Our Bedtime Bookhabit
Hello, my name is De. I live in Sydney, Australia with my 3 (soon to be 4) year old son. Here’s our Bookhabit Bedtime.
Our evening routine changed last year when I became a single mother. Whereas I had once had the assistance of my son’s dad in the evenings, I was now the only adult in the house. Doing everything on my own meant that by the time evening rolled around, I was ready for bed myself. I could hardly keep my eyes open at 7pm to read together, let alone clean up the house afterwards.
So, I merged our evening routines and now we do everything together, very early! This way, we both have the energy to enjoy story time.
Dinner:
So, we eat dinner together at 4:30pm. 4:30?! I hear you say. Yes, I’m all ready for life as a retiree.
Clean up and bath
While I clean up the kitchen and pack the dishwasher, my son normally watches TV or plays for a bit. Sometimes he helps me with the dishes. He bathes, I shower and we’re both fed, clean and in our pyjamas by 5:30pm.
The resistance
We get our heat packs ready, brush teeth (with much resistance) and faff about until I’m able to convince him that it’s time for bed, after some yoghurt and strawberries, that is. It’s 6:30 and we’re both ready for bed.
Books
Reading has always been a key part of my life and I view the passing of this gift onto my son as one of the most important parts of my role as his mother. So, to be sure that our bedtime stories are done well, our entire afternoon and evenings hinge around being ready for bed early enough.
My son started sleeping in my bed last year, which means bedtime stories are now shared in our big, comfy bed. Darcy the cat is often involved too, mostly against his will.
We read four books at night. We tend to stick to current faves for a few weeks, then I try to introduce a new book into the mix. We’re currently reading Billions of Bricks, Superman; an origin story, Gaston and Stickman (an old favourite brought back by my son).
At this stage they are all picture books, a mixture of fiction stories about animals and non-fiction. Space and dinosaurs have been hot topics over the past year. My son’s recently shown an interest in comics so that’s an exciting genre for us both.
After stories, we say a prayer of gratitude, then it’s hugs, kisses and goodnights. Whilst he’s drifting off to sleep, I check out what’s been happening on Instagram or read a book for myself and I’m asleep soon after.
The changes we made to our evening routine have made it a much more enjoyable time, because neither of us is beside ourselves with fatigue at this earlier time and sharing a bed means much less nagging and bedtime battles because he knows I’m going to be there.
So, that’s it, our Bookhabit Bedtime.
I have loved reading this post. I think that it is so inspiring to see how De has literally rearranged her daily routines because bedtime stories are such a huge priority for her family. If you’d like to know more about the books she loves and what she and her (supercute) son are reading at the moment, be sure to follow along on Instagram. You can find her at @booksandbabycinos Thanks so much for sharing, De!
Claire x
Recently it was my little magpie’s birthday (she is known as the magpie because she is constantly hopping around and has always had an eye for anything sparkly). It had been an exceptionally busy week with me going back to school after the summer holidays and her starting at her new school nursery and so I had had to be very organised with all the birthday planning and it wasn’t until less than a week to go that I realised I had almost forgotten something very important- her birthday book. She couldn’t have a birthday without a book so I started to think about all the things on my ‘To buy’ list which she might like and scrolling through instagram and all my favourite book accounts to see if there was something she would love. As a looked down my feed I saw the ‘Brambly Hedge’ account pop up with ‘Autumn Story’ and I knew it would be perfect.
As it happened I bought the ‘A year in Brambly Hedge’ box set. The little magpie is very interested in seasons at the moment and so the fact that there is a story for each season is perfect. But also there was a little selfish part of me that wanted the books for myself because I remembered reading them and being in love with the intricate illustrations when I was little. For anyone who has not come across these books before they are as quintessentially British as any Beatrix Potter or AA Milne story. They follow the lives of a community of mice, shrews and voles who live in the hedgerows, trees and bushes of the English countryside.
The author has taken time to give each of the characters its own personality and they are often featured across the different books so you feel like you get to know them a little bit. They have quite a lot of text in each book but all the stories are exciting- a surprise birthday picnic for Spring, a riverside wedding in Summer, a little mouse lost in the woods in autumn (my favourite) and a Snow Ball in winter- but it’s the illustrations that really draw you in. They are so detailed and as a result the more you look at them the more you notice. What I loved when I was little, and still love now, are the intricate cross sections of the trees where you feel like you can look inside their houses and see the little creatures busy in their homes. I spent many hours looking at these and they still fascinate me today.
As English animal stories go, these books have all the warmth of a tea party at Pooh corner, mixed in with the adventures of Peter Rabbit but because they were written much more recently (the 1980s) the language is easier for our modern day children to understand. If you are a fan of AA Milne and Beatrix Potter, these should be on your radar! It’s also worth mentioning that they are the perfect size for little fingers as they are small hardbacks which all come in a presentation box. They look so lovely on their shelf- is it just me or does everyone find a set of books like this really satisfying?
alittlebookhabit 