Podcast Corner: Five shows to entertain and educate your children
Molly Oldfield presents the Everything Under The Sun podcast for children.
With the level 5 lockdown continuing for another month, and with homeschooling parents possibly reaching their limit, here are five podcasts to entertain/inform the kids and give parents a break. If only for a little bit.
Molly Oldfield, the first question writer/QI Elf on the BBC show, hosts this zippy podcast. It's developed a large archive in just two years, with plenty to discover for both adults and children alike. It answers the weird/smart questions children ask that can trip up adults, like why do elephants have trunks and why do we daydream. It also gets interesting people to explain more difficult posers, such as three-decade skateboard designer/producer Professor Schmitt on how they were invented, and hoverboards aren't in use yet.
As someone who was caught out not doing voices while reading to a youngster over Christmas, I had newfound admiration for this show from Wardour Studios. Recommended for ages 5-105, there are shorts from South Sudan, West Africa, the Caribbean, and North America. You almost definitely haven't heard these fables before.
RTÉ's Home School Hub has been a great success and godsend over the past year on TV and there's also an audio version, with episodes spread across the week and ranging in length from three minutes to 15. There the Big Kid's Quiz with Cassie Delaney (one third of the decidedly not kid-friendly Creep Dive), 'Adventures of a Young Pirate Queen' storytelling, Math's Matters, and Five Word Fun. The latter sees helpers Harry and Daisy dip into their word pot. Can Daisy use 'dessert' in a sentence? Of course she can. "Once grandad had dessert for breakfast," she reveals.
Clocking in at a longer runtime than the other shows listed here, Brains On!, supported by American Public Media, shows the universality of information for young minds. The 'super special shot' episode about the coronavirus vaccines is admirable, while the bananas special, laden with puns ("Just goes to show bananas have great a-peel") will have everyone laughing.
We've talked before about the UK's Fun Kids network, but this show apes a current affairs panel and is aimed at ages 8+. There's the big news of the week (last week covered the protests in Russia, a Virgin Orbit jetplane successfully taking 10 satellites into space, and electric eels), debates (whether fiction is better than non-fiction), and arguably better banter than you'd get from the adults.
