Sleepy Time episode four – Sensory bedtime story for two to five year olds

Explore the sounds of nature with this relaxing sensory bedtime story for younger children. This episode encourages your child to use their imagination and join us on a forest walk to discover the natural world.

Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Acast or wherever you find your podcasts. Alternatively, you can listen using the player below or read on for a transcript of the episode.

Our bedtime podcast is brought to you in association with parenting website MadeForMums. Each episode is written by psychologist and yoga teacher Suzy Reading and narrated by Gemma David of The Quiet Heart.

Help your child to go to sleep with Suzy Reading's sensory forest walk meditation

As you lie down to rest, we are going to take a journey together. A journey to a beautiful place, that’s safe and calm. If you like visiting this place, you can go there any time you like. It is always there for you, helping you feel peaceful.

Pop on your favourite walking shoes. They can be any colour you like! Let’s get ready to take a walk to our special place. It is late afternoon and the sky is full of little puffs of cloud. The sun shines gently on our shoulders and we head out together, hand in hand. We walk together up a small winding path into the woods. It feels cooler now beneath the shade of the tall trees.

Can you hear the crunch of leaves under our feet? We walk together side by side, listening out for the sounds of the pretty green woods around us. Wait, can you hear that too? It sounds like tiny little footsteps in the bushes nearby. Let’s stand super still and see if we can find out who they belong to. Crouching down, we see two little deer peeking back at us. They know we are friendly so they go back to their munching.

As we go, we pick up little sticks on the way. We’ll use these later to play a calming game. We walk on, listening out for other creatures around us. Every so often we hear the call of birds and the flap of their wings as they dart from one tree to another. This is a beautiful, safe place and it is full of life. The path leads us to an open meadow of soft, green grass. We enjoy walking together out into the sunshine again.

This time we are on the hunt for smaller friends. If we go carefully and quietly we might just see a grasshopper leap, a beetle or a bee buzz by or a butterfly might even come to rest on your shoulder. Let’s keep a look out. Let me know what you see! And finally we come to our little stream.

The water is cool and gently moves its way along. It’s nice to stop and be still here by this stream, watching the water swirl and listening to the friends who make their life here. After a while, the frogs start their chorus and every so often, if we are really still, the dragonflies zoom close by. Look at the glorious colours in their wings! Are there any birds you can see here? If we’re really lucky maybe a bright blue kingfisher will visit us or we can watch the old grey heron do his fishing, still as a statue.

Before we head home, let’s play our favourite game here at this stream. We take the little sticks out that we gathered from the woods. We each have a couple. These sticks are just like any worries we have. One at a time, we drop each stick into the water and watch it float away. All our cares float away too! We laugh as we watch the sticks bob up and down and disappear out of sight.

Now it’s time to head home. The sky is turning a soft pink and we say goodbye to the stream. The stream was very happy to look after our worries. We stride out through the meadow, watching the birds flying back to their nests for the night. All the animals in the woods are getting ready for rest as well. We can see the squirrels making their way back to their families in their nests. We are all getting ready for sleepy time to come.

Hand in hand we take the path back home, feeling safe and happy to be part of this beautiful place, knowing we can come any time we like. But now it is time just to rest and we are so ready to flop into bed feeling calm and relaxed. Feel the covers around you, feel how soft and comfortable your pillow is. Just let your body sink, snuggling into sleepy time.