When you start telling stories with your family, you will likely find that one of the most helpful practices for you and the kids you love is to set up a story routine. This doesn’t need to be a laborious effort. It simply means picking a regular place where you will tell the stories, selecting a time that works well for your family schedule, and developing a few habits you will implement around that time.

Below are our top 5 tips for developing a story routine and ideas for implementation.

1. Story routines can take place at any time of day and in essentially any location where you can minimize other distractions.

We cannot stress this enough. While bedtime is a great time for storytelling to occur, it is not the only available time and setting. Ideas for times and places to create your story routine include:

• On the drive to or home from school/childcare

• At the dinner table

• While on family walks

• At restaurants whenever you go out to eat

• On long road-trips

2. Story routines do not need to happen every day to be effective.

To avoid burnout for the teller, we recommend that they not be every day. Once or twice a week is definitely enough for primary caregivers to form rituals that this is what we do and when we do it. Less frequency can also help the time of the event feel more special for your young audience. If your family always seems busy, pick the least busy night of the week. This could be every Monday because it is the one day of the week when you don’t have soccer, karate, or other activities. It could be Sunday afternoon because that seems to be when you all get to relax. Extended family can even set up less frequent story routines, although we would encourage these to occur at least once a month. Choose what makes sense for your family schedule!

4. Implement the rule that before you begin the story, the child needs to be calm and quiet.

This sets both you and the child up for success in your respective roles of teller and listener. I have learned the hard way that if my boys are jumping around or chattering amongst themselves when I say “Once upon a time”, our story is going to go nowhere fast. I will lose my train of thought. They will get frustrated that the story is not interesting enough. Therefore, we now have a rule that they need to be in their beds, lying down, and quiet before I come in and start the story.

Many people think of story time as something that occurs at bedtime. And that can be an amazing way to close your day and help send your kids off to sleep. But we hope that through this post we have shown you that it is not the only time and place where storytelling can be successful. Be honest with yourself about the time you have available and when you feel most able to summon the energy to tell a story. Telling stories is about giving the child you love your focused attention. They will benefit immensely from you doing this in any routine way.