On a normal day, my kids don’t often get a chance to look at screens. They’re usually at school, going to the playground with friends, or walking with me to the library. Social distancing and shelter-in-place laws have taken all of that away from us, but that doesn’t mean the wider world has entirely closed.
Now, we just have to watch from the other side of a screen. If you can’t stand one more episode of Pinkalicious & Peterrific, I’ve rounded up a few streaming services that my 3- and 5-year-old have found entertaining.
For more ideas, check out our guides to the Best Kids Podcasts, How to Entertain Preschoolers During Quarantine, and the Best Tablets for Kids.
CuriosityStream
CuriosityStream is a subscription-based, video-on-demand streaming service with more than 3,000 nonfiction documentaries on subjects such as science, history, and culture. In addition to original content, it also licenses films made by production companies all over the world. It’s been hard to check out its other offerings because, for the past few weeks, my children have been riveted by the BBC nature series Walking with Dinosaurs.
CuriosityStream is available as an app on both iOS and Android devices, as well as on Roku, SlingTV, and other services. It also has a kids mode that allows parents to filter out inappropriate content.
Lunch Doodles With Mo Willems!
Children’s book writer and illustrator Mo Willems is best known in our house as the writer of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! He is currently an artist in residence at the Kennedy Center. Every day at 1 pm ET, he records a 20- to 30-minute clip that features a fun kid’s project, whether that’s playing a game or making birthday crowns. He also invites other famous friends, like Lin-Manuel Miranda and Weird Al Yankovic, to participate remotely. You can watch him live on the Kennedy Center website, and he posts the videos to YouTube afterward.
