Cuddle up with these baby bedtime stories during nightime

Your baby’s bedtime ritual should be sacred to you and your baby. Bedtime reading is a good way to connect with, soothe, and ensure a good night’s rest for your little one.

Emilie Buchwald, editor, poet, teacher and award-winning children’s author, once said, “Children are made readers on the laps of their parents”. How true!

1. Find books that have big and bright illustrations. Research studies have shown that babies are most stimulated by visual and sound effects.

2. Use a sturdy, hardboard book that you can also wipe down. 

3. Read books with animal and other funny sounds to encourage your child to join in.

4. Rhyming stories are way more fun to read with your baby.

5. Books that have pop-ups, pull outs and textured sections are more fun.

6. Another great idea is to make your own book with pictures of family members and recent vacations or family holidays.

7. Use different tones of voice and keep asking ‘Who’, and ‘What’ questions.

8. Keep talking about what is happening in the story and point out to things that are relevant to the story.

9. Don't be disheartened if your baby seems disinterested. Rest assured, there is listening and learning as she is hearing you read.

A good example of a Children Book reading session

You want your childhood favorite stories to be your baby's favourites too. Bring them up on a screen in an instant with the many free online stories websites today. Here are some to lead you in the right direction. 

www.freechildrenstories.com is a website for reading kids books free. It is beautifully illustrated and the number and genre of books to choose from make this site noteworthy. The different age criteria also make navigating this site very easy.

www.childrenslibrary.org is a library in digital format. You can browse or create an account. Membership is free. Registration is recommended to enjoy full benefits. Log in and save your preferences such as age appropriateness, genre, and language and you can read books from all over the world. This is a great website if you have a list of the favorite books you want to read to your baby.

www.storyberries.com is another site that scores highly on this index. It is beautifully illustrated and presented. The site lists books and poems and is updated weekly. The time it takes for the average reader to read the story or poem is stated. Questions after the reading is done, follows each story and poem. This feature is what makes this site unique.

These are some stories that have been voted popular for newborns
 

Goodnight Moon - is a book written in 1947,  by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd. It is a classic bedtime story about a rabbit who goes around his room wishing everything he can see 'Goodnight'.

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Counting kisses - is an adorable book written and illustrated by Karen Katz, about counting how many kisses a baby needs before she is ready for bed.

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Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site – is a #1 New York Times Bestseller, written by Sherri Duskey Rinker and illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld. With rhyming text, the story details how after a long day the cement mixer, the dump truck, the construction crane, the excavator, and the Bulldozer, all go to sleep at a construction site. The book is extremely liked by babies and toddlers.

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While reading to toddlers, be specific about each character role, encourage involvement by asking frequent questions and help build his vocabulary and inferring skills. Don’t read the same book too often, improvise and have fun. Some good reads are:

I Am Sleepy And I Will Not Go To Bed - is authored and illustrated by Lauren Child. This book is about two siblings. Older brother Charlie tries to convince his little night-owl sister, Lola, it’s time for bed, while she keeps bringing up all kind of reasons on why she doesn’t want to. A must read!

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How will I ever sleep in this bed? - was authored by Della Ross Ferreri and illustrated by Capucine Mazille. It is a story about a little boy’s transition to a big bed. He feels nervous as the bed looks huge to him. He then finds that the way to make it better and not feel so empty is to fill it with his endearing stuffed toys. In the end, he wonders, if there is any room left for him on the bed. The author has depicted the little boy in a very endearing light and instilled in the stuffed toys cute character traits.

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The Gruffalo,first published in 1999, is a 700 word story that has sold 13 million copies worldwide, making it one of the most popular books for children ages 3 to 7.

It tells the story of a tiny mouse's walk through a dangerous forest where he encounters a fox, an owl and a snake each trying to eat him. The clever mouse makes up an imaginary friend,a Gruffalo, a cross between a grizzly bear and a buffalo.The mouse describes this friend which forms the major text of the story.

The animals fear the mouse and leave him alone when they hear of the gruffalo and each encounter ends with the rhyming couplet.

"Silly old fox/owl/snake, doesn't he know?
There's no such thing as a Gruffalo!"

In the end, the mouse does encounter a real Gruffalo but through his clever wit manages to save himself from the Gruffalo too.

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End the day with a dose of healthy giggles with these popular bed time stories.

The Interrupting chicken- is a picture-book by New York-born author, David Ezra Stein. Published in 2010, it is a New York Times Bestseller and tells the story of a little red chicken who is not ready for bed and wants her father to read her a story. While doing so, she constantly interrupts him and her tired and patient father wishes she would go to bed, so he could go to bed too.

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Goodnight Gorilla- is a book about a mischievous Gorilla, authored by the Caldecott Medal winning, Peggy Rathmann. 

A tired zookeeper wishes Gorilla goodnight as he is closing the zoo up for the night. A playful Gorilla takes the keys from the zookeeper’s pocket and follows him around as he wishes all the animals’ goodnight and lets them out of their enclosures. Beautiful illustrations and the various animal sounds that can be made in funny voices, make this almost-wordless book, an all-time giggle favorite.

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Bear Snores On!,tells the funny story of a bear who is asleep in his cave during winter. One after the other, animals come into his cave seeking warmth. The bear snores on even while the popcorn is popping! On waking up, he finds all these unannounced guests in his cave, partying without him.

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The 2016 'Time to Read' Survey concluded that reading to children is beneficial from infancy all the way up to 11 years.

Modern gizmos, unfortunately, have replaced books in many of our little ones' hands. We have all heard the saying, “Catch them young!’ As a parent, it is in our hands to create a life-long love for reading in these young ones. Start them on these lovely books today!