Kids - Our "Lovely Day" At Bedtime

Sometimes kids bedtime can be a real chore, and my children are at the age where nightmares are rife. I read somewhere that often nightmares are a result of kids seeing something during the day that they didn't understand, so in order to help with nightmare prevention and to have some nice "us" time, I came up with this idea, and my kids love it.

After story and milk time I turn off the light, sit on their bed and we talk about our "lovely day". Beginning from the moment we woke up right through to "and now we have had our story and we're talking about our lovely day and it's time to go to sleep. And wasn't that..." and the kids finish the sentence with "a lovely day!" This is a really, really enjoyable time for all of us, and it gives the kids a chance to ask questions about things that might have confused them. It also gives them a chance to really think about what they did (handy for us nosey mums who can't get anything more out of them on the way home from school than "what did you do today?" "can't remember"). I think this works best with younger kids (it's helping my youngest with his speech too) but I am hoping my kids never grow out of it because I really enjoy it, it gives us all a chance to wind down (and it doesn't even take half an hour) :-)