· YouTube
Analyzed by KidSight
WHAT IT MEANS AT EACH AGE
0–2
Too young
Every episode reads as poor at this age, and none of that is about safety. The talking runs at ordinary conversational speed, with no slowing down and no repeating. Most episodes are an explanation rather than a story, so there is no plot for a two-year-old to hold on to. What is left for them is a friendly face and some footage of animals. They will watch it happily. They are watching the animals and the movement, not the answer.
3–5
A little young
Nothing drops out at this age. Almost every episode reads as acceptable, and only a handful are a genuine fit. A four-year-old follows the filmed footage easily enough, and the pace stays even the whole way through. What sits above them is the explanation, which is most of the episode and leans on words that arrive later. They get the animal. They miss why it does what it does.
6–8
Good fit
This is the age it fits. All but one episode is a genuine fit here. An episode runs about eight minutes and stays on a single question the whole way, which is about the length a seven-year-old will sit for. The words land at age level, and the explanation is the episode rather than a lesson tacked on at the end. A seven-year-old gets the whole answer, start to finish, in one sitting.
9–10
A little old
It keeps working at age nine. A handful of episodes are still a genuine fit, and nearly all the rest read as fine rather than a draw. The explanations stop at the first answer, and a nine-year-old is usually onto the next question by then. Nothing in it is a problem at this age. It has just been outgrown a little.
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
Wild animals
How machines work
Space
WHAT IT TEACHES
Curiosity about how things work
Facts worth keeping
Thinking it through
WHAT TO KNOW
Regular prompts to subscribe and comment
SUMMARY
Curiosity about how things work comes through in every SciShow Kids episode, and comes through strongly in all but one. Facts worth keeping and thinking an answer through follow behind it. Episodes are short, most finishing inside ten minutes. Each one holds a single question the whole way, so it gets asked and answered before anyone gets restless. What the show gives up for that is story. There is almost no plot to follow, and very little going on between the characters. The question has to carry the episode on its own. At age seven it does, and that is the trade for being an explanation rather than a story.
