When I initially started to think about writing this post about my ‘happy’ moments in a day, one of the first which sprang to mind was bedtime. Not my bedtime, the children’s bedtime. But then I thought it might be portrayed wrongly; that I can’t wait to get my children out of my hair which then begs the question; why have children in the first place? So I didn’t write about bedtimes being one of my favourite times the day. A month or so later and I still keep coming back to bedtime because it is one of those times that I look forward to, every single day. Some days I look forward to it because it’s been a hard day and I will admit it, I look forward to the peace and quiet once my little monsters angels are asleep but that’s not the main reason I look forward to bedtime. It’s because I love those precious moments right before bedtime when I get to snuggle up with 1, 2, 3 or all of the children for a nice story or two.
Thinking back to when I used to read stories to Curly and Little Bean when they were younger, I was pretty rubbish. I tried to put emphasis into my words but I don’t think I really brought the stories to life. Then last year when I went to the Dear Zoo bloggers event and later to the Poppy Cat event where they had story tellers I suddenly clicked that half of the story is in how you involve the children in the story.
The words in a book are more than just words on a page, they are a catalyst or a prompt to an adventure and it’s up to you how much of an adventure that story becomes. Now when I read stories to the children I get them to help me act out the stories, to use their imagination to help the story become bigger than the book itself and the children love it, LOVE IT I tell you!!! They laugh and giggle, they splutter like broken down trains, they gallop like horses around their bedrooms and hide from great roaring dinosaurs. I think it helps them to gain a greater understanding of the English language and hopefully will give them great memories to look back on in years to come. I don’t want them to think back and say bedtimes were ‘ok’ or even worse that they can’t really remember their bedtimes. I want them to think on those times spent together as being magical and fun because let’s face it, there’s not very much in life that is magical and fun these days so we need to bring as much of it ourselves as we can.
Once we have finished reading our stories we always have a kiss and a cuddle before tucking them up into their beds with their favourite cuddly toys.
How do you make bedtimes special in your house?
McCain makes Britain’s favourite chips, and takes pride in the quality and care that goes into every mouthful. At the heart is the food McCain prepares and the people around it, from the network of hundreds of potato growers to families looking forward to enjoying the food at home.
Disclosure: Compensation was provided by McCain via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of McCain.