Our "Night Story" Tradition

So, once a year or so I'm going to "slup" this blog into a fancy printed book and it will be our little family journal to look back on through the ages (see Blurb.com for info on slurping...apparently that's the technical term).

With that in mind, I've been meaning to keep a record of something we call the "Night Story" at our house. (I was going to just list it as a side item over there with the rest of our "What We're Reading" stuff, but I delete and change that from time to time and didn't want to loose the record of it for the above mentioned slurping purposes. So I'm doing this info as a post where it can stay forever and ever.)

When Ben began Kindergarten in 2006, we started to read children's chapter books in addition to the regular picture books for bedtime stories. Now you must understand that bedtime stories have always been a Big Deal in our house. Ever since Ben was 4 months old, we read him stories before bed. He loved it and by the time he was 2 1/2, we were reading up to 6 picture books a night at his request. Yes, bedtime stories lasted for an hour! But he loved it and we were just following his lead. Besides, there are a lot of great children's books out there! Erik came along and, surprise, loves stories as much as Ben does, so story time grew and grew to accommodate two boys' interests.

Anyway, with the beginning of Kindergarten, we had to establish a nightly cut off point so that everyone (parents included) could get to bed for school the next day. I was still working at the library until 9 pm almost every evening, so Shaun was on his own for bedtime. I believe he started reading the "Night Story" to ease the transition from story time (which, with all those stories, was sometimes a little too exciting!) to actual sleep time for both Ben and Erik. He would turn off all the lights and strap his new handy-dandy LED headlamp to his forehead and read quietly from a children's chapter book. Ben would listen to a chapter and Erik would fall asleep.

The first Night Story was Shaun's childhood favorite Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. It was a huge success. We have since followed up with lots of children's classics including:

Winnie-The-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne
Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little by E.B. White
The Stories Julian Tells by Ann Cameron
Freckle Juice by Judy Blume
Selected Tales from Beatrix Potter
Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard Atwater
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty Bard MacDonald
My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum

The boys have enjoyed all of these. It has sometimes been a challenge to find stuff that is age appropriate and interesting for both Ben and Erik. Notably, I have so far avoided the Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osbourn because although the story lines would be great for them, Ben is an excellent reader and will probably be reading those on his own soon, so I didn't want to spoil it for him. Also, we tried a Junie B. Jones book by Barbara Park (another very popular series) when Ben was in Kindergarten, but he didn't get the humor in it at the time. So, the favorites for the 3-6 year old level for us have been the Winnie-The-Pooh books, Charlotte's Web, Freckle Juice, Wizard of Oz and--our current read--James and the Giant Peach.

I especially like this edition with illustrations by Lane Smith of Stinky Cheese Man fame. Both Ben and Erik are enjoying it and talk about it during the day. Most of the chapters are only 1 or 2 pages, so its good on school nights when the bedtime routine runs late. (Also, Ben informs me that Chapter 32 mentions tornadoes and cyclones, so both Ben and Erik were excited about that!)

So, the nightly ritual is that Ben and Erik each get to pick a couple of picture books (up to 3 each depending on how late story time is starting). We read those together sitting on the floor. Then we announce that its time for the Night Story and Ben and Erik climb into their beds. The lights go off, and Mom or Dad reads a chapter (with the handy-dandy headlamp on, of course!).

We only have two more chapters of James and the Giant Peach. The boys are excited to see the stop-motion animated Tim Burton movie of it this weekend!