This year, staycation is the word on everyone’s lips. With vacations happening a little closer to home, planes are swapped out for cars and families are spending more time on the road. Car journeys can be a testing time for kids and adults alike. And, when boredom kicks in, kids can be one of the biggest distractions for parents at the wheel. To help keep families safe and children entertained, Engine Creative has teamed up with Churchill Insurance to release a new set of audio stories for long car journeys, in a continuation of the successful project.

‘Little Chapters of Chill’ will feature five new adventures for ‘Churchie’, which have been written to encourage children aged four to seven-years-old to reconnect with the outside world following a long lockdown period. The characters latest escapades include helping a peacock embrace his feathers, befriending a cheeky monkey and helping a lost child. 

Written by top kids' author Sue Pickford and narrated by Giovanna Fletcher, the new series also includes special guests. Popular TV presenters Emma Willis and Angelica Bell bring their vocal talents to help keep little minds relaxed, entertained and engaged. 

To help manage stress and encourage children to practise mindfulness, each audiobook is accompanied with techniques to help kids adjust and reset, whether at home or in short journeys in the car. From breathing exercises that help your body relax, to listening techniques to improve awareness of the world around you, the audiobooks hope to be a good listen and a useful tool to calm the mind and reduce stress.

Richard Nott, Creative Director for Churchill at Engine Creative, explained” “As a dad to two young girls, it's been especially rewarding to return for volume two of ‘Little Chapters of Chill’. The stories have been designed with those long car journeys in mind. And my own family will definitely be hitting the play button next time we hit the road.” 

Picked up and used as a mindfulness resource by schools, councils, libraries, and even the NHS, the ‘Little Chapters of Chill’ series is a #1 podcast in Apple Podcasts’ Kids & Family chart, with over 110k listeners within a year and was awarded a Gold at the 2020 DMA Awards for Best Use of Voice or Audio. Each of the new stories runs to between 10-12 minutes. The chapters have also been released across all major streaming and audio platforms with an accompanying social media campaign running for four weeks. 

“Following the success of the first series of ‘Little Chapters of Chill’, we knew we wanted to use the platform again this year, but to update it with stories that children can not only relate to but find a sense of escapism with,” explains Kirsty Hoad, Head of Marketing at Churchill. “With the return back to schools imminent, the second series is really timely and hopefully will help smooth the transition back to ‘normal’ life for children – and make it as stress-free for parents as possible.”