How to Tell a Great Bedtime Story

Unlock the magic of storytelling and transform bedtime into an enchanting experience. Learn to weave tales that captivate young minds, foster imagination, and lull your little ones into a peaceful slumber with the art of a great bedtime story.

Remember the three Ps: pitch, pacing, and pausing

This guide includes advice from a host of a storytelling podcast for children, a Grammy-nominated storyteller with 35 years of experience, and a researcher who has studied storytelling.

• Once upon a time, there was a father who struggled to tell a story
• He stumbled and mumbled
• His daughter noticed and offered notes
• The girl should be a princess
• She should have a unicorn, too, one that could fly
• Changes were made, and the story became an immediate success

You still need to read to your kids

Storytelling should be a complement to reading, not a replacement

• Children understood and retained more of a story they were told aloud than having the same story read to them
• When you tell a story, there’s no book to focus on, you can use gestures and eye contact to add drama and suspense

Encourage audience participation

You want your child to be involved in the telling of the story, so they’re not just listening, they’re actively participating

• This also helps if you’re hard up for material
• If you’re winging it, and running out of ideas, use audience participation to give yourself a break

Remember the basics of storytelling

Every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end

• For kids, the protagonists are people, and they identify with them
• Consider your own story – a clever way you got out of a tricky situation, a surprise that made you laugh, etc.

Add a soundtrack

Use props or live musical accompaniment just as professionals do at festivals or on recordings.

• You can let your child take the lead – if they speed up, you speed up the action. If they slow down, you slow it down, too.

Take the story in an unexpected direction

Diane Ferlatte has participated in storytelling festivals on five continents and in much of the United States, and her 2006 album of Brer Rabbit stories earned a Grammy nomination for Best Spoken Word Album for Children.

• Her advice? Use pitch, pacing, and pauses to keep your child on the edge of their seat.

Use your whole body

One advantage of telling, rather than reading, a story is that you don’t have to look at and hold a physical book.

• You can use your hands to show whether something is huge or tiny, tap on nearby objects to imitate knocking on a door or whoosh your hands when something happens quickly.

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