How To INCORPORATE Books Into Your Bedtime Routine

You may have grabbed my freebie on Best Bedtime Books, and want to begin to incorporate more books in your bedtime routine. Books can be a great part of the evening routine as they provide something to do while unwinding together, and providing literacy to put your child at an advantage academically. Reading out loud to your children not only increases language and cognition, but curiosity and memory.

" Experts are nearly unanimous in stating that babies should routinely experience shared books as soon as they experience shared talking, that is, during the first weeks and months of life. Butler, D. (1998). Babies need books. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann."

While having your child's undivided attention at the end of the night when toys are away and dinner time is done is perfect to open conversations for older children and give the chance to look and explore for infants.

I recommend starting early and often for exposing children to books at bedtime. You can begin when your child is as small as a few weeks old to have them look at a black and white picture while talking to "introduce" books. Once your little one gets a bit older, reading books either before or after the bedtime feed will have them looking forward to that time and knowing what to expect.

Showing one page and pointing out what is on the page works well for babies 6 to 12 weeks to build vocabulary words. "Here is the barn. Here is the cow - moo." Babies this age will not have the interest to read through a book, and will likely grab and pull at the book, but that is all a part of the learning process and ok! Feel and touch books are also great opportunities to introduce textures to keep your little one engaged.

Once your little one is a bit older, introduce short 3-5 page books with lots of repetition and rhyming, in addition to reading the same books over and over. While it may seem repetitive and boring to you, that is how children learn and memorize best.

Children who are “well-read-to” (at least five times a week), when asked to tell a story, used more literary language than unread to children, and they used more sophisticated syntactic forms, longer phrases, and relative clauses. They were also better able to understand the oral and written language of others – an important foundation for the comprehension skills that will develop in the coming years. Wolf, M. (2007). Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. New York: Harper Perennial.

Incorporating books into the bedtime routine, but it's not improving your routine or getting you all more sleep? Lets chat!