I worked with children for over thirty years, and when it was nap time, I loved telling them a story.
I would make up and hear how excited they would be, asking questions like what he did, then what happened.
Take your nap, and when you get up, we'll finish the story. When they got up, I would have them match the words with the pictures and count the letters in a word. They had fun and were reading, writing, and adding when they left me and went into kindergarten.
I taught preschool, and I always felt that a story without learning material was nothing but a story.