As probably isn't a huge surprise, bedtime routines in this household involve a fair amount of reading. For the small one, this means reading a handful of books before going to bed. This has evolved from simple stories (I can probably still recite Goodnight, Moon, Time for Bed, and DinoSnores by heart) to a series of different picture books and lately with some graphic novels and chapter books thrown in.
The most recent choices have been Calvin and Hobbes (where he definitely identifies with Calvin), sometimes Dogman as well as various chapter books, notably The Magic Tree House series, Wayside School and most recently some A to Z Mysteries.
But just because we turn the lights out, doesn't mean stories stop. Because then it's time for Bedtime Meditations for Kids which sounds like a series of stories but really it's one about going to a forest and finding a tree guy and learning to talk to the trees (hence why we just call it "The Tree Story"). This is a story that has played at least once (and some nights multiple times) every night for the past 3 years. Another story I can recite by heart.
Earlier this month, we've made another story addition. One night, he couldn't sleep and we were already starting our third performance of the The Tree Story. Sometimes when he's up late at night because he's sick, and I'm trying to get his mind off how he's feeling, I'll read him another story. But since he was feeling fine (just couldn't settle) and I didn't want to turn on the lights, I offered to read aloud the book I was reading on my phone, which happened to be Bill Bryson's At Home. Now, to be clear, I was reading this because I enjoyed it. I've read it before, I wanted something I already owned and that I knew I liked. So I say this next part with love but I figured a history of a home and how it got there would not be the most exciting thing to a six-year-old and hoped to bore him to sleep.
Good news! It worked and he fell asleep fairly quickly. AND he enjoyed it. I had already started looking through my ebook library for another child-appropriate books so I was ready for him the next night when he asked that I read him something (while The Tree Story played in the background). Thus did we begin Mary Roach's Packing for Mars. Which, TBH, involved a lot more bits that I had to skip over while reading (not that masturbating chimps isn't funny). Luckily since he's mostly falling asleep he doesn't seem to notice this jumps.
Following Packing for Mars, we decided to go for something seasonally appropriate and read A Christmas Carol. So far, this method seems to be working. And I'm going to need to pick out some more books-for-me-but-also-ones-that-I-can-read-aloud-to-him. Perhaps Pride and Prejudice as our next choice.
