It’s finally June!! For many of us, summer break is just beginning. For others of us, we have a few more days of school left. (Hurry up, Summer!) But hopefully most of us are working on our intentional summer plan and routine for our kids. So, I wanted to offer a few fun ways for your kids explore some new hobbies or activities this summer, while also helping to keep them occupied for a bit! It’s a win-win!
Over the past year or so, my kids have really enjoyed learning new things and trying new activities by watching YouTube channels.
My seven year old daughter makes awesome creation with her Rainbow Loom, and now is able to even make up bracelets and charms all on her own. She also enjoys learning how to take care of and style her American Girl dolls’ hair.
My almost six year old son gets on kicks where he’s obsessed with one channel pretty exclusively for several weeks to several months. He’ll watch the videos over and over and quote random facts to us! He’s made some awesome paper airplanes and cool origami. And recently he and Jer have been making some fun backyard rockets. The look on his face the first time they lit off one of their rockets was priceless!
So here are some fun YouTube Channels for kids to get you started. This list is obviously not exhaustive, I’m sure there are so many more great channels we’ve never even heard of! I’d love to hear your favorites in the comments! These are just a few that our kids have really enjoyed.
Crafts and Activities
Tutorials by A – My daughter says this is her most favorite channel for Rainbow Loom tutorials.
DIY Mommy – Tons of great Rainbow Loom projects featured here.
SoCraftastic – She has some great Rainbow Loom tutorial and a lot of other fun crafts too.
The King of Random – This is the channel my son is obsessed with right now. He loves to watch the crazy backyard experiments and projects. I have to say, this channel is pretty awesome! Some of the projects are not realistic for doing with kids, but Bren still likes to watch them. We’ve made the blow gun, ninja balls, soda slushies, and slow-burning fuses for backyard rockets. Fun stuff.
Rob’s World – Brenden also loves this channel for awesome flying paper airplanes, fun origami creations, and exploding stick bombs.
Art for Kids Hub – Another mom recently recommended this channel and I’m excited to introduce it to my kids this summer! I am really terrible at drawing, so I think this could be a fun way for them to learn how to draw.
WhizKidScience – This is another fun channel I’m looking forward to watching with my kids this summer and trying out some of the experiments!
Just for Fun
Sometimes you just want a little entertainment on YouTube too!
BoardShortsTV – You and your kids will be cracking up watching these videos where adults act like kids, and kids act like adults!
Hevesh5 Domino Artist – My son loves to watch the domino runs on this channel and then get inspired to make his own!
heathertraska – This young lady has a beautiful voice and does the most amazing arrangements of Disney and other popular songs. Your kids will be mesmarized! (A little parental guidance is probably necessary on her channel, depending on what types of music you let your kids listen to.)
Good Mythical Morning – My friends Megan and Rebekah recommended this channel on the Sorta Awesome podcast. I haven’t had a chance to show the videos to my kids yet, but I think they may be best for a little bit older kid crowd.
Dude Perfect – Hilarious videos that boys (and girls) will love, but may need some parental guidance.
A few thoughts about YouTube and Kids
Obviously, I hope, as parents we realize that YouTube can be a fun and educational tool for our kids, but there are some steps we should take to make it safe and appropriate for them.
First, be sure that you have turned on the Safety mode before your kids begin watching. It’s easy to find at the bottom of the page, and click it to “On”, but here’s a tutorial if you need a little more guidance.
Unfortunately, Safety mode does not filter out everything that you may not want your child to view, so another rule we have in our house is that you have to be in the living room, or around a parent, while watching YouTube. No sitting in your room by yourself and searching and browsing YouTube.
Also, to eliminate the temptation of watching YouTube during screen time using mom or dad’s iPhone, we’ve decided to remove the YouTube app from our phones completely. YouTube did recently come out with a YouTube Kids app, and I do have that on my phone now, but the same rules apply that they can’t watch it unless they are around a parent.
Finally, and this is just wise parenting in general I think, be aware of what your kids are doing when they are browsing and watching things online. We look, listen, and check-in often while our kids are on the computer, phones, or tablets to make sure what they are watching or playing is appropriate.
Have fun with your kids this summer by learning some new hobbies, trying out some fun activities and just laughing together with these entertaining and educational YouTube Channels for kids!
Do your kids have a favorite YouTube channel? Share it with us in the comments!
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A YouTube Kids app?!?!? I’ll have to check that out! We went through a big YouTube phase in our house and it was hard to recover from that. My daughter was watching things I wasn’t crazy about – nothing BAD just not the best choice for her. Thanks for your suggestions!
Thanks for this Emily! I can’t wait to check some of these out, and I had no idea about the YouTube for Kids app. We just started watching the Dude Perfect videos this past week and the kids love them. Thanks for all the ideas!