A Story Before Bed has let hundreds of thousands of families connect over space and time since its launch in 2009. It’s a service that let’s you record a video of yourself reading a children’s picture book. The video synchronizes with the pages of the book and can be viewed at any time after the recording is made. We’re thrilled to announce four big pieces of news today:

A Story Before Bed used in Child Literacy Study

The Behavioral Insights and Parenting Lab at the University of Chicago took on the following challenge: “Research shows that cognitive development in early childhood is best promoted if parents create learning opportunities for their children in the home environment. In particular, reading aloud to children has many benefits.” One group was outfitted with iPads running A Story Before Bed. The findings: “Parents in the experimental group spent on average almost 2.5 as much time reading with their children compared to parents in the control condition. Over the six weeks of the intervention, treatment group parents read from the story books a total of 160 minutes on average compared to control group parents who spent 66 minutes reading on average”

This is a really big deal and the study was even written about in the New York Times.

Albequerque Teachers Created an iTunes U Course on How to Use A Story Before Bed in the Classroom

Some enterprising teachers at the Albuquerque Public Schools have created an iTunes U course on how to use A Story Before Bed in the classroom. The course is very well made and talks about not just how to use A Story Before Bed, but specifically focuses on using it in the classroom in a variety of collaborative scenarios with teachers, students, and even parents. Check it out.

Camera Shy? Now A Story Before Bed Comes with Dozens of Pre-Recorded Stories

While so many of our customers love recording stories for their family members and friends, some of you have told us that you’d love pre-recorded stories available out of the box. We recruited one of our favorite grandpa types and had him record 50 of our best books. Check out Uncle Berny reading Three Billy Goats Gruff to get a sense of what they’re like. Going forward, all 50 of these pre-recorded stories are included in your subscription to A Story Before Bed. All new customers get them automatically, and if you’re an existing subscriber and want the 50 “Uncle Berny” recordings added to your account, just give us a holler.

Lifetime Memberships now Available

And finally, we know how A Story Before Bed has become a core part of many families memory keeping. Multiple generations in families are recording stories, and children are growing up with them. We know you want to be able to record and view these stories for a lifetime, and that’s why we’re introducing our new lifetime membership plan. Normally $299.99, it’s now on sale for only $99.99. You can sign up right now. :) Compared to our monthly plan of $9.99 per month, it gives you a lifetime of A Story Before Bed for what you would have paid over ten months. No hidden charges. No extra fees. No renewals. No nothing. Just pay once, and you’re done. Forever.

That’s the news from A Story Before Bed. Thanks so much for your support throughout the years. We’re excited to continue making A Story Before Bed a great service to bring your family together through children’s books. Also, a special shout out to our team here in the office that’s made all these advances possible. They’ve worked incredibly hard to make this happen, and we hope you enjoy the results of their hard work.