THE DENYER FAMILY Finding creativity in closeness
It was on the set of Dancing with the Stars that the reality of the pandemic hit home for Grant Denyer. As Christian Wilkins shimmied his way towards the grand finale, the contestant’s entertainment guru father, Richard, received news that he’d been diagnosed with COVID-19. “If coronavirus has the ability to penetrate Richard Wilkins then we’re all vulnerable,” Grant recalls thinking. “That man has lived the life of rock and roll and excess, so I thought if anyone was safe it was him.”
As a socially distant cast and crew wrapped the show barely two weeks later, Grant jumped on one of the last planes to depart Melbourne, heading for the sanctuary of the family farm in Bathurst, NSW. Along with wife Cheryl, Grant found himself in the new role of home school teacher to their children, which both felt quite ill-equipped to play. “We were struggling because we weren’t great students ourselves,” he says. And so the family hit on an idea to help make learning fun as well as creating a fun activity they would all enjoy. Setting up the YouTube channel Storytime with Sailor and Scout, the girls (aged nine and four respectively) share their favourite books alongside their parents, having plenty of laughs in between. “We thought we’d make some videos, read cool stories and maybe other kids might want to watch it with their parents themselves.”
This story is from the July 2020 edition of Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.
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This story is from the July 2020 edition of Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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