[famblycat]

I remember going through that stage with my kids. To keep myself stimulated I'd add an extra bit here, a funny voice there, kept what worked and kept building and building on top of the actual text in the books. It was like a performance after a while, and of course, my poor wife would never do it "right" when she read it.

[jerf]

When I'm not sure if the kids are tuned in or not, I randomly substitute a noun with "gorilla".

Turns out they're pretty much always tuned in. But I still like to check sometimes. They've moved from noticing it, to being annoyed by it, to now making a theatrical production out of how annoyed they are by it (but are clearly enjoying it).

As a bonus, it keeps me on my toes for the time most entertaining to me to substitute:

    I do not like green eggs and ham,
    I do not like them, Gorilla-I-Am

The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Gorilla

    Goodnight comb and goodnight brush
    Goodnight nobody,
    Goodnight brush,
    And goodnight to the gorilla whispering "hush"...

[gknoy]

My 3 year old daughter asks every night (for the past month) for "The Napping House", in which we have verious sleeping creatures stacked on top, with much repetition. She ALWAYS asks me to swap the adjectives -- e.g., "snoozing dog, dozing cat" rather than "dozing dog, snoozing cat". She gets it right every darn time, too.

She even wants to swap the words that have plot-meaning -- like, why is the mouse wakeful, and how does a slumbering flea bite the wakeful mouse? /shrug. It's been my carrot to get her to try and read it herself.

[munificent]

> To keep myself stimulated I'd add an extra bit here

If I change so much as a preposition when I'm reading a beloved book, my kids will instantly call me out on it.

I think as adults, we read to experience novelty and to change ourselves. Children are immersed in a world where they are surrounded by things that are new to them and often overwhelming. At bedtime, I think they want books for the exact opposite reason—for the safety and familiarity. To know that after all of the day's adventures, some of the things they already know—their memory of the book—are still true and correct. That they can build knowledge and it will continue to be relevant over time.

It's mind-numbingly boring for me, but they love it. I try to think of it like singing them a lullaby. For some reason, we're more accepting of repetition in song form over prose (how often have you listened to the same recording in your life?), but there's no real fundamental difference in them.

[SomeCallMeTim]

Once when I was not going to be able to continue to read the same book for a while (business trip), I made a video that consisted of the pages of the book with me reading it off-camera.

I don't know how many times he watched it, but it lost its charm. So it's not entirely about familiarity; I'm sure a big part of it is connection.

[gregpilling]

my wife does "Skippy Jon Jones" like a one-woman broadway show. The kids won't even bother asking me to read anything now. If mom is not available, they just go straight to bed . Dad's performance is lacking.

[vitamen]

That book kind of begs for the performance.

[justinpaulson]

Agreed, at least with Go, Dog, Go it teaches a lot of concepts and I always pause to ask her questions like, "Where's the boat?" "Can you point to the banjo?" "Can you count the dogs that have hats on?" etc.

[soperj]

I can remember the fish in the boat scene, but the banjo has me mystified.

[justinpaulson]

Three dogs, at a party, on a boat, at night :)

One has a banjo.

[saraid216]

I had a kid who insisted on playing Three Billy Goats with her dolls with me over and over again. I got bored enough with it that I started doing variations, like giving the troll underneath the bridge two heads and arguing with myself. She was displeased at first (because, you know, going off script) and then asked me to do it again.

Spontaneity was really hard to re-run. =/

[jamesli]

Enjoy it while you still can :). My children were the same way. Now they are making jokes at my pronunciations and grammars. [English is not my first language.]

[teddyuk]

ha excellent, i'm the same as that - my kids stories are getting more exciting!