“Tell me a story.”  “Read me a book.”  These are words that every parent has heard.  And a new British study shows us what we already know, and what we probably don’t do as often as we need to.

“Almost two-thirds of children want their parents to spend more time reading to them before bed, and most prefer Mom’s storytelling to Dad’s,” researchers said last week.

They study revealed younger children aged three to four were “most hungry for more stories, with more than three-quarters saying they wished their parents read to them more often.”

And it’s something that’s great for parents.

When more than half of the kids say story time is their favourite time with their parents, it shows how important stories are.

I remember my son James, when he was four, constantly asking me for stories about me when I was a kid.  He loved them, as did I, for I had to remember things long forgotten.

“The results of our research confirm the traditional activity of storytelling continues to be a powerful learning and emotional resource in children's lives,” said child psychologist Richard Woolfson.

“Storytelling ranked higher than television or video games among pastimes for kids, and 82 per cent said reading a story with their parents helped them sleep better, according to the survey of 500 children aged three to eight in Britain.

“The best storytellers were mothers who used funny voices to illustrate different characters or made their own special sound effects to keep the story moving, researchers said.”

This means dads just have to do a little more hard work.  It will be worth it, I assure you.

And even if you kids are older, they still love stories.  We read to -- and with -- our 10 and 14 year-old sons.  It truly is fun for the whole family.

Focus on family priorities.  Make time for each other.  “It can be very difficult for parents to find the time to read with their children, but these moments can help build strong bonds and play a vital part in their child’s development,” said Woolfson.