Share a special story time moment with your child

According to a recent survey done by Cadbury 75% of South African parents feel that the demanding pace of life reduces the opportunities to spend as much quality time with their children as they would like.

June 2, 2023

Duduzile Khumalo 1 minute read

Asanda Masiza enjoys reading Gugu's gift to Gogos book. Photo: Duduzile Khumalo

The Generously Give a Voice to Story Time was hosted in Sandton.

Child influencers and parents enjoyed the six-day event as they got to record their lovely voices reading different story time books and snacking on new winter Cadbury edition chocolate bars.

Musician Shekhinah reads all the story time books to the attendees at the event. Photo: Duduzile Khumalo

The Generously Give a Voice to Story Time initiative aimed to bring families together by making story time more accessible and enjoyable by allowing parents to step back from their busy lives and enjoy a magical audio story in their home language with their loved ones.

Lara Sidersky, Mondelez SA category lead for chocolate said, “As a brand that is rooted in the spirit of generosity and bringing people closer together, they have been on a three-year journey with the nation of storytellers to curate a digital library of 1 500 relatable children’s stories in all 11 South African languages.”

Stephanie Ndlovu contributes to the created story by guests. Photo: Duduzile Khumalo

Sidersky added the next stage of the journey was to bring these stories to life by adding South African voices to the digital library and ensuring that children throughout the country continued to enjoy story time.

“Story time presents a great opportunity to bond with my daughter. It’s a chance to teach her and a chance to explore creativity and imagination with her. There’s nothing I love more than watching her eyes light up when her favourite part of a story is drawing near,” content creator, musician, mom, and story enthusiast, Yoza Siboto of Darkie Fiction added.

Sabrina Musema welcomes guests at the story time recording booths. Photo: Duduzile Khumalo

Sidersky shared the never-ending benefits of story time:

Life Skills: stories introduce children to new experiences and concepts, opening the world around them and expanding their imagination as well as their beliefs of what is possible.
Empathy and emotional awareness: exposing children to stories about people with different lives and perspectives gives them an appreciation for others’ feelings, cultures, and lifestyles. Consciously engaging and interacting makes a child feel heard and seen, which builds self-esteem, develops positive behaviours, and encourages communication and social interaction.
The parent-child bond: story time provides consistent, focused bonding time without distractions.
Language development: story time helps maximise children’s language and cognitive capacity, exposing them to new vocabulary and sentence structures and expanding their language abilities.