The Problem
Many children grow up not able to get out and see the world around them, participate in activities and sports, learn about fascinating animals, plants, and others. It’s easy to get trapped in the belief that school will teach our kids what they need to know. Sadly, we are missing a vital opportunity to make a huge impact in our child’s future success in reading AND in life. First-hand experience is always the best, but sometimes that is just not possible. We are so lucky to be in a period of time that allows us to bring the world and all its wonders to our living rooms. Below are my top picks for increasing world knowledge in our children (and US!).
1. Atlas Obscura
Atlas Obscura houses a world of wonders at your fingertips. Using short, highly engaging videos, they bring the beauty of the world to you. They have an amazing channel and website to check out.
2. LearnBright
LearnBright is specifically geared toward kids. They provide high-quality educational videos over a variety of topics. What I love about LearnBright videos, is 1. they offer many of their videos in ASL for the hearing impaired and 2. they have comprehension questions and answers at the end of their videos.
3.Socratica Kids
Not to be out-done, Socratica Kids provides a host of engaging videos for kids about a wide-range of topics. Most of their videos are geared more for kids under 10, they do have some wonderful videos for older kiddos, too.
4. Real Science
Real Science provides your high-quality science videos. Their videos are slightly longer than our previous contenders, averaging about 20 minutes, but they are well-worth the watch. Their videos are highly engaging and geared toward people 10 and up (although I know of some younger kiddos that would LOVE them!)
5. Veritasium
Definitely for the older kiddos, Veritasium provides videos covering science, math, education, and everything in between.
Final Thoughts
As with anything, please preview videos before showing them to your children. I have yet to find a questionable video on these channels, but I’m not going to say it’s not possible. I hope that you find these channels as interesting as your kids do and you can learn and experience the world with them!
