How to introduce story time?

DH and I are pretty keen on introducing a regular story time for Peter, and are just wondering how/when others did it? We would eventually like to have a bedtime story time.

We are thinking about reading to him during his final bottle before bed. But the problem is that he still really grabs at books and instead of it being a nice quiet story time, he gets a bit excited and knocks the book and knocks his bottle etc.

Any experiences, ideas?

I try and read to Jack too, but he just wants to eat the books. :rolleyes:

I started really early on - about 2-3 months and read a book during feed time or just before putting DD down for asleep. As she grew, she was increasingly awake for the read and it now fits so perfectly into our routine. We always read a book before going down for a nap during the day and a night. Try to give your baby something to hang onto while you are reading another book so he doesn't want to grab the book you have. Be guided by him and instead of typically 'reading' a story talk about what he is interested in touching, pointing at etc.

try to start reading it just before his bedtime bottle for a while, and then when he is used to this, he wont grab at every book and will love just hearing your voices.

Zander is just thrown in among the mix with my other two and grabs and salivates everywhere :lol: he loves it - but more cos he is involved rather than the actual story of course at this age.

I was exactlty the same as you AmberJ when DS was about the same age, couldn't work out how to introduce story time cause he just wouldn't sit still. Then another BB member (think it might have been sammiejane) said that she reads to her DS before bf and bed as part of the bedtime routine.
So I have introduced it as part of his routine. She explained that she reads while her DD crawls around and then I figured it isn't so much about sitting but that he is hearing the story and lots of different words IYKWIM?
So I give him one of those hard, cardboard page type books to distract him while I read a book. At first he did a lot of crawling around, playing with the book while I sat on the bed and read to him. Now, depending on his mood, he will either sit with me while read me, try and 'help' me turn the pages or crawl around playing.
Doesn't really matter cause I am reading to him and strangely enough he does have a few favourites already, I can recite them from memory and he smiles and responds in recognition :lol:

Maybe start with just a short story or a book with pop ups my son use to love these ones...

Hi Jessica - Here are some of the ways I have introduced reading to my girls:
using bath books - reading in the bath; cloth books are great too - they don't hurt as much when they're getting thrashed around lol. Reading through catalogues - then letting them tear up the paper! You could make up some posters to hang on the wall, with pictures on them - and make up a different story each night - the pictures you put on them could centre around sleep time. The books with all of the touchy feely things are great too - captures there attention for a little bit longer than usual.(say 30seconds lol)

To me it's about a love of books rather than sitting quietly listening to a story if that makes sense because I don't think my DD will be at that stage for quite some time, if ever, LOL.

We look at a book together when she has her first bottle in bed with us in the morning, periodically throughout the day and again at night either just hanging in her room or when she's in her cot. But she definitely won't allow us to read to her. She holds the book, turns the pages and points to the pictures. Our job is to tell her what she's pointing to or to nod and say "yes, that's a whatever" when she's said something correctly.

At the moment, her fave is Milly-Molly-Mandy. She's fat too young to know what's going on in that story but man, she loves the pictures. Last night DP reported that she came across a picture of a lot of different people and a dog, she pointed out a few things to DP and then started to turn to a different picture. DP turned back to the original picture and said, "now where's the dog?" She ignored him and carried on turning pages. Again, he stopped her and turned back to the original picture and said "where's the dog?" At which point, he said she gave a big sigh and pointed at the dog quite angrily as if to say, "look you clown, I've been pointing out dogs for the last two months, of course I know where the dog is now let's look at something else!"

So I guess what I'm trying to say is don't worry too much at this stage about him biting or playing with books, Just go with the flow and just keep making it fun.

yes, my ds loves pointing out things in books and trying to say them, he loves hats! if he sees a hat anywhere, he will start saying hat, hat, hat until we agree with him that he saw a hat. Books are fantastic at any age, we have a whole heap of books for ds to choose from, he goes and gets a book and sits with us while we read it to him or he just likes us to tell him what he is pointing at.

We didn't really choose a time to introduce books, we just keep buying books and adding to his collection. Sometimes he will get a book and just sit there and read it to himself (or babble to himself lol) its sooo cute.

so now that he is used to books, he will sit quietly while we read to him before bed. we do this after he has had his milk and he is relaxed during cuddle time with us and he loves it.

Having books around all day long that they can play with is a really good way to take the pressure off at story time at night.

I bought a whole heap of cheapy books at the op shop - 50c each, I don't mind if these get ripped or torn, etc. But it means that Missy E can get the books out and play with and look at them any time she wants to.

The "good books" (ie more expensive, gifts, etc) live up on a higher shelf. At this age, they can really only cope with a few words or a sentence per page, so keep it brief then let them turn the page.

Also books like "Spot" where they can lift the flap are great. And apart from that it's just a case of them learning to wait before the page gets turned!

We also have lots of books which we don't 'read' as such, but just say the word for the picture Miss E is pointing at.

We started at about 3m and I would read to DD while we both were lying on our backs, side by side. Maybe this would work for you - he could hold his bottle while you hold the book up high enough above you both to stop him grabbing it? Plus then he would be able to see it over the bottle.
And yes, you do get sore arms LOL

I think even if you waited until bubs was older you won't miss the boat. No matter what EVERY kids loves to be read to (imho) - even on the most nutso days around here all I have to do is pull out a story and I have 2 quiet little angels sitting either side of me!

Studies show the earlier you start, the more developed the child's love for reading is - don't worry about the trying to eat the book, etc, etc, with time this will pass and your reading time will become some of your child's fondest memories.

I read books to DS and have done since he was about 8 weeks old on and off at no set pattern or time and not nessasrily every day.

Lately i have been reading him one in his bedroom sitting on floor after a bath and dressed for bed.

He mostly wants to eat the books!!


We have soft felt books, board books, touch and feel books, paper back books.

Also lead by example. If I can I have my nose in a book, my parents always did and my kids all love to curl up with a book too.

Yep, I second that. Until recently, DD slept in our room and I can't get to sleep without my reading fix so would try to do it quietly but DD woke up a few times as I was reading. She'd sit up, see me reading in bed, grab a book (I always leave one in her cot) and start flicking the pages herself. I'd still hear her flicking after I turned the light off and would have to restrain a giggle. One of my cutest memories.