Last Updated on November 7, 2020
Have you ever wondered what your child is watching when it disappears for half an hour in the world of YouTube? Finding your way around YouTube can be tricky. Many times I got lost in the maze of thousands of video suggestions for children without knowing if they are safe or if my kids will enjoy them. We have created a little guide so you can find the best channels for kids on YouTube for all ages.
From a parent perspective, it is better to be safe than sorry which is why we would recommend using YouTube Kids, you can use either the website or the child-friendly app. There are a few reasons why we recommend using this instead of general YouTube. First of all, it is fun to use! There are colourful icons, your child can select their own profile which is especially useful when you have more than one. I have been many times in the situation where the YouTube algorithm had adjusted to what my son was just watching (football, football & football) and my little girl can’t find any suggestions suitable to her interests because all the algorithm shows matched what he watched beforehand. The main reason I recommend YouTube Kids is that the content featured has been pre-filtered. There are millions of videos on Youtube and most of them are unfortunately not suitable for children. Stumbling on a video that features bad language and violent content can happen by accident pretty quickly. Using a separate app also helps to keep your personal video suggestions free from kids videos if you are passionate about YouTube yourself and you’d like the autoplay function not suddenly to play three little piggies. 😉
These are our top children’s channels on YouTube that are funny, educational and going to keep your kids entertained.
Little Baby Bum – Five Little Ducks
Little Baby Bum has by far the best videos out there for your little ones. This channel features all your favourite nursery rhymes with lovely animations as well as learning videos about numbers, letters and colours. This channel is aimed at toddlers and preschoolers. The content is professionally produced with a very high quality that is comparable to TV standards. I used this channel even just to play the music which is a great way to stimulate children while playing.
Kid Time Story Time – Don’t Touch This Book
As we know, YouTube has literally videos about everything. One great channel I would recommend for children and parents is KidTimeStoryTime. You will find a huge amount of books, poems and songs read and sung aloud. This channel encourages my kids to read more because they get inspired by the books they saw in the videos and are eager to re-read them themselves. The books chosen also feature some important subjects for children such as learning about your emotions and different cultures around the world. You can play the stories in the background as well as an audiobook. Usually, the stories are between 5 – 15 minutes so just perfect for a little cuddle.
Sesame Street – Sing the Alphabet Song
A great advantage of YouTube is, actually some of your kids’ favourite cartoons & tv shows have full episodes available to watch any time and for free. How many times have we picked up the remote and zapped through all the kids’ channels in the hope of finding the one show your child is demanding right now? Thankfully, YouTube is here to save the day. You can find Thomas & Friends, Peppa Pig, Tractor Tom and everybody’s all-time favourite Sesame Street on demand whenever you need it and with full episodes. Sesame Street used to be one of my favourite shows growing up and I am delighted the show is continuing to amaze children after so many years. On their YouTube channel, you can find not only full episodes but also snippets of funny segments and songs for your kids to enjoy.
Ryan’s World – Giant Lightning McQueen Egg Surprise
One of the most successful channels on the internet and on top of that very fun and charming to watch is Ryan’s World. The channel shows Ryan, who is eight-years-old and his family, including his younger twin sisters, playing together, showing easy to follow science experiments and unboxing toys. The channel is very focussed on the family having fun together and with their fun comedy sketches, it is even enjoyable for parents. Ryan’s World gives lots of inspirational ideas for kids to have fun at home, get creative and enjoy life.
Cosmic Kids Yoga – Frozen Yoga
A great resource you can find on YouTube to entertain your kids and keep them active are workout videos for kids. I love Cosmic Kids Yoga. It is so well made with a lot of animations and Jaime, the host of the channel is such a great instructor to follow along. Her videos are aimed at pre- and primary school children but if you participate as well, the whole family is going to have a fun time. The videos are great for rainy days when your kids can’t play outside. You can find lots of different themed videos from Frozen to ninja yoga, everything is covered.
National Geographic Kids – Spinosaurus | Dino Road Trip
If you are looking for educational content for your primary-school-aged kids you should check out National Geographic Kids. This channel shows a variety of videos all about our planet and animal facts that will blow your mind. There are short videos with lots of fun facts that keep your kids engaged and learning at the same time. They also have documentaries about wildlife in the safari or dinosaur adventures.
Cookie Swirl C – Barbie Mermaid The Pearl Princess Sisters Friends
I had to write about this channel, it is my daughters absolute favourite! Cookie Swirl C creates child-friendly videos that are full of fun activities and have lots of creativity. She makes up storylines with toys, you can watch her play video games such as Roblox and Minecraft and she has plenty of videos about DIY and baking to get your kids inspired. I find it very important that the YouTuber presents themselves as a role model in all of their content since children take a lot of inspiration from them. Lots of kids these days want to be YouTubers themselves, therefore it is very important the people they are watching are giving a good example. Cookie Swirl C is showing some behind the scenes videos with her farm animals and as a parent, I appreciate her fun and kind online personality.
Stampylonghead – Minecraft Sinking Feeling
One of the trends on YouTube are Let’s Plays. These are videos where somebody is playing a game and commentating at the same time. My kids are obsessed with Let’s Plays. It gives them inspiration on what to do next in their own game and they have picked up the habit of commenting on their own gaming even though they don’t have anybody but themselves as an audience. It can be tricky to find YouTubers that do Let’s Plays but do not use vulgar language or also show violent games in their videos. Here are a few YouTube channels that are safe and show videos your kids will enjoy. Apart from Cookie Swirl C as mentioned above, I would also recommend Stampylonghead. He is a UK based quirky YouTuber and on his channel, you can find plenty of Minecraft, Pokémon & Mario videos that are funny and free from mature content.
Kieran Brown – Footballers FAKED these Tricks, but I did them for REAL
For all the football-obsessed youngsters, I recommend Kieran Browns’ videos. Kieran is a 22-year-old UK YouTuber doing freestyle football videos. He talks about the latest trends, tries out new skills and does some football comedy alongside it. I think videos like Kierans’ are beneficial for children to challenge themselves to try new things and motivate them to go outside and be active.
There is great potential in YouTube to entertain the whole family and it can bring you closer together when you find something everybody can laugh about. Sometimes, we will watch a funny video together and weeks later it is still a joke at the dinner table. It is important to be involved in your children’s world and not to demonize it. Our family especially enjoys watching funny animal videos together. Usually, they are short ones so you can watch 10 mins of a video and get quite a lot out of it. I would recommend channels like The Dodo to get you laughing.
When using YouTube it is important to let your kids explore what they like and not prescribe them exactly what they have to watch but I would recommend keeping a close eye on the videos they are watching. On YouTube Kids, you can also block certain channels that you seem to be inappropriate for your child. There is a great function showing the history of videos viewed where you can see what was watched which I like to check-in if my kids are watching something new. Teaching your kids what is ok to watch and what is not is the best policy. The earlier they get to know how to be responsible on the internet the better they are prepared for entering more digital spheres when they are older.
I hope those recommendations are useful to you and your child will have lots of fun exploring videos that are fun and educational.