Books on Tape for older kids?

[neomia]

Anybody tried this at night? My son (3.5) has always been hard to get to sleep, and now that he is weaned, bedtime around here is a nightmare. I have tried just about every tip and trick I can find, except some type of tape - music or story. If anybody has had success with this, I would love suggestions!

[tankgirl73]

There are the "Indigo Dreams" CD's... they're designed for kids a wee bit older I think, but they would suit that young perhaps. They're very meditative, with relaxing stories about breath awareness, body relaxation, etc. But designed for kids, like "the boy imagined that his arms were orange, and then turned yellow", it's all very imagination-based.

It does help DS9 get to sleep.

He HAS to have something to sleep to and always has. We've used all kinds of music, from hard-core rock to classical and everything in between. Whatever his current mood is. *I* like the Indigo Dreams for him best because of the relaxation-training aspect, but he gets bored of anything after awhile.

[SophieAnn]

I come at this one from a different perspective...

Most of my childhood (after I grew out of being read a story at bedtime) I had books/stories on cassette to listen to at bedtime. I think I've always had a difficult time falling asleep - even now it takes me anywhere between a half hour and 3 hours to fall asleep (should start listening to stories again).

I listened to Adventures In Odyssey when I was a kid. It's a radio program of stories for kids that's put out by Focus on the Family - so it's Christian-based. They all follow the same characters Mr.Whittaker who runs the ice cream shop and his inventions, and all the kids in the neighbourhood and their families. They were cute stories.

But there's all kinds of books on cd you can get from your local library. I've borrowed all the Harry Potter books on cd and the Lemony Snicket books on cd (still a kid at heart), but both of those would be a little mature for a 3.5 year old. Your library will likely have books on cd for younger kids too.

So yeah, worked GREAT for me when I was a kid. Helped me get to sleep and also made bedtime a fun, cozy time I looked forward to.

[Cujobunny]

We have been doing stories on CD for a while with my ds who is 3. we started with Winnie the Pooh stories then I got him a Robert Munsch story cd for his birthday. He really likes it, he falls asleep on his own listening to them.

[BathrobeGoddess]

moved to toddlers

[LuckyMommaToo]

We started using stories on cd for DS b/c he has such a hard time winding down. We started with Jim Weiss:
http://greathall.com/onlinebro.html#storytelling

And have now moved on to longer novels, like Beverly Cleary (The Mouse and the Motorcycle, etc.). But when he's really tired, my son always goes back to Jim Weiss's Uncle Wiggly!

Anyway, hope you find something that works.
-e