And I just know that forcing him to do something he is not engaged with, could make him be even more resistant.

Would forcing my eldest son to sit through a story every night be counterproductive to nurture a love of books? READ MORE: Woman finds out she's pregnant from her first Brazilian waxĪnd many parents swear by meditation apps to help their kids nod off to sleep. 'Why not explore some audiobooks or podcasts at home or on the go? All these activities help to develop reading skills and can develop children's imagination too.' 'Don't think books are the only thing to read you can read anything together, including the shopping list, road signs when you're in the car, and posters in shop windows,' she continues. 'But reading together can happen anywhere and at any time - on the living room ﬂoor, the back veranda, or the kitchen table all make great reading spots.'

'I understand how busy parents are these days and finding the time to juggle work, parenting and day-to-day activities can be extremely hard,' she tells 9Honey Parenting. He also has a deep fascination with people and the world around him and loves taking public transport, so when we are out and about on a bus or train adventure we always try to encourage him to read maps and signs.Īnd according to Lee Walker Director of Publishing at Oxford University Press, that's okay. He also struggles with writing as he has poor fine motor skills. You see, my eldest son, now six with Autism and ADHD, has always struggled to sit still and engage with reading. READ MORE: Watch the powerful moment a school basketball stadium goes silent for blind teen Mum and writer Heidi Krause (Supplied) I do try to read as often as possible - but it doesn't happen every day and it's not always a book. They gasped and what next? Then it jumped over the farmhouse.And well, I'm here to confess that I am one of those parents who don't read to their kids every night before bed. There was cheering, there was applause, the cow bowed and then suddenly, it jumped over the tractor. Then suddenly everyone saw the cow jumping over a fence. It was a lovely day and everyone sitting on checked blankets spread about on the grass with a cup of tea in one hand and a piece of cake in the other. No one actually believed there was a jumping cow, but they surely didn’t want to miss the party. On that very next Sunday afternoon all the farmers of the village came to see the jumping cow and they brought along their wives and all their children too. He shook his head sadly no one would ever believe that, he thought.Īs the days went by Emma the cow kept on jumping over everyone, over everything and everywhere until finally, the farmer decided to invite the whole village to a midsummer party so that they could see his remarkable cow. When he got close to his farm he could clearly see Emma the cow jumping over his farmhouse. The poor old farmer left the market place and travelled home to his farm and the moon was shining brightly. You see, usually cows don’t like jumping over tractors and milk lorries. He went to the market place to tell the other farmers in the neighbourhood all about his special cow Emma but of course they didn’t believe him, they just laughed at him when he told his story. How amazing was that? The horses were really impressed and the farmer was amazed by his very special cow. Then she jumped over the farmer’s tractor and one day she even jumped over the milkman’s lorry. First she jumped over small fences, then she jumped over high fences, but after a while she started jumping over the farmer’s car. Emma was very proud and so she kept on jumping. She loved to jump over fences but for some strange reason too strange to tell in a bedtime story, none of the horses could jump as high as she could. She ran around the green meadows of the Midlands and played joyfully with the other foals all day long. So little Emma didn’t know she was a cow, she thought she was a foal just like her sister! And so she did all the things little horses do. Due to very sad circumstances, circumstances that are far too sad to be told in a bedtime story, the little cow wasn’t raised by her own mother but by a little foals’ mum. She was born on a farm somewhere in the Midlands, quite some time ago. Once upon a time there was a little cow called Emma.

Night stories for kids