HRCC playgroups to host pyjama party story time via Zoom

Horsham Rural City Council’s (HRCC) Playgroups will celebrate the Australian Reading Hour tomorrow with a Bedtime Storytime for preschool children.

The storytime event commences at 6pm, with children invited to wear their favourite pyjamas, bring their special soft toy friend, and settle in for some lively books, songs and rhymes.

Australian Reading Hour was launched by Australian libraries and library associations for the National Year of Reading in 2012, and began as an event for all Australians to set aside one hour on one day to read — whatever they wanted, wherever they were located, and however they chose to read.

It has since become an annual program featuring events with Australian authors, writers, poets and illustrators, in libraries, schools, bookshops, and even in shopping centres, and on public transport.

The Zoom event, supported playgroup facilitator Sarah Wiesner said, is one of the many ways that the playgroup team had been working hard to keep families connected.

“I know lockdown has been tough for everyone — especially for families with young kids, cooped up inside,” she said. “We’ve been having lots of fun on Zoom, reading books and singing songs, and just maintaining some connection with our playgroup friends.” 

“Just by luck, we’ve had lots of children’s literature events to celebrate this lockdown. We held an online Children’s Book Week Parade, where families sent in pics of their kids dressed as book characters. We had an awesome Zoom session reading the Children’s Book Council of Australia shortlisted books. And now, we’re topping it all off with The Reading Hour, so we’re really driving home the very important message about books and reading at the moment.”