Reading To My Son

My son and I enjoyed our bedtime ritual. I think this is because we helped to get there together by building a storyboard. We got out some old magazines and empty cereal boxes and anything else we chose to use to make this. In front of us was a heap of material just ready for cutting.

We cut out a series of characters that were on some of the serial boxes, crazy looking birds with silly faces. Then we found some huge flowers in the magazines and cut them too. Some of the cartoon characters we found were fun and so we added them too. To top it off, we added strange looking trees and plants.

We taped and pasted each group onto a big bulletin board and gave it a title. So we had the land of the silly birds, the forest of funny foliage, the field of giant flowers and the hollow of crazy creatures. Then we found a place on the wall in his bedroom where we hung it up. This became the focal point for our stories from then on.

And so it began. Each night my son would pick an area to build the story on and then I would make up a hum dinger that would keep his eyes big with wonder and had both of us laughing. It would last around 20 minutes to a half hour depending on how creative I felt that night. He always went to bed with a smile on his face and a wonderful world filling his mind and imagination.

I think that is where my belief in the value of storytelling took off. It gave both of us a period of time we could share. That alone was invaluable but that sense of wonder was alive and well. I also think there is a positive element there that filters into our brains and leads us down a happier life path. It has to be nurtured early and books help us to do that.

One other thing. With technology, an e-book might look different from a story book. But the concept of reading to your child is the same. It still delivery those wonderful feelings of sharing and a special time to ponder the joys of life. I hope you too are enjoying this with your kids.