Once upon a time, in a land not so very far away, storytelling ruled. Today, as watching television, playing computer games and surfing the net take up most of our time, it's the bedtime story that best preserves that storytelling magic. Denise Roberts finds out why it's so special to read bedtime stories during your family time
Storytelling at bedtime
Folk tales, fairy tales, tall tales, trickster stories or mystery - the act of spinning a tale to educate, instill knowledge and values, to preserve family histories or culture - or simply to entertain - is a tradition common to every land and time. People have told tales around campfires and boasted of their exploits over dinner, but of all the shapes the story appears in, the bedtime tale is the most endearing.
Bedtime is the time we most read to our children. Whether tucked up in bed or snuggled up on the sofa, as evening falls parents will always find eager ears, if sleepy eyes, when they begin with ‘When I was little...' or open the pages of a favourite book, even if it's one that's been read a trillion times before. The moment turns magical and the imagination flows. And as the child unwinds and drifts off to sleep, the words, sounds and images spun become the stuff pleasant dreams are made of - for the rest of that child's life.
No wonder half of the adults responding to a recent survey by education publishers Pearson said they recalled storytime to be ‘a happy time' when they were growing up, and ‘a time for imagination to run wild'.
‘It's lovely to read the simplest book to a baby, helping it pat a picture of a dog, both of you going "Woof Woof",' says the recent children's laureate Jacqueline Wilson. ‘It's fantastic when you get on to the next stage and read real stories to a toddler, acting out Where the Wild Things Are or We're All Going on a Bear Hunt. It's even better when your child is ready for whole chapters and you can enjoy long stories together. I'm sure half the success of the amazing Harry Potter books is that they're brilliant to read aloud to the whole family.
‘I think the whole bedtime story tradition is very special,' Jacqueline adds. ‘I think it's such a simple, warm, cosy family thing to do. It's a wonderful way for a mum or dad or carer to bond with a child, a way to wind-down after a tiring day so that you can relax together.'
Bonding - time
Children's author Michael Morpurgo, now aged 63, says he can still remember his mother reading to him as a child and believes it forms part of the cementing of the parent-child relationship.
He says: ‘I remember sitting on the edge of the bed with my brother Peter. We would be sitting there like woodpeckers looking at the pages while my mother read to us. It was almost the only time of the day we had her to ourselves, and she would only read the things she loved.'
This ‘connecting' opportunity has repeatedly been singled out as one of the special things about the bedtime story. Pearson's survey - called ‘Ready for Booktime?' and run in association with the educational charity Booktrust - revealed that over one third of UK adults remember storytime as ‘a time to bond with parents', and this, say the researchers, highlights the importance of reading aloud with children.
‘Ready for Booktime' found that many parents start reading to their children before they can speak, some before they are even born. But as children progress through these most critical developmental years, the reading stops. Sixty per cent of parents of four to six year olds read to their children everyday, but by the time they get to seven just 37 per cent of parents are still reading daily. A further one in four parents, 26 per cent, read aloud two or three times a week and 10 per cent say they never read to them at all. And, the parent most likely to read to their child is mum - 15 per cent of dads say they never pick up a book with their child compared with eight per cent of mums.
