My bedtime favourites

Kids’ bedtime is a bittersweet affair each day. The end of the ‘day shift’ is in sight. That chilled bottle of wine is calling your name from the fridge. There’s an episode of Homeland  waiting patiently for you on your Sky+ box planner. The only thing standing between you and an evening of bliss is getting your little one off to the land of nod without any shenanigans. Here are my favourite two bedtime activities – one old school and one hi-tech – to help the process along…

THE BOOK: Good Little Wolf by Nadia Shireen

Good Little Wolf, Nadia Shireen, great kids book

The sign of a brilliant book is one that kids love, but the grown-ups can enjoy on a different level. This book by first-time author and illustrator Nadia Shireen is a bit more upfront with its humour, and the cheeky twist at the end (I won’t spoil it for you), had me laughing out loud the first time I read it to my daughter. The illustrations are fantastic too. Nadia’s second book, Hey Presto is due to be published in July 2012.

THE iPAD APP: Nighty Night

From its soothing ‘plinky plonky’ music, to the gentle voice of narrator Alistair Findlay, Nighty Night is an app cleverly designed to peacefully lull your tot towards bedtime. There are seven animals on the farm, and the child has to switch off each animal’s light to allow them to go to sleep (“Goodnight dear Cow!” Alistair will say when Cow’s light has been successfully dimmed.) The game teaches your little one that lights-off means bedtime. And as any mum of a toddler will know, telling your child that “The sheep and chickens are going to bed, so it’s your bedtime too” seems to hold some kind of mystical power.

Night night, sleep tight….

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4 Comments

  1. May 16, 2012 / 7:16 pm

    oooooh ipad… why did I never think of using that! We are having all sorts of bedtime shenanigans at the moment – it is taking an hour to complete the routine and I am up and down the stairs about 17 times before he finally settles down. It is really eating into my wine time…

    • May 17, 2012 / 12:18 pm

      Oh dear – you can’t have that! 😉
      I LOVE the iPad just before bed – we all pile on the double bed, put Waybuloo on BBC iPlayer (the current TV show of choice) and also scroll through photos of friends and family too.

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