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Educate and Have Fun with Short Stories

readings for children

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For teachers

Don't miss the Workbook of Values, a great selection of short stories with coloring pictures that you can download for free. The best way to enter the world of educational stories.

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JOIN US TO EDUCATE WITH STORIES!

Stories have an incredible educational value due to the their influence on memory, but also because... children love them!
Our aim is to support and help you with this task. In this site:

  • You will find hundred of stories.
  • We will help you to teach values.
  • You can listen to a thousand audio stories.
  • Enjoy time with your children even more.
  • You will learn to tell stories.
  • We also offer you...
  • And create your own.
  • ... losts of educational resources.

If you are an education pro, you know about the benefits of stories better than anyone,

Browse this site at your leisure. Your children will really enjoy our varied and top quality resources. Thousands of teachers are using them right now!
And if you like our work, spread the word: the more people know about us, the more children will benefit.

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Stories for children

At Bedtime Stories, we have a great collection of short stories to educate children about values, with all sorts of characters and situations.
We offer them as a great educational resource for parents and teachers.

New stories and themes are frequently added: you will never be short of new educational stories!

Christmas Presents, a story about Celebrate the true values ​​of Christmas

That year, the Christmas Present Conference was full to overflowing. In the audience were all the toymakers in the world, and many others who weren't toymakers, but who had lately come to be regular attendees. There were also those who, of course, could never miss the conference; the distributors: Santa Claus and the Three Wise Kings. Like every year, the discussions dealt with what kind of toys were the most educational or the most fun. Another common topic of conversation was what size of toys should be made. Yeah, that was something they often argued about, because the Three Wise Kings and Father Christmas complained that every year the toys were getting bigger, and this was causing serious transportation problems.

However, something happened to make this conference different from all the previous ones. A little boy snuck in. Never had any child ever attended those meetings, and when they realised that there was a boy sitting next to the Three Kings, no one really knew how long he'd been there.

When Santa Claus was talking to an important toymaker about the size of a very in-demand doll, the toymaker shouted

-"What are you talking about, Fatso?! If you were a bit slimmer you could fit more in the sleigh!"

The little boy saw this, stood up, and said,

-"It's fine, don't argue. I'll deliver everything the Three Wise Kings and Father Christmas can't carry."

The attendees roared with laughter for quite a while, dismissing the boy's suggestion. While they were still laughing, the boy got up, a tear fell from the corner of his eye, and he left the hall, head hanging...

That Christmas was like most others, if a little colder. In the street, everyone was carrying on with their lives, and there wasn't much talk of the wonderful stories and events of that season. And when the children received their presents, they were hardly excited at all. It seemed that yuletide was really no longer of much importance.

At the next Christmas Present Conference, everyone was worried about how Christmas seemed to be losing its magic. The discussions began once more, until there suddenly appeared, in the doorway, the boy they had laughed so long and hard at the previous year. This time he was with his mother, a beautiful woman. On seeing her, the Three Kings jumped up in excitement:

-"Mary!"

they ran over and embraced her. Then she approached the stage, took the floor, and said,

-"Every year, my son celebrates his birthday by throwing a big party - the biggest in the world - and he fills it with all his best gifts for young and old alike. Now he tells me he no longer wants to celebrate it, that none of you really enjoy his party, that you are more interested in other things... Can someone tell me what you have all done to him?"

It started to dawn on most of those present what they had done, and where they had become so confused. A very old toymaker - one who had never spoken up in those meetings - approached the boy, knelt, and said,

-"Forgive me, Lord. I want no other gift than those you offer. Though I never knew it, you were forever delivering that which neither the Kings, nor Santa Claus, nor anyone else, could give us. Love, peace, and joy. And last year it was so terribly missed... forgive me."

One after another, everyone there asked the boy's forgiveness, admitting that his gifts were the best available in any festive season; gifts which fill the hearts of good people, gifts that make every Christmas a little bit better...