Smories.com

If you have kids who like to watch Youtube, but you’d rather have more control over what they might be watching, check out www.smories.com. This new website posts videos of kids reading stories written for kids. It is also a writing contest. People submit stories, videos are created of the shortlisted stories, and the authors of the videos with the most views at the end of month win prizes.

Here’s what the creators of the site have to say about it

We got the idea for smories.com during an extremely long journey in a very dirty Land Rover from the Kalahari desert in Botswana to Cape Town in South Africa in February this year.

Our daughter (8) had the idea to film herself with our ipod reading Enid Blyton short stories, and then play them back to her younger sister (6). This kept them entertained for hours.

Our kids have always loved reading to each other and are transfixed when other children read them stories. They are also obsessed with the internet and will make their way to youtube any time they get their hands on a computer.

We thought a website that had a continuous flow of new stories, read aloud by kids, would make a healthier destination than so much of the stuff out there. Imagine you’re stuck in traffic and need to keep a miniature person entertained in the back. Download a playlist of smories stories on your i-phone and voila…

Once we had the idea for a site that publishes stories for kids read by kids, we also thought it would be a great unthreatening forum for showcasing unpublished stories. This allows writers to test their work in a straightforward and transparent way, hopefully giving them exposure which they might otherwise not have received.

- Lisa Swerling & Ralph Lazar, March 2010

While you’re there, be sure to watch The Sock Monster (my story!)