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Interesting title, right? Well, now that I have your attention…I have some explaining to do. No, I don’t really think you should not read to your kids. But the title wasn’t just click bait either. Let me explain.

Reading to your kids is super important. You can read to your kids early on in their lives. I still, to this day, remember reading to my first two children as their little hands kept reaching for the pages to turn them all by themselves. Today they both love books. My daughter is seven years old and my son is four, and we still read them a book at night as much as possible…if we aren’t too close to bedtime (no staying up past bedtime to read books). As you can see from our friends at Early Moments HERE, the benefits of reading to your kids, even at an early age, are huge!

BUT sometimes you are super tired after a long day of work. Perhaps you have been doing a presentation all day and are exhausted from speaking. Maybe you’ve been parenting all day and haven’t really had a break. It’s ok to not have the energy to read a full story to your kids every night. I have an option for you. Check out this quick video and then continue reading:

Yes, exhaustion gets the best of us sometimes. We are busy parents and a lot goes into our day. The app that is mentioned in the video is called “Bedtime HD.” You can find it in the app store HERE and you can see a picture of what the app icon looks like here:

bedtimeHD

Once you download the app, you can choose which stories you want to download. Each one has a minor cost to it…each one is only 0.99 cents so it’s totally worth it. We told our daughter if she had good behavior and got to bed on time that we could do one new story per week, so that’s what we did. She loves it and looks forward to it.

Our favorite stories within the app are:

  • The Frog Prince
  • Bluebeard
  • Pocohontas
  • The Thief And The Donkey
  • Goldilocks And The Three Bears
  • The Hare And The Toroise

Each book is clean, teaches a good lesson, comes with amazing illustrations and is read by a professional voiceover artist. There are two main female voices that read the books. One is a more mature female voice that sounds very professional yet soothing, and the other one has a bit of a youthful tone to her that keeps you on your feet. Either way, they are both great in their own way. And that whole turning the pages thing that I mentioned earlier in the post…the kids can actually turn the digital “pages” themselves within the app. So great!

digitalbook2

A full selection of books lets you and your kids pick your favorites together!

digitalbook3

Once you click on the book you want and download it, the title page comes up and the narrorator starts reading. You can advance to the next page by swiping your finger or it will automatically move to the next page in a few seconds.

digitalbook1

Each page provides wonderful illustrations and easy-to-follow words on the page.

In Closing:

Reading an actual book to your kids with real pages and following along with your fingers while they sit on your lap or you sit next to them in their bed is ultimately the best way to read and create an everlasting love of reading books, but sometimes we are tired. I hope this post gives you some resources in your digital “tool belt” to tap into for those nights when mom or dad needs a rest! With so much technology in our lives these days, it is important to have a healthy balance, but also important to use it to our advantage. You are an awesome parent…keep on going the extra mile for your family!

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