How many times have you told your kids to put down their screens and open a book – only to have them roll their eyes and look back at their phone or iPad?
Screens and kids go together like PB&J, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Visual learning with videos can be a powerful tool, and kids can access loads of videos right from the screens they love so much.
No, we’re not talking about YouTube and Netflix. There are many other ways for kids to interact, create, and learn with videos. And most of them are free!
Here are some of our favorite ways to turn children’s screens into educational powerhouses with video.
Choose Educational Media Channels
The hardest part of learning with videos is replacing the non-educational content that kids like with quality videos. Luckily, there’s no shortage of learning materials.
You can start with materials offered by well-known sources like the British Council, Sesame Street, and National Geographic.
If you want to focus the educational videos around your children’s studies, you can search by subject on channels like FreeSchool and Homeschool Pop.
All of the video sources mentioned above are free!
There are many more sources of video content to choose from. We recommend picking a few with different narrators and visual styles. It helps to keep things interesting in the long run.
Develop a Watch Plan
Your kids will have a lot of eye-opening moments when watching educational videos, but they’ll engage even more if you plan their watch schedule. This ensures that they watch the right videos in the right order (so they learn what an atom is before learning about protons and neutrons, for example).
This will also allow you to engage as parents. When you know what your kids are watching, you can ask them questions about it later to show your interest and get them thinking more. This can start a lot of really cool conversations and help kids to develop their passions.
Connect Video Content with Real Life
The next step is to turn that video content into interactive learning. If your kid has been watching videos about space, take a trip to the planetarium on the weekend. If they’ve been learning geography, bake a cake in the shape of America and label all the states with icing!
There are loads of ways to turn video content into real-world learning. This type of learning is especially impactful. Interactive activities like this build critical thinking skills and can help kids absorb 6x more info than they would from traditional learning.
Make Home Movies
Why not encourage your kids to make their own videos instead of just watching them?
If you have a computer or a tablet, it probably has video editing software pre-installed on it. Need some cool SFX? You can get all that online for free, including free sound effects, stock video, and royalty free music.
Your kids literally have everything they need to make a movie right now. They only need you to open the app and show them how to get started.
Making video projects is fantastic exercise for the brain as it requires lots of creative and organizational skills. And because it’s so hands-on, even young children can learn to be great directors, actors, and cinematographers.
Making videos at a young age can blossom into a lifelong passion and a useful skill in the future. Plus, you’ll get a library of adorable home movies to enjoy for life.
Fun with Stop Motion
You don’t have to use complex video editing software to create fun stop-motion animations. Kids can use their action figures, dolls, playdough, or just about anything else to make easy animations. Just take still photos of a series of events and create a slideshow to make them come to life.
You’d be surprised at how creative kids can get (and how much time they’ll spend) designing their stop motion productions.
Screens Aren’t Always Bad
Your kids might never relish the thought of picking up the vintage technology known as “book.” But that’s ok! Kids have access to more educational video content than ever from the screens they’re already addicted to. It’s almost too easy! All you have to do is provide a bit of structure and incentive, and the videos will do the rest.
Most companies have hundreds of ideas but don’t know how to implement them into video marketing. Its main task is to involve as many users as possible and bring in new customers. To do this, you need to correctly formulate the purpose of the video and decide on its format. It is also important to determine the audience and, if necessary, translate video to reach an audience from other countries.
Thanks!
Thanks for the informative article, LaDonna. I agree with you that video content has a huge impact on the development of children and society as a whole. Therefore, you need to choose only high-quality YouTube channels with well-chosen video materials. As for me, I have been doing video blogging for quite some time and I try to create useful material. To do this, I use such video editing services as https://wave.video/blog/video-thumbnails/ with the help of which I can take my projects to a new level and increase traffic to my channel several times, which will significantly expand the reach of the target audience.