Children, parents and grandparents met at the South City Mall yesterday for "Korero With The Kids", an event hosted by SuperGrans and Read Share Grow where children could do arts and crafts, decorate cookies and take home some books.
SuperGrans Dunedin manager Sandy McKay said the organisation was dedicated to teaching basic skills to parents who struggled with cooking, cleaning, sewing and other skills.
Many parents did not have older relatives available to help them with new skills and situations, which the organisation hoped to remedy, she said.
Yesterday, the focus was on spreading awareness of its services and ‘‘chilling out and reading with the kids’’, she said.
The children enjoyed the array of activities available and the adults enjoyed the ‘‘good old’’ scones and tea.
The goal of Read Share Grow was for every child in the wider South Dunedin area to have their own book.
Books were competing with screens for children’s attention, but the two forms of entertainment were not mutually exclusive, she said.
‘‘Books are not too different from Netflix — it all stems from a love of stories.’’
It was important to foster a love of reading early so children developed their literacy skills and continued to read in later life, she said.
Read Share Grow worked with many businesses and groups around the area and had already distributed thousands of books.
