and let them drift off imagining the story in
their dreams.
Whether it's reading
Brown Bag Bedtime Books, another children's book, or a favorite tale you make up, just give it a try. The
story should have a simple plot, a few characters, each with traits a
child can recognize or with which he or she can identify. A message
or a lesson weaved into the plot is also a good idea. Plan to have a
Bedtime Story Night at least one night a week. You
don't need to finish the story in one reading either. Pick it up and
continue for a second night.
Remember, despite the jungle of wiz bang electronics out
there, screaming for your child's attention, a kid is still a kid.
Let them hang onto it as long as they can. A good bedtime story,
with a hug and a kiss goodnight, is just one special way you can help them
to do that.
