I want to tell bedtime stories but don't really know how

[bearhug]

I have fond memories of my mother telling me + my siblings bedtime stories. She just made them up and told them. I've tried this but don't seem to be very good at it.

I am happy to read to my DS and do this most days, and we also often talk about our day before bed. This is nice, but not the same as telling stories.

How do I get better at this? Where do I start?

DD1 (4) demands three things every night; a reading story (a book) a telling story (made up story) and a lullaby (which I also have to make up as I go along to certain specifications ).

I always get her to say who she wants in the story and what she wants to happen and then just give her what she's asked for. Typically, her story tends to involve
(a) a pretty princess who
(b) dies (in a Sleeping Beauty or Snow White type way)
and then
(c) is rescued somehow and
(d) lives happily ever after

Simples. Now, try doing the same in a bloody lullaby

Over time we have managed to dissuade her from wanting poo to feature in said lullaby - that makes it very tricky indeed. A post-mortem poo is hard to slot in believe me.

Ds (3 yr 9m) gets two made up stories from dh everynight, along with one book. When I do bedtime I give one made up story and two books. We have been doing this quite along time, made up stories began when we went away and forgot to take books along . Now he much prefers the made up stories.

I don't find it too difficult, although the tricky thing is that he won't accept a story more than once, so every night you have to make up something new. Dh is much better at it than me.

I steal ideas - for example there are loads of stories you can get from the Faraway Tree, as you can place any land at the top and can have any characters climbing the tree. I try to get away with traditional fairy tales also, as he does not have these in book form. Or mix up different bits of existing stories. Bits of things like gnomes and moles living in lands under the ground, mermaids under the sea, sky people and cloud children living up in the air. Then there are things like time travel back to the dinosaurs, becoming invisible for the day, finding a flying rug etc, and lots of stories were ds is the hero.

He often outlines a story for us, almost always tells us the characters he wants (animals mostly, or dinosaurs). He likes to be a bit scared it seems and dh is very good at this. My main problem is that often I find my stories become a bit of a cautionary tale, which I dislike as I think they should mainly be fun, not moral stories.

DD aged 3 has stories that have grown out of talking about what has happened in her day. I got so bored repeating 'then we went to playgroup' that I started making it up, like 'and then we rode a giant slug'.
She also thinks fantasy naughtiness is absolutely hilarious - e.g. normaly saintly figures like Grandma eat half the chocolate cake and hide the rest in the baby's shoe.
As I said, she's 3, and not very discerning.

Love love love these ideas! I am filing them away for the future. DS is only 22mths and is content with just hearing about his day at the moment and he's often too tired for a story at bedtime so these ideas will come in very useful when he's a bit older!

We have recurring themes and characters.

The characters are often trains/planes/trucks - but they all have personalities.

They usually want something eg ability to fly, ability to swim, chance to work on big building site etc. These desires are often mocked by other characters. But one day, hero character meets magic star/frog/butterfly who grants them a wish and wam bam they can fly/swim etc. Sometimes the wish is granted because they have done something kind like rescued frog from middle of road, or helped fallen star get back into sky.

Another recurring theme we have is small boy with treasured toy, who goes on a trip with said toy and loses it. After a grief-stricken night, the toy turns up in an unexpected place eg in a cake after a day of baking, in a local stream after being lost on a ferry etc.

It's sometimes very hard to be imaginative at end of a tiring day though!

I'm getting inspired to shake up my routine a bit.

We always have a green door story because, you guessed it, we have a green door. The stories always have one thing from dd and one thing from ds in, usually a nursery rhyme and a farming vehicle.

I sometimes replay the days events with an extra bit of tractor magic or preview tomorrow's delights especially if we are going to do something different or go on a journey. Tonight the tree it the back garden had turned into a magic tree with chocolate leaves of all different flavours.

And always end with everyone having a lovely time, tea, teeth, story bed. Then, if I think they're still restless I do a snuggle down in bed, close your eyes, have a big yawn and then tell them their legs and arms are feeling heavy & warm & work through the body. Gets me to sleep at least.

Haven't done this for ages but it usually involved 2 dcs, 2 baddies (adults, totally think who came up with really stupid ideas that the kids could outwit and made them giggle. Whenever I got stuck I cheated and asked stuff like, "so then they went round the corner and what do you think they found there? ' Kids always have ideas and you just say, 'That's right,' and carry on. My two still remind me of stories I told them years ago. Makes me want to do it again.

Earlier in the thread someone said that the more books you read the more ideas you get (too lazy to go back and check who said it).

I totally agree with this - also your child gets ideas about the stories they like from those they've had read to them.

My DS used to like re-tellings of classic stories like the 3 little pigs in my own words. Or I'd use the structure of well-known stories and just change some of the key details.

My main tip would be to spend a few seconds thinking about the 'story arc' before you start - I've got myself tied up in knots in many a story, and struggled to find a way out. Decide roughly where the story is going to go? eg: boy finds secret door. Leads to a land where he meets a strange creature/robot who shows him around. Discovers facts about new world - chairs are made of chocolate so they melt when he sits on them, cats bark and mice roar, adults go to school. After a while boy starts to miss home so he gets on the jelly train and falls asleep. Wakes up in his own bed. Thinks it was all a dream, but finds train ticket in his pyjamas....

And things in toddler stories happen in threes a lot - baby lamb was lost. Mummy sheep asked the goats, then the pigs, then the chickens, before finding baby lamb asleep under a tree.

I tell stories about my family's past when they were little. Just little things like going on holiday by train or when we lost my nephew but he was with my brother all along & but we didn't have mobile phones in those days etc... Then I change it the following night to include my DS in a new version of the same events.

I put my own kids in the story. If you are looking for tips on how to be a good storyteller: voice is important - changes in volume and pace at key points. Have a 'problem' in your story which you build up to and resolve at the end.

I make up feminist re-tellings of classic storytales for dd (18 months). Mainly because when I first revisited some classics - Brothers Grimm for example - I was appalled at how sexist they were, with pathetic princess-characters that are totally powerless and end up marrying for money. A bit like modern-day WAGS. Anyway, enough of my ranting, but that's what I do.

I often just reverse the story. So Sleeping Beauty rides a fast horse past peril after peril to rescue a sleeping prince who has been cursed by his wicked and jealous step-FATHER. And not all of the dwarves are male. That's actually a crap example, but I think some of them are quite good . Will have to wait until dd is older to get any feedback though - it might be a return to pathetic Disney princesses after all once she turns 4. I hope not!

LarkinSky Fab idea I will use that for my son he would love the turning of the tables

Maybe try making a story up of the day youve had if your stuck? Or remember a special day like a wedding or a birthday, make all the details bigger and better for the excitement factor. This is what my mum often did, she would would use her hands to make the shape of buildings and fingers for people... hope this helps