If you’re a parent who doesn’t always have time for a bedtime story, or your children have memorized Goodnight Moon after hearing it 17 times, allow us to present you with an alternative to a simple pre-sleep story: telling your kids a new fun fact each night!

One parent on Reddit recently asked others to share the best, simple fun facts that can satiate a child’s curiosity at bedtime, and readers did not disappoint. Below, you’ll find all of the best facts that both kiddos and adults can enjoy, so be sure to upvote the info you can’t wait to share with your little ones!

#1

Most elephants weigh less than the tongue of a blue whale!

Image credits: _Fire_Sign_

#2

There are more plastic flamingo lawn ornaments in the US than there are wild flamingos in the entire world.

Image credits: SnowDemonAkuma

#3

In Switzerland, it’s illegal to own just one guinea pig; if you have any, you have to have at least two. They get lonely!

Image credits: Tiffany-899

#4

Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t.

Might be kind of “big thinking” for a 4y but that has always stuck with me.

Image credits: mpmp4

#5

Butterflies taste with their feet. When they land on a flower, they can tell if it’s good to eat just by standing on it.

Image credits: Always_Boring_Girl

#6

Did you know that cats aren’t technically domesticated? They’re still technically wild.

Image credits: jugtooter

#7

The fruit orange was named before we had named a color orange

Image credits: Fartboyxx99

#8

Tell them “Right now, as you are going to bed at night in the middle of winter, there is another little child somewhere else walking up in the morning where it is summer”.

Image credits: Coffeman94

#9

The Flemish giant rabbit can grow to be the size of a dog

Image credits: Vast_Parfait_726

#10

1. Honey never spoils. Archaeologists have found pots of honey in ancient Egyptian tombs that are over 3,000 years old and still perfectly edible!
2. Penguins waddle because their legs are short and their bodies are chubby. It helps them balance on the ice.
3. The sound a giraffe makes is called a “bleat.” It’s sort of like a sheep’s sound but much quieter.
4. A group of flamingos is called a “flamboyance.” Isn’t that a fun word?
5. Octopuses have three hearts! Two pump blood to the gills, and one pumps blood to the rest of the body.
6. Lightning is like a giant spark of electricity. It happens when tiny ice crystals bump into each other in a cloud.
7. Bees dance to tell other bees where to find yummy flowers. It’s like a bee dance party!
8. Cats have a special “meow” just for humans. They learned that we pay attention when they make that sound.
9. Your fingerprints are unique. No one else in the world has the same fingerprints as you!

Image credits: eastbayted

#11

There’s a SKELETON hiding inside everyone you know!

Image credits: BlueCoatEngineer

#12

“Arctic” means “Bear” “Antarctic” means “No Bear”. Not because polar bears live in the arctic and no bears live in the antarctic, but because to get to the arctic you follow the bear constellations, the Big and Little Dipper, and to get to the antarctic you go away from them.

Image credits: Maur2

#13

Horses can’t throw up and will get sick from tummy aches to potentially need surgery.

Image credits: 99centmilk

#14

Its funny how all of these end up being animal facts.

While sea otters sleep, they hold paws so they don’t float away from each other.

Also, sugar is pretty much tasteless to cats. They don’t have taste buds for sweetness.

Image credits: punninglinguist

#15

Sloths hair grows from their belly.

Sloths climb down from their tree about once a week to poop.

Kangaroos can pause their pregnancy.

Sharks sink if they stop swimming.

A giraffe has a nerve that goes from under their tongue alllllll the way down their neck down near their heart and then back up.

Only a small part of your eye can detect color. (Cones)

Smell is the strong scent tied to memory because the nerve that manages smell goes directly to the brain instead of having a connection along the way.

The tongue is the strongest muscle in the body by size to weight standards.

Image credits: ThoseTruffulaTrees

#16

tell her about those butterflies that have wing patterns that look like eyes that makes animals think they’re a predator

a zebra’s stripes are as unique as a human’s fingerprints.

ok, let’s try for a non-animal fact. the planet Venus spins in the opposite direction of other planets

a word spelled the same way forward as it is backwards is called a “palindrome.” Mom, dad, and racecar are examples.

Image credits: turboshot49cents

#17

the US government has a federal reserve of 1.4 million lbs of cheese

Image credits: 2-Minute-Ad

#18

Birds are dinosaurs.

Whales and dolphins are more closely related to hippos than fish.

A cartoonist named the spikes on the stegosaurus tail.

Image credits: gamaliel64

#19

While a zebra is smaller than a horse, a zebra can kick with more power than a horse (I think a horse generates about 2000 psi with a kick, while zebras are closer to 3000 psi).

Image credits: DarkMatterMinx

#20

Start with a subject and do facts for a week then switch it up. For example
Dinosaur facts for a week, then space, then history, then geography. 

Image credits: Fishwater024

#21

It’s rare to see a shooting star and you can imagine one but it’s even rarer to see one that glows brighter and brighter than disappear. It means it was coming straight at you and burnt down while entering the atmosphere.

You have to be at the right place, right time and looking at the right direction and be able to recognize it. Brings when stars align to a whole new meaning.

#22

Did you know that there are colors that humans can’t see? Animals like the mantis shrimp can see a lot more colors than we can, which means that there are “secret colors” that we will never get to know about. Non 4-year-old explanation: the vast majority of humans see things in “channels” of red, green and blue. Some humans are lucky and are born with four “channels”, called [tetrachromats]. Mantis shrimp see things in TWELVE different “channels”, and can even see ultraviolet and polarized light.

Image credits: Kewkky

#23

The first popsicle was invented when a boy accidentally left a cup of soda with a stick in it outside and it froze.

There are more Lego people than real people on Earth.

#24

You could fit 1 million earths inside the sun

Image credits: crazybehind

#25

That salt doesn’t melt ice; it stops water from freezing in the first place. My milkshakes do not, in fact, bring all the boys to the yard.

#26

A flock of sheep in North Wales had to be quarantined because they’d learnt to lay down and roll over cattle grids. If they’d made contact with other sheep they might have passed the behaviour on, and all the cattle grids in Britain would become ineffective.

#27

If everyone alive played a series of Rock, Paper, Scissors games, where the winners of each round would play eachother until there was only one winner. We would only need to have 33 rounds played for there to be one winner left.

#28

Guess what? Sneezes are tiny explosions your nose makes when it’s too full of giggles and tickles. So, every time you sneeze, it’s just your nose having a little party!

Image credits: snobbishboy17221

#29

“Pirates” wore eye patches not because they lost an eye but so that one eye would always be accustomed to the dark. For example when they had to go below deck they could swap the eye patch over and instantly see easier.

Image credits: Sirlacker

#30

* William I of England was too fat to fit in his coffin.
* Platypus lay eggs and make milk. 
* Cows have 4 stomachs. 
* Lots of fish can feel electricity 
* Cheetahs mew like cats. They can’t roar. 
* Red seaweed lives deeper in the sea than green seaweed. 

Image credits: Glad_Possibility7937

#31

Wombats poop cubes.

Image credits: TheProtoChris

#32

Sure I have some suited for children.

* not all ladybugs, are ladies.
* locust are just hungry hungry grasshoppers.
* Most of the fruit we eat is bought from other nations during the winter.
* with each mile you go into the earth, the more warm it gets.
* There is no pasta at the center of the earth.
* Many house cats wandering neighborhoods are more likely to visit a neighbor if they use the same detergent as their owners.
* Dogs will wait for you, almost forever.
* Tomatoes, Cassava root, potatoes, corn and supposedly ~~earthworms~~ ~~apple pie~~ Navy bean soup… are all from the American continent.
* Exercise allows you to become smarter and faster.

Image credits: GreenMirage

#33

If you could drive to outer space in a car like you were driving on the highway, it would only take about an hour to get there!

#34

When it’s Winter in the United States, it’s Summer in Australia. When it’s Winter in Australia, It’s Summer in the United States.

If a month begins on a Sunday, it will have a Friday the 13th.

Image credits: hgswell

#35

The inside of your forearm is the same length as your foot. Not sure if this applies to 4 year olds. Baby rabbits are called kits/kittens. My then 4 year old taught me that. You can’t lick your own elbow. 

#36

Let her sit on the bed with one hand raised as high as she can and the other as low as she can. Stay like that a while, maybe 30 sec? Then compare the hands. The top hand should be visibly paler because of the blood circulation being “a little delayed”. At least with my skin color it is very visible.

#37

Humans are incapable of creating faces. When you dream people, you have seen them somewhere before.

#38

We are all made from star dust.

#39

Mercury is most often the closest planet to Earth.

(on average as the planets orbit around the sun)

#40

Owls cannot turn their eyes in their sockets, they are fixed in place which is why they do the goofy little head rolls/bobs. Its their method of depth perception.

#41

Look up the immortal jellyfish!

#42

The rarest precious jewels in the universe are not diamonds or rubies, they’re pearls and amber.. Most precious stones just need minerals and pressure, and that’s found everywhere. Amber needs trees, and pearls need oysters, and those are only on earth.

#43

If I knew what career 4 year old wanted to be. I would give every known fact about that career to make it easier for kid to remember into life the basic concept.

#44

Ice is just really, really cold water.

Steam is just really, really hot water.

Anything about the color wheel and mixing colors.

Image credits: Mission_Engineering8

#45

The Los Angeles angels translates to The The angels angels

Image credits: Fartboyxx99

#46

Gestation period for pigs is 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days.

#47

Famingos get their color from what they eat (shrimp and algae)

#48

There were still wooly mammoth roaming the earth at the time the Egyptian pyramids were built

#49

It takes 8 minutes for light to reach the Earth from the Sun.

#50

The hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backwards.

#51

You can always see your nose, but your brain hides it from your view unless you look for it.

#52

A skunk will warn you before it sprays you

#53

Elephants paint their toenails red so they can hide in cherry trees.

Works too, nobody has ever seen an elephant in a cherry tree.

#54

Crab sticks do not actually contain any crab. And from 1993, manufacturers have been legally obliged to label them ‘crab flavoured sticks’.

#55

you can actually jump out of an airplane without a parachute, but only once

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