Ideas to create a story corner for a memorable bedtime experience

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Published on Saturday, 30 March 2019 11:07

Last Updated on 29 March 2019

Monica Costa

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Let’s face it. The pace of our life is super-fast. These days parents lead very, very busy lives and are constantly juggling work and home duties. Things like reading bedtime stories are often not considered a priority. This is why the childhood tradition of storytelling before bed is in serious peril. Parents are not making the time to read to their children at the end of the working day and stop that practice when they become independent readers, even if the child isn’t ready to lose their bedtime story.

Most people enjoy being read aloud to hence the new trend of audiobooks. For children this is even more precious and seen as a special time with their parents. 

I have always read to my son aloud since he was just a few days old and now that he is 12 he still pleads with me to read some of them over and over again.

I often make voices and get so much into the stories that he ends up telling me off if I get too loud (giggle). Children know best, don’t they?

But he gets my passion for reading and although he now prefers non-fiction books and technical manuals, he still values our Storytime together. He often picks some of our classic picture books and asks me to read them aloud. I guess he enjoys the special time with me and the funny faces I make when I try to do the voices.

When he was just six years old we built a story corner in his bedroom. We bought a bunk bed and put lots of teddy bears and pillows in the lower bed to cosy up there and go through as many books as possible before dozing off to sleep.

We created our own story corner and it was a bit messy – it’s still there and crowded with lots of new teddies (even if he’s almost a teenager he does not want to get rid of them – I wonder why…). But if you don’t have much time to make one yourself, these days you can buy a bed for that purpose like the Childrens Bed Shop Julian Bowen cabin bed, designed to store all your cuddly toys.

Anyhow, here are some of our favourite books:

Audiobooks for children’s classics

Picture book of the week: Boogie Bear by David Walliams & illustrated by Tony Ross

Bedtime story of the week: Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall

Our personalised bedtime story this week: The Incredible intergalactic Journey Home

Our Bedtime story this week: GOODNIGHT SPACEMAN in collaboration with astronaut Tim Peake

Our Bedtime story this week – Nibbles – The Book Monster by Emma Yarlett

Our Bedtime Story this week: The Queen & Mr Brown: A Night in the Natural History Museum

Now that Diego is entering the teenage years, we have moved onto the Harry Potter series, David Walliams, Jeff Kinney and the Tom Gates series.

These will always be some of his favourite books – those that will stay attached to great memories from his childhood. At least this is what I hope for him.