About 1,500 bedtime stories left. Here are 30 to start with.
Our stories, well-loved tales and your own family ones, for ages 2 to 6. Tick each one as you tell it. Plus how to read aloud so they ask for "one more".
Tick each story after you tell it.
It saves on this phone, so you can come back every night.
0 of 30: Start with one tonight.
One night they'll correct you: "No Dad, the crow drops the stones first." That is the best night. It means the story is theirs now.
5 things that make them ask for "one more".
- Put their name in it. "And who walked into the forest? Our Chintu!"
- Stop before the end. "What do you think happens next?" Then wait.
- Give each character a voice. Low for the lion, squeaky for the mouse. Bad voices work best.
- Slow down at the scary bit. Whisper. Hold their hand. Then the happy ending.
- Same book again? Say yes. Hearing it again is how they learn it well enough to tell it back.
Every story night adds up.
Researchers counted the words in 60 popular picture books and worked out what a child hears by age 5 at different reading habits. One story a night comes to hundreds of thousands of words, in your voice.
Logan et al., Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 2019 · an estimate from 60 picture books, not a count of real homes
Noise works the other way. In homes where a TV was on in the background, grown-ups spoke fewer words to their children and there were fewer back-and-forth turns.
Christakis et al., Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 2009 · 329 children, linked, not proof of cause
Go deeper: what the TV study measured
Families wore small audio recorders at home for whole days. When a TV could be heard, the recorders picked up fewer adult words, fewer sounds from the child and fewer conversational turns. It shows a link, measured carefully, not proof that TV causes every gap. The simple takeaway: when you want words to grow, switch the background noise off and talk.
I am Manjunath. I built a maze for my daughter, and these guides are what I learnt on the way.
She knew Ganesha before she knew ABCs.
Our grandparents' voices are still in our heads. Let ours be the one in theirs.
Read my story →Tap each one.
One night they'll fall asleep before the end. Finish it anyway. Some stories are for us too.
It's the 10th night they want the same story. Best move?
Again, with gaps. Wanting the same story is how little ones learn it well enough to tell it back. Leave the last word of a line for them to say. That is the moment the story becomes theirs.
About 1,500 nights. Rough maths. But it's a real number, and tonight is one of them.
Ganesha's Grand Fest
Little Ganesha on a birch wood board. Your child guides each piece home with a magnetic pen while you tell the story. No batteries, no sound. For 15 months and up.
Sources (2)
- Logan JAR, Justice LM, Yumuş M, Chaparro-Moreno LJ. When children are not read to at home: the million word gap. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 2019.
- Christakis DA, Gilkerson J, Richards JA, et al. Audible television and decreased adult words, infant vocalizations, and conversational turns. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 163(6):554, 2009.
Let's build childhoods worth cherishing.