When to read kids a book at bedtime

[rach3y]

My 20month old has a lot of energy, the only way we can get him to settle for bedtime is to watch moon and me on CBeebies , he focuses on this and calms down and is ready for sleep at the end , I would love to replace this with reading books , he will sometimes sit on my lap and read at other times and points out pictures in the books , but at bedtime he just flies around if we try to read , when will a child actually be able to focus enough to use a book to settle to sleep ?

I just used to read to them anyway, if they couldn't stay still I just talked about the pictures. I don't think TV is necessary or good at that age. Why don't you just try and read and if it doesn't settle him song a song or something?

Perhaps try a more interactive book rather than a story as such? Mine used to love the first words, colours etc books so they could name all the things in it. Or similarly with things like vehicles, animals etc depending on what he's interested in.