Tell me a story…

Jason and I have always been avid readers. I remember learning to read “Sally Books” (at least, that’s what we called them. I’m not actually sure what the collection of books is called). They were a series of books all about Sally and her family and all the adventures they went on and things they did. I loved those books. I remember reading them over and over again. And so my love for reading grew!

A few years ago we were at a shopping center in Durban, browsing a random, trinkety-type shop, and by chance I came across seven Sally Books! I was so excited – all my memories of reading those books came flooding back, and I spent our last R70 buying them. This was a good few years before we even thought of kids, but I was so excited to have these books to read to my children one day.

Now that we have Noah, we have made reading a priority from day one. From baby days we have read story books and Bible stories to him at bedtime. We have always chosen at least two to three stories to read at a time, even when he was too little to really understand what he was listening to. It’s been important to us that we teach him from a young age what books are, how you use them, how to look after them and that reading is fun!

And it seems to be paying off! We’ve always kept his books easily accessible for him, and so as soon as he became mobile, he would wriggle on over to his books, choose one, and start reading it to himself. And now that he is older, he will either get a book on his own, or ask us to pass him a specific book – these days, all he wants to read on his own are his Thomas and Friends books, especially the one about Arthur!

Normally, Noah and I read at least four stories before bed. I usually do story time, but there are days when Noah has really missed time with his dad, and o those days, Daddy does bedtime story time!

Noah really seems to love this time. He’ll lie in his toddler bed, drink his “green tea”, aka Milo, and I’ll sit on the floor next to his bed and read to him. Our four books consist of a Thomas and Friends book, a Bible story, a story book from his little library and a lullaby book (we have two, which we alternate).

We are always on the lookout for awesome kids story books to get for Noah, as you can’t go wrong with investing in a good book, in our opinion! Please share any books your children love to read in the comments below. I’ll be sharing our favorite books in a few posts, over the next few weeks!