Saturday, January 3, 2009

Storiquestion Time

Storiquestion Time: noun. A situation that begins as story time, but results in endless questions.

I've been having a hard time getting the Monkey Boys to just go to bed. They're up and down and running around and crying and laughing and begging for just one more snack.

For crying out loud.

So, I've heard that one thing you can do for this is really get into a routine, and that will help the kids settle down. I try to plan bedtime for around 7, so around 6:30 they get their teeth brushed and we head to their room for story time before lights out.

Tonight we were reading a condensed version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardobe (one of those ones with pictures from the movie). On the first page I pause to explain to him why the Pevensie children are leaving, but then we have to stop because Monkey Son #1 wants to know why London is being bombed.

"Are they bad guys? Why are they doing that? I saw a soldier at the Y and he had a son..."

And then the wardrobe.

"There's a wardrobe! It's a magic wardrobe. It has doors like that. Is it a magic wardrobe? Why is it a magic wardrobe?"

You get the idea. Eventually, the questions lessened, but did not stop. You'll be proud to know we did in fact make it through the whole book.

4 comments:

Monica said...

This sounds all too familiar to me! There are many times where we do not end up finishing the book because we've spent so much time answering questions.

Toni said...

Oh my goodness, I can totally relate! Totally. Sadly, I now have a "rule" that they can't ask a question until the page is done, lol.

Erika said...

LOL, we have storiquestion time around here too. It can be frustrating but that is how they learn.

Granola Girl said...

We have 3 cards the kids have at bedtime. They have to give up a card each time they get up for something. When the cards are done, they are "stuck". Dunno why it works. What am I gonna do if they get up?? They haven't pushed the limit yet! lol!