A picture may be worth a thousand words, but pictures plus words can be priceless. As every good teacher knows, a well-chosen video can fasten a concept into a child’s head much faster than a lecture or a textbook. Happily this is the golden age for mini videos with several uses. During the summer, they offer young minds a workout that may minimize summer slump. During the school year, they can be used to supplement or enliven lessons  from  school.

Not surprisingly, many educational videos are now posted on YouTube. The following YouTube channels meet the ABC standard–they are Accurate, Boredom Busting and Child Friendly.  If you find a channel your kids really like, consider subscribing so you’ll know when new videos are posted.

CGP GREY has a simple tagline—“complex things explained”—and it delivers on that promise.  These short videos feature stick figures that explain everything from the debt limit and daylight savings time to the electoral college and net neutrality.    

Vihart is one of the few vlogs hosted by a woman. Victoria calls herself a “recreational mathemusician,” and her videos are quirky, fast-paced explorations of the intersections between math and art. Check out the hexaflexagrams!

Science Music Videos are the creation of Mr. W, a science teacher in Berkeley, California, who makes up infectious folk, rock and even rap songs about complicated biological concepts like DNA, photosynthesis, mitosis and osmosis. 

MinutePhysics prides itself on making very short videos that explain “cool physics and other sweet science” using “stick figures and bad puns.” The narrator talks very fast so kids who are completely new to a topic may need to watch the videos more than once.    Crash Course is the collaboration of two brothers who are also teachers.  One of the brothers happens to be John Green, author of several wildly popular young adult books including The Fault in our Stars. Videos on this site are a bit longer than others, but the brothers  talk fast. Occasionally they use edgy language. At this point, they’ve posted videos for entire semesters of material in US and World history, literature, chemistry, biology, ecology and psychology.

Veritasium is a grab bag filled with experiments, discussions, interviews, demos and random interesting facts. The host, Derek Muller, has a special interest in correcting scientific misconceptions.

Numberphile is produced by the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute with the goal of getting young people to “love numbers.” The videos, created by a talented team of mathematicians, explain a wide variety of mathematical concepts in idiosyncratic ways. To calculate the value of pi, they use pies! 

Spangler Effect is the product of a science teacher who turns “ordinary science experiments into unforgettable learning experiences.” If your kids want to replicate some of the experiments, books and science kits are sold on a complementary website. 

Ted Ed is part of the growing empire of TED products. Unlike the well-known talks, TedEd segments are shorter lessons from exceptional teachers. Many have been developed in consultation with animators and screenwriters. They vary widely in length and subject matter but all are intended to spread great ideas and spark curiosity. 

Websites with Video 

Videos on YouTube tend to be short and idiosyncratic. Like a good appetizer, they can create hunger but they may not satisfy it. If you are looking for videos that are a little more substantial and systematic, turn to these websites.

Khanacademy.org is a non-profit that posts free video lessons on a wide range of subjects from art history to economics. Started by a young man who was trying to help his cousin do her math long distance, the site is especially good at helping young learners master mathematical concepts from counting to differential equations.  

Neok12.com has a well-organized list of videos on almost any topic a child might want to explore. In addition to the video lessons, the site offers games and worksheets that may be helpful to students who are trying to master unfamiliar concepts for school. 

Watchknowlearn.org has indexed  50,000 educational videos on everything from physics to phys ed, foreign languages to social studies, ethics to ecology. In addition to searching by subject matter, parents can zero in on videos suitable for specific ages by using the slider at the top of the page.  

Watching a video isn’t the same as mastering a subject. Kids also need discussion and exercises as well as lots of opportunities to practice new skills. Still, the right video at the right time can ignite a child’s curiosity and, perhaps, begin a lifelong interest. Just as important, sharing one of these little videos can be a big opportunity for families to talk, learn and laugh together.  

Carolyn Jabs, M.A., raised three computer savvy kids including one with special needs. She has been writing Growing Up Online for ten years and is working on a book about constructive responses to conflict.    For other Growing Up Online columns, visit www.growing-up-online.com   

As a mother of three children I have made somewhat of an awful observation about my mothering skills and how they have declined from child number one until child number three.

My oldest, Mikayla, is now 14 and when I look back on the early years with her, I was one impressive little momma. I had an entire collection of books and magazine articles telling me how to take care of her and I read them all and followed the instructions to a tee. Then with Macie who is now 11, I would refer to them when I was unsure of something, like if she was sick or she had a rash I didn’t recognize. By the time 6-year-old Mylee came along, I couldn’t even tell you where the books were. It’s quite possible Dr. Benjamin Spock is still helping to balance an old dresser or something somewhere in the house.

When Mikayla was a baby, nothing but brand name, top-shelf diapers ever touched her bottom. With Macie I realized store-brand diapers worked the same way and with Mylee…well, in a pinch, a kitchen towel and duct tape can do the job!

During Mikayla’s toddler years, I would get her out of bed, put a perfectly coordinated outfit on her, do her hair with just the right accessory to match her outfit and would never think about taking her out in public dressed any other way. With Macie the matching didn’t matter so much, just so her outfit was clean and fit. Then there was Mylee, “Sure, Mylee you can go to the store in your Cinderella dress and snow boots in April. Oh, we haven’t brushed your hair today? No problem, let’s go.”

Then there is the subject of pictures. I have professional pictures of Mikayla at birth, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, 18 months, 2 years and every year after. Macie had pictures taken at birth, 6 months, 12 months, and every year after. For Mylee we did them at birth, 12 months, tried at 2, and she hated it. I decided not to fight that fight again. But I have tons of candid pictures of her…on a disk…somewhere.

Many moms can relate to this decline in mothering skills over multiple children. It is an epidemic often discussed among my friends. But why does it occur? Is it that we get lazy, that we don’t care anymore, that we have given up? Actually, no, I have discovered the root cause; it is that we become more confident in our own mothering skills and we learn what is really important and that it is not the brand of diapers we use, how they’re dressed or the number of photo shoots they have attended. What is really most important is simply that our children know they are loved and as long we find ways to remind them of that every chance we get our mothering skills never decline.

As the mother of three girls who spend much of their time upside-down as gymnasts and cheerleaders, Kerri Rochelle often feels upside-down herself from the chaos. She blogs about the wow, and some of the not-so-wow, experiences of being a busy mom to Mikayla, 14, Macie, 11, and Mylee, 6, at theupsidedownmom.wordpress.com.