Do you tell your kids bedtime stories? Here’s one Mike told our kids recently:
Vader in a Candy Store
One day, Darth Vader took his daughter, Princess Leia, to a candy store. Princess Leia was SO excited! “I love candy stores, dada!” “I’m glad you like candy stores, Princess Leia! You’ve been such a good girl, I’m going to let you get two pieces of candy!” “Two pieces of candy for me?” said Princess Leia? So they walked down the street to the candy store.
They went inside of the candy store. Princess Leia asked, “How about Luke?” Darth Vader said, “He’s at Jedi camp. He’s learning how to be a Jedi.” Princess Leia said, “But he won’t get any candy?” And Vader said, “No.”
So Princess Leia went in the candy shop and saw all the gumdrops, and lollipops, and candy bars, and all sorts of treats. Princess Leia picked out two lollipops. Darth Vader said, “Two lollipops? They’re exactly the same!” And Princess Leia said, “Yes. One lollipop for me, and I’m bringing the other one back for my special brother Luke, who I love.” And Vader and Princess Leia walked back home, and Princess Leia was so excited she skipped. Because there is so much happiness in giving things to other people who you love.
The end.
In our house, bedtime stories are required to include Star Wars characters, preferably with a little Bob Books influence thrown in. You can learn more about Mike’s technique in this post on How to Tell Star Wars Bedtime Stories. What characters do your children adore?
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
Story telling is so fun! The way we do them makes it easy for me to not have to think up the whole story myself. I start out and ask the kids to fill in the blanks, such as “Once there was a little _________ [looking at the first child]” “boy!” “Once there was a little boy. He just loved _________ [looking at the next child]” “goo!” “He loved goo so much that he __________” … and on and on. I have found it an interesting way to find out what is on the kids’ minds, and since the kids are providing almost all the creativity in the story, I can “tell stories” even when I’m busy/distracted and couldn’t stop to read a book.
My grandma used to tell me stories like this, and I loved it! I need to try it with my kids!!!
It’s such a varying thing as to what they want. Right now Curious George is big…….. It’ll change tomorrow.
I love the story – Mike is so creative!
Mike is a lot of fun :)
That is great! We went through a phase where we were going to bed so late I would tell a story instead of reading books to be able to turn lights out right away : )
Glad you are liking the Bob Books!
That’s actually how we got started :)
I love Mike’s bedtime story – so sweet. My girls like us to tell them stories where they feature. They love to bring us blank notebooks and ask for a story because they know a blank notebook means we will tell a story about them.
What a cute way to ask for a story!
What a great bedtime story! My boy is definitely all about Star Wars and recently he’s been loving Lord of the Rings.
I tell my son stories about my mom and dad since he will never know them. But to keep him from getting confused about grandma and grandpa (since his paternal grandparents see him all the time), I call my mom and dad superheroes and call the three of us kids superboy/girl. So I will say, once there was a super hero whose super power was baking banana bread. She went to feed chickens and they pecked her toes so she ran and tried to jump but since running and jumping were not her super power, she ran right into the porch with a loud bang. So she learned to wear boots when feeding the chickens. I have fun with the stories and am sharing pArt of my family’s past while he has fun hearing the stories a superhero stories.
I LOVE this idea, Theresa! Thank you so much for sharing it! We may start our own superhero stories, thank you!!!
That is very sweet. Nice sharing!
Thank you :)
Thomas the Train rules all at our house! Most nights end with a “song” that’s really just a listing of all the trains I can think of. And it’s requested. Nightly.
Your husband’s story is pretty sweet! :)
How cute! My oldest ADORED Thomas the Train.
Haha, definitely creative. My kids have not seen Star Wars yet, but they have seen Indianna Jones. I find myself talking about book characters all the time like “Don’t act like D.W.”, or “Remember how brother and sister (Berenstein Bears) were so thoughtful”.
My kids saw a highly edited version of Star Wars, which left them with a very interesting version of the story!