Don’t kids love being up in the dark past their bedtime!
If you’re heading onto Sydney to see VIVID you won’t need a bedtime story later, as there’ll be lots of storytelling there.The Wiggles have even put together a trail you can follow if you download the free app for your phone.
The best places for younger kids seem to be :Monster World ,Piano Stairs,Enchanted Sydney on the customs house- an absolutely amazing story of people, giant snails, elves, sharks,waterfalls,spectacular flowers and dinosaurs.You may even have to make up names for colours kids may not have experienced before..
Read the “Ultimate Family Guide” to the lights and music from Elissa Blake of the Sydney Morning Herald here.
Follow a night out later with great books to read about night. Checkout our lists below.
100 Stories Before School booklist: books about the dark or night time.
- Room on the Broom
- Time for Bed
- Bears in the night
- Can I Cuddle the Moon?
- Goodnight Moon
- Slinky Malinky
- Foggy Foggy Forest
- Good Night Me
- Good night Gorilla
- Your own pictures and videos taken at night.
Find details of these books on our website family booklist.
Other wonderful night/dark books we love.
Scary Night by Lesley Gibbes and Stephen Michael King,Working Title Press is nominated for the 2015 Childrens Book Council of Australia early childhood book of the year ( a great favourite of ours at the moment)
Do your little ones enjoy a story with a little bit of suspense and a slightly spooky edge? Do they like to cuddle under the covers, tucked up safely against your side as they hold their breath in anticipation of the turn of the page, filled with a mix of apprehension and excitement? Scary Night is the book for them (and for you)!
The Little Big Book Club has learning and activity time PDFs of activities for 2 and 3 year olds- would be just as good for 4 year olds.
Working Title Press publishers have teacher notes.
Lesley Gibbes website: http://lesleygibbes.com
Funnybones by Janet and Allan Ahlberg,Picture Puffin/Penguin Australia-our version was read to pieces many years ago…
Funnybones is available on many Internet sites, including in Arabic (on Book Depository)
See if your local library has a copy.
The story is based on “There’s a dark dark path” poem, but then has a lot of fun with the big skeleton, little skeleton and dog skeleton going out to try and find someone to frighten. They end up having to frighten eachother!
The middle of the book has the song “ the toe bone’s connected to the foot bone…”, and it’s not too hard to guess the bones all get mixed up.
Check out a video here 
Sparklebox resources for Funnybones .( Playdough mats and more)
http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/library/books/funnybones.htm
Good Night Owl by Pat Hutchins.( There are owls on the Enchanted Sydney installation.) This story is about Owl trying to sleep in the daytime but has a twist at the end at night time.Simple text, good for younger readers.
On The Night That You Were Born by Nancy Tillman, Feiwel and Friends.
Owl Babies by Martin Waddell,illustrated by Patrick Benson.
The Dark by Lemony Snicket,illustrated Jon Klassen,Little Brown Books for Young Readers- another book that looks interesting.You can see many of the pages in this review:
http://www.sturdyforcommonthings.com/2013/03/review-the-dark/
Do help us add to this list with any other books your kids love sharing about the night and the dark.
Leave A Comment