Online story corner for lockdown
How to stay connected with the little ones in your life during lockdown (and help out their parents).
I created a series of Auntie Vicky's Story Corner for my nieces and the children of my close friends in the first lockdown. The books have just arrived for the new 2021 series!
Thought I'd share the idea and how I set it up, in case you want to do the same.
It really raises your profile with them … my niece refers to it as 'when Auntie Vicky is on CBeebies'. Yes!
✰ I simply record the videos on my phone. You just need to prop it up on something at the right angle, so you have your hands free for holding up the book so they can see it while you read. (I did get a little tripod eventually, but on top of a few books, against a mug works too).
✰ I then airdropped the videos to my Mac (you can choose whichever way you'd usually get files from your phone to your computer).
✰ The file type that worked for everyone across all devices was .m4v
I converted the .mov files to .m4v using VLC (free app). Go to file, then convert. Name the videos by the book title.
✰ Create a Dropbox folder with their names, for example: 'Stories for Juliette and Gabrielle'. I already have a Dropbox account (think there are free starter versions, or you could probably use Google Drive). The people you are sending the link to don’t need a Dropbox account.
✰ Drop the videos into the folder. (Remember to make sure the files are named by the book title).
✰ I carefully started every video by holding up the book cover, but for some reason the preview thumbnail in Dropbox is not the first few frames of the video, so I took a picture of every book and put jpg files in the folder too (labelled with the book title so they automatically appear next to the relevant video). Then the kids can point to the one they want.
✰ If you have more than one special little human bean in your life, in different places, you can easily create a folder for each: just copy the videos and images over, and simply record a different intro video for the folder/series with a message just for them.
✰ Then simply click on ‘share folder’ to create their link. You can email the link to their parents or guardian or message/Whatsapp it to them. (Dropbox has an app for your phone which is handy if you’re messaging it). They can use the link to play the videos on any device.
An adorable dog featuring in the videos is optional. It does prove very popular.
15 January 2021
This was created for lockdown and I’m lucky enough to live close to my nieces and nephew, but if you don’t keep online story corner going!
