As I was putting my 3(almost) year old boy to bed, his brother, 5, in the same room, I was frustrated and sad. They want to mess around and get up and talk and be loud so I have started parking a chair at their bedroom door and reading so they would not be getting into trouble. Well..it took my 3 year old nearly an hour to go to bed. It dawned on me, yes I am slow sometimes, that I could read to them at bedtime. Does anyone have any really good recommendations for bedtime reading for two small boys?
My little boy has enjoyed the Thornton Burgess animal stories, like the Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel. I got a boxed set at Dover. Very short chapters. A good beginning read aloud chapter book.
Our little guy (2 1/2) loves the Jesus Storybook Bible – I have the book + audiobook, which is great. Winnie the Pooh is a big favorite also – the originals; we have the books and an audiobook. I like to have a few audiobooks for him in case I am busy with the baby, etc. He also likes listening to classical music and instrumental hymns with a few books to look at on his bed.
Some of his other favorites:
The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
Any of the Alfie books by Shirley Hughes – his favorite is Alfie’s Feet, but they are all good.
There is a series of books by Arthur Scott Bailey called the Tale of … series. On the back of some of the books, they are called “Tuck-Me-In Tales.” The chapters are short, and are the perfect length for bedtime. We happen to read them for our living science books, but sometimes read a chapter or two before bedtime. Some we have enjoyed are:
The Tale of Solomon Owl
The Tale of Tommy Fox
The Tale of Benny Badger
And we’re currently enjoying The Tale of Ferdinand Frog.
We obtain ours through the library.
The Little House series are what we currently read every night before bed. My dc are 6 and 5.
We personally try to avoid picture books at bedtime, because then they want to look at pictures, which means getting out of bed. All four of our boys are in the same room (ages 10, 10, 6 and 4) and they have been for years. We read whatever books we want and they all lay still and listen. Some of our favorites….
Narnia
The Hobbit
Boxcar Children (although hubby could only read two or three before he went crazy)
various fairy tales
Ranger’s Apprentice
Winnie the Pooh
We have found that even the youngest can follow along with the storyline and gets a good feel for the characters.
My boys have enjoyed Farmer Boy and 101 Dalmations at bedtime. (I use Audio CDs at bedtime…but have just recently begun reading to all (7) of them on the floor in the hallway upstairs at naptime for the very same reason you mentioned…)
Wow…I just checked this, thank you so much for all of your ideas, I will have to do something w/out pictures as I want them to lay in bed and not get up.
I should correct something, when I parked a chair at their door I was reading my “own” books, not something out loud to them ..that is when it dawned on me, later, that…wow…I could be reading aloud to them, I have been wanting to do more of that, what a perfect time. I just don’t want to read anything that will get them more wound up.
For my 4 yr old and three yr old we have been enjoying the Animal Autobiographies Series, we ordered them from Queen HS. We are currently reading Bear Brownie – the life of a bear. There are no pics (that I recall) and they have typically taken us a week (five bedtimes) to read. I think they are great for boys (my daughter likes them too) because they are really about the life of the animal….very outdoors-yish (if that makes since) Plus it is a good way to sneak in science for my little ones