Storytime at the Parkes Library will focus on road safety for young children and be led by special guests from Kids and Traffic in the coming weeks.
Come along and join in the fun with stories, songs, rhymes and craft from 10.30am on Tuesday 19 March.
Kids and Traffic are early childhood road safety education specialists based at Macquarie University and funded by Transport for NSW.
Kids and Traffic Team Leader Louise Cosgrove said that Storytime is a great way to engage with children and families in talking about all the things that they can do together to keep safe when they’re out and about.
“Young children are still developing the skills and understandings needed to keep themselves safe in and around vehicles, so it’s important that the adults in their lives always take responsibility for their safety.
“Key road safety messages for children under five years of age focus on passenger safety, pedestrian safety and safe play. So, always using a child restraint, always holding a grown up’s hand and always wearing a helmet whilst riding a bike or scooter,” Mrs Cosgrove said.
Parkes Shire Council’s Cultural, Education and Library Services Manager, Kerryn Jones, said the library is pleased to be hosting the road safety session again.
“Storytime is a weekly interactive program for preschool aged children (3-5 years). Storytime programs focus on early literacy development, child/carer interaction and social connection. Road safety is an important social issue which affects the community, including our young Storytime members.
“We hosted the Road Safety Storytime in 2022. It was well attended and very interactive, so we are pleased to be able to partner with Kids and Traffic to offer this engaging and important session again for local families,” Ms Jones said.
Parkes Shire Council’s Road Safety and Injury Prevention Officer Melanie Suitor said the Storytime session will be part of a larger visit to the region that Kids and Traffic are undertaking.
“I’ll be accompanying the Kids and Traffic team during their visit to the Central West, which will also include workshops for early childhood educators, visits to services and of course this Storytime session.
“Early childhood services across NSW are doing some great work in relation to road safety. It’s great to see how ideas, strategies and resources from these workshops and service visits are implemented into programming and planning by educators with children and their families,” Ms Suitor said.
