Best YouTube Channels for Kids

Alexandra F.:  Sesame Street has been a giant in children's entertainment for decades for a reason. The educational, colorful and inclusive videos featuring children, adults, and puppets pass on important lessons in a way that is fun and accessible for kids. Frequent celebrity appearances help, too! The channel offers sing-alongs, story times, PSAs for kids & families about healthy habits and timely topics, and other fun videos starring the Sesame Street cast we've all grown up to know and love.

Michael Farina:  Need to get the kids off the couch but don't want them to run around breaking things? Jaime leads kids on long and short "yoga adventures," where she will tell a story, mixing in yoga moves that correspond with different aspects of the narrative. My 3-yo loves it all, and my 6-yo gets very excited when the stories involve Pokemon, Star Wars, or one of his other topics of interest. The exercises range from short (5 min) to long (40 min). Mixed in with the yoga videos are mindfulness and relaxation exercises, so you can get just what you need.

Lisa R:  These educational videos created by two sisters and their dad (plus a goofy puppet) often have my daughter in stitches. They have a huge selection of videos covering history, science, math and more and are entertaining for both kids and grown-ups. I was particularly impressed with their series of videos about voting and elections. My only complaint is that they also have some non-educational unboxing/toy videos that distract from a lot the higher quality content.

Alexandra F.:  GoNoodle is my absolute favorite online destination to get kids moving even when they are indoors. Geared toward school-aged children, it offers a wide range of videos to help kids get their wiggles out, from silly movement tunes, to choreographed dances to popular songs, to mindful yoga poses, and more. Their awesome family YouTube channel offers a great variety of videos, but you can also create an account on their website to access even more great content. My preschoolers especially love the MooseTube channel!

Shila:  Astronauts in space read and record free story times for kids. Check out the library of children's books on the YouTube channel - most book titles are science and space themed. In some views, you can even catch Earth in the astronaut's backdrop!

Alexandra F.:  Kids who love to read non-fiction books and collect wacky but true facts about our world will love the kid-focused programming by National Geographic. Exploring a wide range of topics of interest to kids (space! scorpions! submarines!) through short and engaging videos, you can feel good about giving them this fun yet educational screen time. Older kids & teens might also want to check out the National Geographic channel with more in-depth content, though note that some videos explore topics that may not be appropriate for younger viewers.

Jennie Utsinger:  When they're not going to school or playing sports, the six siblings from That's Amazing are filming challenges and trick shots for their YouTube channel. The channel primarily features the oldest teenage brothers, but their younger siblings are also involved. My son loves watching kids his own age perform and the videos often inspires competitions of our own!

Lisa R:  I found this channel while trying to get my youngest to start talking and it is now one of his favorites. He loves the songs and puppets and has picked up a few words from the short educational segments that demonstrate baby signs and sound formation. I've learned a lot of little jingles and speech techniques that seem to be helping his language development during non-screentime as well.

Alexandra F.:  Who doesn’t love watching adorable baby animals play or marveling at big cats, elephants or giraffes? The Cincinnati Zoo gives viewers an inside look at its many animal residents through its regular Facebook live videos (one of our favorite free virtual events for kids!) which are then posted on their great family YouTube channel for viewing any time. We especially love their Home Safaris, which teach a short educational lesson for kids about the different animals they showcase.

Lisa R:  This long running channel has a video for almost all of my daughter's science questions and is usually the first thing we come across when looking for a video on a particular topic. Each video addresses one science concept or questions with the help of short video clips and commentary (and sometimes demonstrations) from a human and their sidekick, Squeaks the mouse.

Alexandra F.:  The Smithsonian Channel is one of the best educational YouTube channels that covers a wide range of genres including history, science and pop culture in full length documentaries as well as short teaser clips sure to capture kids’ imaginations. Kids can learn about things like dinosaur-killing snakes, the Great Sphinx in Egypt, or the importance of movements & marches throughout history. Some content requires a subscription, but there are plenty of free videos to enjoy as well.

Alexandra F.:  An extension of TED's mission of spreading great ideas, the TED-Ed educational YouTube channel covers a wide range of topics likely to be of interest to older kids, such as a glimpse in the life of a teenager at different time periods in time, the language of lying, or all about mosquitoes. Lessons are presented in short animated videos, and their challenging riddles and brain-teasers are especially popular, and a favorite for my own teen and tween.

Lisa R:  This goofy Canadian science show takes typical elementary school science experiments (think tinfoil boats, baking soda volcanoes, egg drops) and then "maxes it out" by making the experiment as big as possible. Each show features a guest scientist to effectively act as the straight man while Max tries various versions of his experiment before getting it right. The show is pretty fast paced and teaches the main concept of the episode at several different level, with lots of ideas for experiments to try at home.

Alexandra F.:  Words are the star of the show in these cute animated videos where the characters and objects are made up of the words they represent - for example, the word “TRUCK” in the shape of a truck or “PUMPKIN” in the shape of a pumpkin. This YouTube channel for kids offers a fun way for preschoolers to start recognizing words and learning to read!

Alexandra F.:  Older kids will get a huge kick out of watching these five friends challenge each other to ridiculous and hilarious competitions, like flipping a water bottle in crazy ways or a go kart paintball battle. My teen and I were riveted!