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There are thousands of channels for kids on YouTube that offer both entertainment and education suitable for kids but these are must get followed (worldwide).
However, not all channels are a safe haven for kids to have fun and learn.
If you are looking to increase your child’s knowledge using YouTube videos, then you’ll have to be very careful. The last thing you want to do is let your child watch any video just because it says “for kids”. Your kids won’t be gaining any good knowledge watching videos showing poop on Elsa’s face IRL or kids killing giant bugs using kitchen utensils.
YouTube’s definition of “for kids” is very loose, so you need to be careful yourself as a parent. A parental control app may protect them from inappropriate channels.
I have once made the mistake of letting my kids freely navigate kids-friendly channels, and somehow they always ended up on channels I didn’t find appropriate for learning (or even watching for fun). So I created a dedicated YouTube account for my kids and subscribed to many channels I find right for them. This keeps their recommendations similar, and I have to moderate them less.
If you want to do the same, I know many YouTube channels for kids that are very educational and fun at the same time. Keep reading, and you’ll find some of the best educational YouTube channels safe for kids viewing.
SciShow Kids
As the name suggests, it’s a channel to help kids learn about science. SciShow Kids use kids friendly tone and graphical material to teach about fun facts and discoveries of science. There is no specific focus of the channel; you can find videos about making something, why and how some natural things occur, new science discoveries, facts about things, and pretty much anything as long as it comes under science.
They usually upload a new video once a week, and the videos are near 5min long. Their funny jokes and kids-friendly setup that includes a mascot keep kids entertained while gaining knowledge.
TED-Ed
Another great source of knowledge, but it doesn’t focus on a specific niche. TED-Ed covers 5min animated education videos about pretty much anything. This includes design, science, history, religion, and even current world events. Different designers and narrators make the videos, so the animations and delivery style can be different from video to video.
The channel is updated with a new video 2-3 times a week. They also have dedicated sections for videos covering mathematical facts, nature, Einstein discoveries, poems, coding, viruses, and more.
Sesame Street
I am sure you already know about Sesame Street. They have a YouTube channel too, where all their shows are available. Most of their videos are fun stories and activities that indirectly help kids learn many aspects of life, like ethics, cleanliness, DIY crafts, and more.
They also have direct academic videos about counting, basic math, ABCs, Art, history, etc. Videos are usually 1-5 minutes long unless it’s a compilation, and they upload 4-5 new videos in a week.
Smithsonian
Inspired by the Smithsonian Institution museum and research, the Smithsonian YouTube channel offers videos about history, animals, and culture. However, most of the videos are about animals showing fun facts, unique interactions, and rank lists.
Videos are usually documentary style with real clips and pictures, and some of them also contain interviews. Most animal-related videos are 2-5 minutes long, but history documentaries are usually over 30min long.
Simple History
If you want your kids to learn the history of the world, then Simply History is the perfect place. Simply History does an amazing job of bringing historical events to life by animating them. The animations are repetitive and not too great, but they work fine for telling the story.
However, I will not recommend you to show these to young kids as they also cover the history of wars, including blood and injuries, etc. They cover many stories from history that aren’t very popular, especially stories about heroes of the past that many people don’t know about. The videos are also 5-8min long, and they upload 2 videos every week.
Alphablocks
Alphablocks is your child’s one-stop place to learn alphabets, spellings, and how words are formed. The channel consists of animated shows where all 26 alphabet letters are cartoon characters with a dedicated identity. When these letters connect, they make a word that also magically makes the word’s meaning come to life.
Based on this, these letters get involved in fun activities and make words that also tell the episode’s story. They also do an amazing job of rhyming words. You can also check out Numberblocks YouTube channel that does similar activities but with numbers instead.
PBS Kids
PBS also has a dedicated YouTube channel for kids where some of their most popular shows for kids are uploaded. At PBS Kids, your kids can find shows like Molly of Denali, Elinor Wonder Why, Word World, Arthur, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and more.
Apart from TV series, PBS Kids also hosts some of their own shows where kids talk about their thoughts on different matters and involve in other fun activities. Most of their shows are 13-30 minutes long, and they usually upload at least 5 videos/week.
AboutMagic
Learning magic tricks can also be a great learning experience that is also quite fun. AboutMagic shows quick magic tricks that can be easily done using regular household objects. Using laws of physics and some illusion, your kids can learn fun magic tricks that seem impossible to pull off until the secret is revealed.
Besides magic tricks, the channel also has some videos to learn to make objects out of balloons or do some card tricks like shuffling with one hand or without changing order. Both the trick and its secret are revealed in the same video, and videos are usually 15sec to 5min long.
Minute Physics
As the name suggests, Minute Physics has quick videos about physics-related topics that are just a few minutes long. Videos mostly consist of whiteboard animations along with real pictures and clips to help understand the concept.
Although most of the videos are related to physics, there are some other types of videos too; but they all come under science. Unfortunately, their upload schedule is slightly slow; they only upload 1-2 videos in a month. However, each video is worth watching, so it’s good to subscribe.
Veritasium
Another YouTube channel with topics related to science. However, at Veritasium, Derek Muller takes a little different approach by directly challenging some science concepts, or some of the lesser-known concepts are discussed.
Videos are mostly direct interviews of other scientists and experiments conducted by Derek or those he interviews. Most videos are over 15minutes long, and you can find 2-3 new videos/month. Apart from explaining science with experiments, there are also some documentary-style videos of science history.
I must mention that these videos are usually good for teenagers as they talk about more advanced concepts and are also not directly catered to kids.
Mystery Doug
At Mystery Doug, kids ask questions related to science, and they answer them using both animated and real clips. As most of the questions are asked by kids, they are usually simple thoughts about things that are around us.
They also cover some off topics based on requests or current world events, like “Do other countries celebrate Thanksgiving?” or “How do magicians trick people?”. All the videos are made and narrated by Doug Peltz himself, and he makes sure they are kids friendly.
Science Channel
I know this is yet another YouTube channel discussing science, but I will specifically like to recommend Science Channel for its “How It’s Made” series. In this series, Science Channel shows us how specific products are made in a factory by making videos of the complete process as it happens.
Kids can learn exactly how things are made, such as fishing lines, footballs, skin cream, chocolate mints, fireworks, and many other things. As of writing, there are over 220 videos under this series, and video is uploaded every week showing how something is made.
They also have a series of videos about the galaxy, earth history, and crazy science experiments.
Ending thoughts
These channels offer educational material in a fun way, either with a kids-friendly tone or animations that keep them attracted. Furthermore, nearly half of these channels are directly or indirectly related to science, but they all cover the topics differently, so they all are worth subscribing to.
Happy learning!