Story Box Library (not sponsored)

These days we are all extremely tech savvy, yet more time-poor than any other generation that has ever lived (not fact checked). Parents drive children between school, basketball, swimming, playgroup, kinder, library and a host of other important activities. Every night we face the eternal question: ‘What’s for dinner?’ We give baths, watch ‘shows’, listen to dramas, and change nappies. We wade through school notices, dirty laundry, artwork, and collected ‘treasures’.

I want our kids to learn to read well but more importantly to enjoy reading. I want them to have a dozen favourite books. But at bedtime when I ask them to name their favourite thing about the day it devastates me to hear: ‘Watching TV.” So how do we squeeze all this reading into the family routine and  demands for screen time?

Luckily there is a terrific online library that you can access to give your kid a read-aloud story disguised as frivolous screen time.  It’s called the Story Box Library, where wonderful children’s picture books are read aloud and can be accessed from any computer, tablet or phone with an internet connection. The ‘reader’ is often a well-known actor, or sometimes it can be the author or illustrator of the book. In one case it is our very favourite teacher-librarian and blogger, Megan Daley.

For a very reasonable $40 your family can have a year-long subscription to access the hundreds of videos available on the site. Or if you aren’t sure you would use it that much you can opt for the month-long membership for $5. However, I have just discovered that if you, like me, belong to the Monash City Library, you can access all the content for free. Just find the Play & Learn link on the home page and you should be able to find the Story Box Library from there. You will need to put in your library details, so have them handy. I know that other public libraries have this feature so check to see if yours does too.