We all love a good story, and children in particular really enjoy a story being read to them. Of course, nothing beats a snuggle at bedtime with a book, but if you’re looking for story time options for during the day, we’ve rounded up some places where you can watch kids story time online with your child:
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Some of these story times are at set times, while others can be accessed any time online or through one of your devices.
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Enjoy Story Time Online With Your Child
Elevenses With The World of David Walliams
When and Where: Weekdays at 11am (GMT) on The World of David Walliams
During school closures, meet some of favourite children’s author David Walliams’ most eccentric and hilarious characters with a daily story.
Each story takes about 20 minutes and is only available for one day.
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Adams Cloud Story Time
When and Where: Every week, check the Adam’s Cloud Facebook page for the next story time session.
Author Benji Bennett’s hope is to spread a little love, hugs & kisses through Adams Cloud books for children and parents, especially at this unusual and sometimes scary time. Benji offers some babysitting and reading skills before bedtime.
Benji says “To all the mums and dads with young kids, I really hope I can share some magic and get the kids to sleep with my bedtime story, so you might get 5 minutes to share a cup of tea.”
Read Along With Michelle Obama
When and Where: Mondays at 12 pm (ET) on the PBS Kids Facebook Page or Penguin Random House or on YouTube.
As part of the PBS Kids Read-Alongs on Facebook and YouTube, Michelle Obama will read some of her favourite children’s books.
The read-alongs will be available for viewing any time afterwards.
Stay At Home Storytime With Oliver Jeffers
When and Where: Weekdays at 6pm (GMT) / 2pm (EST) / 11am (PST) live on Oliver’s instagram or on his website.
Oliver Jeffers is the acclaimed author of children’s books like Lost and Found, The Incredible Book-Eating Boy, How to Catch a Star, and lots more.
His stunningly illustrated children’s books have won a huge array of awards, including the The New York Times Best Illustrated Books, Smarties Award, Irish Book of the Year, The Red House Book Award, British Book Design Award, and The Blue Peter Book of the Year.
Oliver says, “I will be reading one of my books every weekday, and talking about some of the things that went into making it. We are all at home, but none of us are alone. Let’s be bored together.”
Safe In My Nest By Meredith Vigh
When and Where: Available any time on YouTube
Mum and children’s author, Meredith Vigh, along with illustrators Suzanne Dore, Fethi Yilmaz, Robert Pearce, Natelle Quek, Dawn Treacher and Lynne Hood, have made this lovely free picture book for children struggling with lockdown and anxiety due to Covid-19.
Meredith’s son had been very unsettled about the situation and wasn’t sleeping well, which is where the inspiration for the story came from. As Meredith doesn’t draw herself she recruited help from some of her illustrator friends, asking several people to contribute so as to be able to put the project together quickly. Lastly, with a little bribery involved, she asked her children to narrate it.
The result is a beautiful, gentle, rhyming picture book that all involved hope will help to reassure anxious little ones and enable them to understand this unprecedented situation a bit better.
Shakespeare With Sir Patrick Stewart
When and Where: You can watch daily (or catch up on previous sonnets) on Sir Patrick’s Instagram.
Indulge in some literary genius with a daily Shakespeare sonnet – and better still, have it read aloud by none other than the legendary Sir Patrick Stewart!
Story Time with #SaveWithStories
When and Where: Daily on Instagram and Facebook
In partnership with Save the Children and No Kid Hungry, Jennifer Garner and Amy Adams, have launched #SaveWithStories. They, along with a whole host of other celebrities including David Tennant, Sheryl Sandberg and Jeff Goldblum, are offering stories to provide fun and education to kids and parents stuck at home. You can make a donation to the campaign online here.
Storyline Online
When: Any time on the Storyline Online website
With stories read by high-profile celebrities, the award-winning children’s literacy website Storyline Online is bound to be popular with kids.
Readers include Oprah Winfrey, Kristen Bell, Kevin Costner, Chris O’Dowd, Viola Davis, Chris Pine, James Earl Jones, Betty White and many more.
Vooks.com
When: Any time on your devices
Vooks.com is a kid-safe, ad-free streaming library of read-aloud animated storybooks. You can stream stories on all your favourite devices: TV, iOS, Android, Computer, and more. There is one month free, then a monthly subscription.
Audible
When: Any time on your devices
You will find a huge collection of Audible stories, including titles across six different languages, on the world’s largest collection of online audiobooks.
Stories include folk and fairy tales from around the world; childhood favourites like Winnie the Pooh and Beatrix Potter; as well as literary classic such as The Jungle Book, Jane Eyre, Moby Dick, and Wuthering Heights.
All stories are free at the moment to stream on your desktop, laptop, phone or tablet.
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Storynory
When and Where: Anytime on the website
Storynory offers free audio stories with most stories on the website aimed at an age group around 7 to 11 years. They do have nursery stories and rhymes for preschool, and some more sophisticated stories as well.
They aim to choose stories that showcase imagination, good writing, and also with great narrations.
LibriVox
When and Where: Anytime on the website. You can also download the free LibriVox app for iOS and Android.
LibriVox is a free service that offers audiobooks from the public domain, read by volunteers. Books are available to stream online or download.
Some of the books include an entire cast, acting out dramatisations, while others feature a single read. You’ll find classic kids books like The Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Amazon Storytime
When and Where: Any time through Alexa-enabled devices
Amazon Storytime is a free Alexa skill for kids ages 5-12 with a collection of more than 100 short stories featuring lively full-cast recordings.
Kids can choose from story categories including bedtime, silly, family, friends, and more. Or spin the magic story wheel for a surprise set of stories.
And Disney has partnered with Amazon to offer Disney Stories as well (including some free ones).
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About the Author: Jill Holtz
