One of the best ways to put your child to sleep or to prepare him for a good night’s sleepis to read him a story. It is first of all a moment of relaxation that allows you to be in a quiet place with your child, snuggled up together with the blanket, a cuddly moment that is very much appreciated by children and parents. We all remember the tender moments when our parents read us a story before going to sleep and in principle we like to repeat these moments with our own children.
Reading a story to your child stimulates their imagination and allows them to escape into an imaginary world while reading. Moreover, familiarizing children with books from an early age helps to give them a taste for reading.
For toddlers, choose short stories and animated books so that baby can handle and discover different materials, or listen to "honka-honk" and funny noises.
As soon as baby starts to talk, picture books are perfect. These simple books with one picture per page allow the child to recognise objects and practise saying their names.
Around the age of 2, you can opt for stories, but choose relatively short ones because at that age they want to know the end of the story before they fall asleep!
When your child is older (around 4-5 years old) you can choose longer stories by reading a chapter per night, hopefully your little one will want to go to bed to find out the rest of the story!
When your child enters the first grade and is old enough to learn to read, don’t tell him "now you can read, so read by yourself", take advantage of the opportunity to read together, have him read the simplest passages but keep this tender moment with him.
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