Is it normal for a 4 year old to not sit still and muck around when reading a bedtime story? We get new books all the time from the library, we buy her books and let her choose books too but she never pays attention to the story. I ask questions, make funny voices, the whole she-bang! She only half arse pays attention. We've been reading her stories since she was 2. The older she gets the worse her attention span.. im wondering if its normal 4 year old behaviour or not?
3 Replies
My son is 3 and loves bedtime stories. But he's always been read a story from 9 months old.
My nephew who is 4 hates bedtime stories at the moment. Mainly because he knows he's going to fall asleep - he hates bedtime.
I'd say it's a phase.
If she isn't listening, do what I do - "okay, goodnight" turn off light and be quiet. When asked why - say "you weren't laying still listening.i won't read unless your listening. Goodnight"
Two days of that and my son was quick to listen again ;)
Turn off the light and lie down in bed. Read or tell a story or talk about the day. Make it a really quiet calm experience. Mine loves it but theres plenty of other times she cant listen to me.
I'm sure this is quite normal for many kids, but my two girls were real book-lovers from a very young age. I think it's a likely to be a personality thing, and an 'ages and stages' thing. You're doing a bloody amazing job persisting with reading to her, I think many others would have given up! My first girl was terrible with her attention span for other things though - movies in particular. While I didn't necessarily want her to sit staring a screen for hours, it would have been nice to have her enjoy a movie every now and then! It drove me batty. But she grew out of it, and has a good attention span now at 8, and will happily watch a movie or read a book. Your little miss will probably get there eventually too. I think it was probably around age 5-6 that my girl's attention span started getting longer. Good luck, and good on you - books are a window into amazing fantasy worlds that I hope your girl will enjoy one day! xo