How to Teach Your Child or Toddler with You Tube

It’s never too early to fall in love with learning. A collection of educational videos on You Tube will provide a fun and relaxing ‘classroom’ for children of any age. Give your toddler a head-start with new and classic alphabet and counting videos. Take a walk down memory lane with classics from Sesame Street and The Electric Company. Sing together. Laugh together. Learn together. Bond.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Internet Connection

1. Register a You Tube account. ~ With a You Tube account, you don’t have to search for your favorite videos every time you and your child want to learn. You Tube will allow you to save direct links to your favorite videos. This will enable you to build a ‘classroom’ of your favorite subjects and videos.
2. Search ~ Near the top of your screen, directly below the set of browsing tabs, is a search engine. Enter keywords for the types of videos you are looking for. Example: “Sesame Street Alphabet”. These keywords will provide you with a list of Sesame Street videos that teach the alphabet. “Videos” should be preselected in the drop-down menu that follows the keyword entry area. Then, click “search”.
3. Browse ~ Browse through the search results provided. If you find a video that interests you, select it by clicking on the accompanying image. NOTE: If none of the results suit your interests, narrow or broaden your key words and search again.
4. View ~ When the viewing screen loads, a large media player will appear on the left hand of the screen. The video will begin playing on its own. NOTE: You may wish to pause the video until all the data has been transferred. This will prevent annoying pauses as the video plays. In the bottom left-hand corner of the media player click on the pause button (the one with two vertical bars). The data transfer is complete when the transfer progress bar above the media player’s controls panel is completely red. Then, begin play again by clicking the Play button (arrow pointing right).
5. Favorites ~ When you find a video you and your child love, save a direct link to it by clicking the “Favorite” tab below the media player. This is how you will begin building your child’s virtual ‘classroom’. You can add a new video to the ‘classroom’ in this way whenever you find a new video you like.
6. Go to Class ~ For all future visits, you can access your ‘classroom’ by logging into your You Tube account. Once logged in, click on your user name which will appear just right of center at the top of the screen. Once your ‘classroom’ appears, you can view any lesson by clicking on it’s icon.

Tips & Warnings

• Avoid browsing for videos by category. This method produces more pornography than educational material.