a peek inside the fishbowl

27 May, 2010

Kid-friendly YouTube videos: help me make a list

Posted by andrea tomkins in: Easy ways to make kids happy

Do you want to know when I tend to watch YouTube the most? When I need to brush someone’s hair. Many of the videos clock in at around 5 minutes. It is the perfect distraction while combing out the tangles.

We have a roster of videos that we watch over and over. Some are short, some are long, but we need more family-friendly videos to watch!

Here are a few of our faves:

Please add your suggestions and give us something new to watch. What’s in rotation at your house?

Tags:

28 Responses to "Kid-friendly YouTube videos: help me make a list"

1 | andrea

May 27th, 2010 at 8:00 am

Avatar

A couple people have suggested “Where the Hell is Matt?” http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/

Good one!!

2 | Chris Lawson

May 27th, 2010 at 8:00 am

Avatar

There’s a ton of Winnie the Pooh ones that my 4yo loves.

But have you seen Hinterland Who’s WhoTube? http://tv.hww.ca/ five great updated Hinterland Who’s Who vids for kids.

3 | andrea

May 27th, 2010 at 8:09 am

Avatar

And I almost forgot:

There she is, a Korean love story about a bunny and a cat (the girls LOVE THIS)

Banana phone (can I get this as a ring tone?)

4 | andrea

May 27th, 2010 at 8:10 am

Avatar

I forgot about Hinterland Who’s Who! Great link. Thank you!

5 | andrea

May 27th, 2010 at 8:15 am

Avatar

Offerings from the NFB:

The Hockey Sweater

The Log Driver’s Waltz

Blackfly (this makes me laugh out loud)

6 | bushidoka

May 27th, 2010 at 8:30 am

Avatar

I find failblog to be kid friendly in its own way – lets my boys learn from someone else’s mistakes so hopefully they won’t do many of the stupid things other kids have done :-)

7 | Judy

May 27th, 2010 at 8:44 am

Avatar

Our son loves the Swedish Chef. Anything Swedish Chef but his favorite is the donut one.

8 | Amy @ Muddy Boots

May 27th, 2010 at 10:00 am

Avatar

Do a search for They Might Be Giants – Here Comes Science. The music is great for kids (and parents) and the lyrics are awesome too.

9 | EmmyB

May 27th, 2010 at 10:59 am

Avatar

My kids (2 and 4 y.o.) adore The Clangers – it’s an old British kids show, each episode about 10 minutes long. Rather strange, but I love that it’s so low tech – the creatures are actually knitted!

10 | Dave

May 27th, 2010 at 11:23 am

Avatar

Babies! Laughing!

Never saw that before.

My kids love the Extreme Sheep: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw

11 | CarrieLou

May 27th, 2010 at 11:35 am

Avatar

My boys (6 and just turned 4) love http://www.totlol.com! And we love finding random videos, such as airplanes taking off and landing, trains, fast boats, etc. I love some of the suggestions you guys posted so we’ll have to check the out.

12 | Dave

May 27th, 2010 at 12:11 pm

Avatar

I know it’s an ad, but I also love the trailer for the new Babies documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vupEpNjCuY

13 | Tammy

May 27th, 2010 at 12:24 pm

Avatar

We usual surf around kideos.com…. and my son can browse without me being worried what he might click on!

14 | Littlehouse

May 27th, 2010 at 12:25 pm

Avatar

We find this funny. Its a bit ‘British’ but then so are we so…. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-TxebxUD54
Here is episode 1 – search for ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ from the BBC for lots on YouTube

15 | Littlehouse

May 27th, 2010 at 12:27 pm

Avatar

Oh, wait…. this is a better one…

16 | K

May 27th, 2010 at 12:47 pm

Avatar

A company called “Weston Woods” (now owned by Scholastic, IIRC) has put out a lot of high-quality short films from high-quality children’s books.

[links deleted after getting “Hmmm, your comment seems a bit spammy. We’re not real big on spam around here,” but search YouTube and tudou.com for
Charlie Needs a Cloak
Pete’s a Pizza
Doctor de Soto
Brave Irene
Rosie’s Walk
etc]

If you have kids willing to watch French videos — “T’choupi et Doudou” episodes are five minutes a go, easily found on YouTube, and quite empathetic to the preschool set.

17 | Nora

May 27th, 2010 at 3:36 pm

Avatar

We love the Weston Wood stories…….storybooks that come alive. There are some classics that are lovely, and my son loves Trashy Town and I’m Dirty! They are great. We also love readeez videos on youtube….. the father and daughter team are fun. Flip flops and the Duck Song are the most popular.

18 | Carrie C

May 27th, 2010 at 8:48 pm

Avatar

My daughter LOVES the okgo video for “This Too Shall Pass”

19 | Miss Vicky

May 27th, 2010 at 9:08 pm

Avatar

another vote for They Might Be Giants. In addition to Here Comes Science, there are Here Come the ABCs and Here Come the 123s.

some of our faves:
Electric Car, from Here Comes Science
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAv6M1Bai0c

Never Go to Work, from the 123s

20 | kari

May 27th, 2010 at 10:08 pm

Avatar

Thanks for this growing, awesome list.

My daughter (7) loves (you’ll have to search for these — your blog thinks too many links are spammy):
– Kittens, inspired by Kittens
– Advanced cat yodeling
– the Evian roller skating babies ad
– the eTrade babies ads
– “Two weeks” by Grizzly Bear:

– Big aquarium:

21 | Vanessa

May 28th, 2010 at 10:09 am

Avatar

Probably not helpful you you but as a mother of two boys we watch a lot of “Twenty Trucks” and “If I Were a Digger”. We also watch youtractor :)

22 | Dee

May 28th, 2010 at 10:56 am

Avatar

AWESOME idea.

Here’s one I just love, especially for someone with young daughters…

23 | Sheila D.

May 30th, 2010 at 1:34 pm

Avatar

An unusual music video that you might enjoy.
Joanna Newsom – The Sprout And The Bean

24 | DA

May 31st, 2010 at 11:54 am

Avatar

Can’t believe no one has mentioned The Muppets videos on YouTube yet.

Bohemian Rhapsody is a classic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY

And there are several others, to make sure you are staying kid friendly use The Muppets Studio page:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MuppetsStudio#p/u

25 | Pam

June 6th, 2010 at 9:06 pm

Avatar

Mater Tall tales – There are 4 I know of…Rescue Squad, Mater the Greater, El materdor and UFM (unidentified Flying mater. My two year ols and 7 year old enjoy them equally.

Pixar shorts….For the Birds and Topor

For the young you can see Goodnight Moon (story pages) but read by Susan Sarandon

Chicka chicka Boom Boom also set to music (you want the 5 min version)

Very Little Caterpillar is also narrated, as well as other Eric Carle stories

Most of these run from 4 to 7 minutes

Enjoy!

26 | Pam

June 6th, 2010 at 9:16 pm

Avatar

Oh also forgot…Sesame Street (my kids prefer the classic ones)

Favs are Pinball, Baker series, Number Elimination, Typewriter Guy, Number nine Martian Beauty, Ladybugs picnic, Factory 10-0 etc….

Great for young ones learning to count…

27 | Texts from Last Night

July 13th, 2010 at 6:41 am

Avatar

Yes, I agree, YouTractor.com brings me back to my childhood. Reminds me of long summer days. Happy days. P.S. I have given the post a digg.com for you

28 | Kids and YouTube >> a peek inside the fishbowl

June 19th, 2013 at 11:21 am

Avatar

[…] couple years ago I wrote a post called Kid-friendly YouTube videos: help me make a list. Thanks to reader comments it actually became a pretty good list, one that I often referred to when […]

comment form:

Archives

Me and my pet projects

Ottawa Bucket list

Subscribe via email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.


  • Gretchen Humphrey: I had a beautiful bee& birdbath filled with a solar fountain and dozens of antique marbles that were suddenly disappearing. At first I thought my
  • Jinjer: I am sobbing reading this post. And you're right, companion is not enough. Little furry treasured gifts that they are. Thanks for sharing cutie-pi
  • Karen: Dear Andrea, Mark and your daughters I am so very sad for your family xxx Piper was/is my favourite Instagram post. You shared with us so intimately
  • Christina Banuelos: Thank you for sharing Pipers life with us. Your posts of Piper brought me joy. Every time I see your post and see what kind of mischief Piper was gett
  • Carla Slocum: I am sitting here yet again crying at your loss. We have known that loss with Asta the WFT our first pup but now have the enormous gift of Stryker the
  • Janelle Brown: Dear Andrea Thank you for sharing Piper’s story with her followers. I empathise with your grief and emptiness as I lost my 14 year old Westie last
  • Natasha McReynolds-Nicholl: My god reading this is heartbreaking. December 1st was the as you describe longest day of my life, we lost out beautiful WFT hazel. Pipers final momen

The Obligatory Blurb

My name is Andrea and I live in the Westboro area of Ottawa with my husband Mark and our dog Piper who is kind of a big deal on Instagram. We also have two human offspring: Emma (24) and Sarah (22). During the day I work as a writer at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. I am a longtime Ottawa blogger and I've occupied this little corner of the WWW since 1999. The Fishbowl is my whiteboard, water cooler, and journal, all rolled into one. I'm passionate about healthy living, arts and culture, travel, great gear, good food, and sharing the best of Ottawa. I also love vegetables, photography, gadgets, and great design.

If you'd like to contact me, please use this form. If you're so inclined, you can read more about me here. Thank you for visiting!

 


Connect with me at these places too!

Still calling it Twitter