I’m self admittedly a bit of a podcast junkie. I generally listen to podcasts every day.
You must be thinking that I have a lot of extra time on my hands. I assure you, I do not. However, I hate being bored and I find tasks like doing my hair and cooking terribly boring. My fix is to connect to my Bluetooth speaker and listen to podcasts. I love learning, I love challenging my thoughts and I love not being bored.
Listening without visual stimulus is also a fantastic activity for kids and activates their brains in different ways than watching a TV or playing an app. It also strengthens their ability to use their imagination to picture what they are hearing. For this reason I also love podcasts for kids, and my kids love them too.
All podcasts are unfortunately not created equal and in world of digital overload I still like to hear recommendations on tried and true, good quality content. That’s why I’m going to share a few of our family’s favourite podcasts.
Quite easily my kids’ favourite podcast series is the Story Pirates. They take stories that are written and sent in by young elementary kids and adapt them into radio plays. First off, the original stories are funny. Pretty much anything written by a five-year-old and read by an adult is funny.
The adaptations are also quite hilarious and ridiculous. The cast uses amusing accents, lots of sound effects and also throws in the odd crazy song. We always download the new ones to listen to on road trips, or throw one on in the afternoon when the kids are asking for screen time. I highly recommend this one.
Another great one is Brains On. This one is a nonfiction science podcast geared for kids. It takes a question and explores it scientifically throughout the episode. The last one we listened to was about mosquitoes and I totally learned a few new things too. It’s easy to understand and interesting to listen to.
Those are two to get you started. Enjoy.
