The highlight of the day for many Kings Norton families and beyond, is Pauline’s ‘Bedtime Story Live’. At 6.30pm each evening there is a picture book story for the younger children and later on there is a chapter of a longer book for fives and over. ‘Charlie and Chocolate Factory’ has been enjoyed by the older ones and humorous stories such as ‘Wonky Donkey’ go down well with the younger children. They are even able to vote for the following evening’s picture book. As well as being a way of connecting with the families on a daily basis, the bedtime stories bring some structure to a day at home. Other local churches signpost families to ‘Bedtime Story Live’ so there’s quite an audience!
Every day, Pauline provides a craft activity linked to the picture book story from the night before. She makes sure the materials needed are fairly simple – things that many of the families will be able to find at home, including boxes and packaging due to be recycled. She invites people to send her photos of their creations and recently Face-timed a family who showed her all kinds of things they had made.
Pauline is a licensed lay minister in the Kings Norton Parish Team. She has been in her role for eight years so has strong relationships with church families and the wider community. She is also chaplain to the Air Cadets. She is currently very busy and says that new opportunities for on-line activities are developing all the time.
Quizzes are popular at the moment! Pauline has recently organised a V.E. Day themed quiz for the families and is working on an aircraft identification quiz for the cadets. She uses ‘Kahoot’ to devise the quizzes and zoom and Teams (Microsoft) to deliver them.
On Sundays there’s Family Worship on facebook, followed by a ‘zoom coffee morning’ and many church families, and families don’t usually go to church, are watching in. Then there are ‘Top Tips for families in lockdown’ and ‘Top Tips for schoolwork’, as well as a weekly message for families. Ginny, Pauline’s border collie, often makes a guest appearance on zoom and in videos and is a great favourite!
And last, but most definitely not least, every Friday Pauline provides a ‘Friday Fun’ video in which she dances to various fun songs, dressed in a selection of onesies or super hero costumes, simply to cheer everyone up!
Thank you for encouraging us, Pauline. You may find a few more of us watching in to your Friday Fun and bedtime stories!
