Product That Will Read Stories to 5yo

DD1 has just started school and I need to get her to sleep quicker. Last night it was 10pm which is obviously too late for her.

Our problem is DD2 who has always been a bad sleeper - she is vey unpredictable as to how long it will take to get her to sleep. Usually I settle her before settling DD1.

Usually what I do is read DD1 one story, leave her in her room and then try to get DD2 to sleep. This might take 10 mins, it might take an hour. I can't read more to DD1 while DD2 is still awake as she's very disruptive :) and will climb on and off the bed, get under the covers, get out of the covers, get the teddies to have a conversation etc. etc. All very cute but not conducive to settling DD1.

The problem is, no matter how many times I tell her, DD1 is waiting for me to go back and read her more stories. If I'm back after 10 mins that's no problem. But if DD2 has taken ages to sleep, it's really too late to be reading more stories.

Last night between the two of them, I read for 1 hour 40 minutes.

I should make it clear that it's not the length of time reading I mind as the fact that DD2 should be going to sleep earlier so she's not tired at school.

So I'm thinking of the following plan. 8pm in bed. I will read one story to DD1, then leave her with something that will read a story to her. I want her to be able to have the physical book, not an iPad, computer etc. and listen to something that will read the same story simultaneously. Then she can do that until 8.30pm and if I'm still putting DD2 to sleep, she mustn't wait for me.

She loved that idea.

But what do I need? Do reading eggs do that? I was thinking of recording my own voice reading the stories and putting them on my iPhone (I've got a voice recorder app on there) but is there a product that will do that for me?

You can buy books with CDs that chime to turn the page. Woolworths often have them in the toy section.

We have a few cd books. I bought some from an Angus & Robertson a few years ago with 4 disney stories in a large book with 1 cd. Also got some nursery rhyme ones from a $2 shop a while ago. The latest one I bought was from Target last month, 5 disney princess stories with 2 cds. I'm going to put it on an mp3 player so we can take them with us anywhere

DS1 has the Leap frog Tag. Where he has the thing he presses on the book and it can read to them or can play a game etc depending on what book they have.

Otherwise CD story books.

Do you have an iPhone? Audiobooks from iTunes and a $15 speaker from bigW.
Or the android equivalent.

I saw something in kmart a couple of months ago - it was a Thomas one but they had a pink one too which was an ereader kind of thing. I think it was between $20 and $30 and had a bunch of stories on it. I tried googling but couldn't find it but your local kmart may have one if you are interested

Not quite what you are after - but I have DD listen to podcast stories from the BBC while I deal with DS - they are free (can put onto any mp3, I use my phone), get new ones all the time and I quite like the idea of her using her imagination to make the pictures etc to go along with the words, and also I find it can be more relaxing for her than reading because don't need a reading light on. I am a big radio and audio-book fan though - and these were a bit part of my childhood too. DD prefers these to the CD's which go bing to turn the page (we have tried a few at the library) - but she is a bit younger than your DD.

You could go back to 1985 and get a teddy ruxpin ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_Ruxpin

We use a tag reader, dd loves itge have ones for her to learn to read and also fun ones like Cinderella. Her favourite is a map of the solar system. As a kid I had records that would read along to books but there are CDs out there too.

we have a leap frog tag reader which is good :) you buy the leaptag books then they use the pen like device it comes with and it can read individual letters, words or an entire page depending which option you chose at the start of the book

Big W have a lot of books with CD's for around $9, mainly disney stories