LOUISVILLE, Ky. — “Learn This with Miss Fish” is a new educational show on YouTube geared for preschoolers. It’s hosted by Louisville entrepreneur and mom, Kennisha Fisher.
The format is meant to be a change of pace to current children’s programming and so are the topics covered.
Off camera, Fisher is someone who knows a thing or two about kids as a mom of five and owner of a newborn photography business in Louisville. So it’s fitting she’s the host of “Learn This With Miss Fish.”
“A lot of children’s programming, right now, the focus is on how to be loud and questions and all the sparkles, but what I wanted to do was really just take some time and allow kids the space,” Fisher said. She added, the space to stop, think, and process with someone holding the viewer’s hand to help guide them along the way.
The pilot episode that launched last December takes kids on the journey of baking a cake.
The adventure really takes off when Miss Fish realizes she doesn’t have eggs. That conundrum takes the host to a farm where another aspect of the show comes into play, challenging stereotypes, when she asks a farmer for help with finding eggs.
“And the first thought process that we see in children’s toys, and television, and books, a farmer is an older white guy with a beard, and he’s got his pitch fork, but Farmer Val is a younger woman with tattoos,” explained Fisher, which opens up changing the narrative for children on who a farmer is. “Some of the people that we are going to bring in as guests, people that I learn with and from, really do go outside of the norm.”
Fisher told Spectrum News 1 that her main goal for the show is to teach preschoolers that there are people living their lives the same as them, just differently. An example she gave on how to do that is to showcase the different ways people do the same activity, such as reading a story.
“And how other people may need books that have Braille, or books with large print, or read closed captioning when they watch television,” Fisher explained.
Through baking the cake another learning opportunity is brought up, patience. Fisher said future episodes will cover harder topics like such as: Why is hair different? What does consent mean? What is politics and why do adults get angry?
“So there’s ways to do that without being polarizing one way or the other, and giving parents the ability to talk within that conversation with their children, but there’s something really encouraging when a child can hear from someone who can say it on their level and say, ‘This is new, but the great thing is we have answers for it, and we are going to find out what’s that like,' ” Fisher told Spectrum News 1.
All of it is an effort to broaden a child’s world through a YouTube channel.
“That shows them there are people living a different life experience; who have the same love, and excitement, and questions that you do,” Fisher said.
The next episode of “Learn This With Miss Fish” will be released on the show’s YouTube channel this spring. The goal is to release six episodes per season with two seasons per year.
“Learn This With Miss Fish” also wants to hear from the community about questions their children are asking for coverage in future episodes. You can give your feedback on Facebook, Instagram, or email.