Bedtime reading

The collection of children's books I started long before Ethan was even a twinkle in my eye has been put to good use recently as Ethan's interest has grown as he has.

He's always loved books but now he remembers stories, recognises characters and each night, comes up to us and says 'Mummy, bed. Booht!' (his word for book). We go upstairs, he sits in bed, he tells me to sit so I do, on a cushion on the floor, and I read him a book; usually The Gruffalo (which he knows all the parts to and loves to guess the next word or action) or Paddington.

Many of his other books are treasuries and story collections and I've found that these aren't so good to read at bedtime as they're either incomplete stories, too advanced or too long, at least for the age he is now.

My favourite author and illustrator is Oliver Jeffers, who I have written about before,  and we have all of his books except one. They are beautifully put together and touching to read so I have moved these from display in our dining room to Ethan's bedroom so they're ready for bedtime now.

I also bought Ethan The Day The Crayons Quit as we only had it in digital format before. It's a really funny story and the bright colours appeal to Ethan. He also happens to like the voices Daddy puts on when he reads this, using a different accent for every crayon.

On our day together yesterday, we went to Waterstones so we could pick out a few more bedtime reads.

We chose another Paddington tale, a story about a penguin called Blown Away and then I saw these board book versions of classic stories.

As I say, Ethan loves The Gruffalo so The Gruffalo's Child was a must and I thought these two other Julia Donalson books looked fun too. I like this format as they still look great but I don't mind Ethan reading them himself; he's a bit young to really flick through our picture books without tearing pages!

Ethan really picks up things from what he sees in the books and when we read him the stories and I'm sure his counting is coming on so well because of reads such as this Little Learners One Tiger Roars board book from Parragon (RRP: £3.99).

It's bright, colourful, features animals and teaches children how to count to five. The design is very tactile and it's been a great addition to Ethan's book caddy, which is home to all his favourite, most flicked-through reads.

Reading really is so important, no matter how young, and I love that this is something that excites Ethan so much and is something we can share. 

Roll on bedtime.

* We are part of the Parragon Book Buddies programme but this post is my own, as are my opinions as always.