Interactive, Educational Podcast for Children Started by Toby Underwood.

‘Mind Magicians’ podcast started to educate and entertain children during lockdown.

By Lauren Forester

Actor, Toby Underwood has created a podcast called ‘Mind Magicians’ to enhance children’s learning from home. The podcast features drama exercises that follow a narrative to improve children’s vocabulary and listening and decision making skills.

The podcast was created because Underwood wanted to help parents working from home and homeschooling their children to give their children a fun and educational activity than can run alongside their regular schoolwork. The benefits of educating children with a podcast over a YouTube video is that it encourages children to fully immerse themselves in their imagination. As podcasts are purely auditory children must create the visuals from the immersive story in their own mind.

Underwood also thought a podcast would be better than an educational video or Zoom class as it removes the barrier of feeling like they’re being taught. The children are in their own home which is important because it allows them to feel safe in their own space where they can really be themselves and push the boundaries of their imaginations.

Each podcast follows a different theme and has a different setting such as medieval England or on a spaceship where the children create their own character who has a task to do. Such tasks include climbing the world’s tallest mountain or sailing across the seas to rescue someone. Children are also encouraged to use their environment to their advantage, such as using a cushion and the steering wheel of their pirate ship.

To find episodes and updates, follow the link to Toby Underwood’s ‘Mind Magicians’ Facebook page.

Listen to Toby Underwood talk more about Mind Magicians in the interview below!