Written by Sarah Lefebvre from Worcester Central Kids Calendar
Are you sick of the battle with your kids about screen time? Here are some great ideas for educational screen time activities. They get to do something video related and interactive and you get the satisfaction of knowing they are getting in some movement with the video or learning something.
Go Noodle
Am I the only one who didn’t know about this fun app? There are different songs and meditations. The idea is kids get up and do the movements and dances with the song. My daughters (5 and 1) love the Popping Bubbles song the best. I downloaded the app for free to my Amazon fire stick, and now I cannot get that Popping Bubbles song out of my head.
Scholastic Educational Videos
Scholastic released two weeks of “lessons” separated by grade level. Each lesson has a story video, a book to read and a supplemental activity to do (away from the screen!). These look easy to accomplish and fun for kids. We will definitely be trying out the first one for preschoolers tomorrow – Animal Studies “Rabbits.”
YouTube Channel Cosmic Yoga
This channel features great yoga videos of all lengths. We have been using this channel for awhile now, and it is my go-to solution for when my daughter needs to burn a little energy off but we are stuck inside. I highly recommend starting with Going on a Bear Hunt. The rhythm and “song” is familiar and the steps are easy. It’s also on the shorter side. My oldest also likes the Frozen and Trolls themed yoga videos.
PBS Kids
Check out their Learning Resources tab! This is used by many teachers in their own lesson planning. You can filter their collection of learning resource videos for the age of your children and then choose the theme you want to focus on. In Pre-K there is kindness, solving problems, opposites and more. But you can search up to grade 12 and have students watch videos about the energy of a roller coaster or how thermal energy transfers. Each video is clearly labeled with the grade it is appropriate for.
Storyline Online
I love this idea! I need to do some work from home or a break from reading the same books on our shelves over and over, so I can share Storyline with them! Here celebrities will read books to your kids. They are great readers (hello acting is their job), and there are guides for each book to help you come up with questions or activity ideas for the book they are reading. Sarah Silverman reads The Tale of Two Beasts and Kristen Bell (yes Anna) reads Quackenstein Hatches a Family to name two of my favorites.
SciShow
A great Youtube Channel that answers the “why” questions that kids ask constantly. I watched “Do Fish Dream” this morning – not a question I ever asked myself but once I saw the title, I had to know the answer! Pick a topic your kid is interested about trees & plants? dinosaurs? outer space? Plenty of videos on all sorts of topics. This is great for a wide variety of ages but gears toward elementary and middle school students (and beyond).
