World Book Day is a reminder of the importance of bedtime stories for kids – Hayley Matthews

With World Book Day taking place during the week, it meant we were able to go to nursery in our jammies.

World Book Day is about the importance of reading (and wearing your jammies to the nursery) (Picture: Matt Alexander/PA)

It always seems to sneak up on me, World Book Day. It's just springs up on us and I'm always unorganised, but digging out clean jammies wasn't too much of an effort.

But it's not all about the jammies, it's about books and how important reading is.

We have a book that we read most nights that my youngest loves before bedtime, it's helped him understand how to spell his name. For someone at such a young age, being able to spell his name is really special.

I think having the same book at night has helped him enjoy reading a story. He loves seeing his name in the book and he recognises the majority of the alphabet.

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I always remember an advert on the telly years ago saying how reading to kids every night is so important for their development.

It also said how kids learn a huge amount of their vocabulary before the age of five. It's always stuck with me and I make an effort to make books exciting as a result.

My eldest is more in to audiobooks these days as he finds them more relaxing at night than straining his wee peepers after a hard day at school – and then the computer. However, nonetheless, it's still a story helping his little imagination spark before bedtime.

And I think that’s something which is almost as important as brushing your teeth before bed.

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