For parents whose cultural experiences are largely filtered through their crying toddlers’ demands to watch the same thing over and over, the last four months have felt long. In late October last year, Rachel Accurso released “Brush Your Teeth Song with Ms Rachel and Elmo.” With 48 million views, it’s a solid addition to the Ms Rachel collection, certainly enhanced by Elmo’s appearance. However, it reused clips from earlier videos, like “The Wheels on the Bus” from Blippi & Ms Rachel Learn Vehicles and “It’s Potty Time” from Potty Training With Ms Rachel. There’s only so many times an adult can watch a bear puppet in a diaper celebrating using the potty, and Ms Rachel’s fans are eager for something new.
Enter Learn With Ms Rachel – Friendship & Social Skills, released on Friday. This hour-long special features the star of modern children’s edutainment helping her guests “model important social skills such as kindness, taking turns, sharing, asking a friend to play, and helping others.” A quick look at any Ms Rachel subreddit shows the significance of this release. Or you could just ask my two-year-old.
But this new video is more than just fresh content for eager toddlers. It’s Accurso’s first full-length effort to blend her advocacy for the rights of Palestinian children—to play and even to live—with the cheerful, musical style of her work. Some critics argue that kids’ entertainment should be free of politics, a distraction while making dinner. Ms Rachel has considered that and decided otherwise.
After a short opening where we share pretend ice cream, a doorbell rings: “Rahaf’s here!” The scene cuts to Ms Rachel sitting on the floor with a sweet, button-nosed three-year-old on her lap. Rahaf is incredibly cute and also a double amputee. The video doesn’t mention that she lost her legs in an Israeli airstrike on her home in Gaza. Her mother brought her to the U.S. for surgery, but her father and two brothers couldn’t join them. Previous news images of Rahaf in hospital hint at her family’s trauma, but here she is, pretending to nap with the rabbits in “Hop Little Bunnies,” bouncing happily when they wake up, then throwing herself back into Ms Rachel’s arms.
Accurso has always emphasized wanting every child to have the same freedom she envisions for Rahaf, and the rest of the episode demonstrates this. We learn to say hello in Arabic, Hebrew, Spanish, French, Tagalog, and American Sign Language. An anxious puppet named Frankie is reassured that his purple skin doesn’t make him an outsider. The video features children with physical and intellectual disabilities, a wheelchair swing, and a video call with Zach, who uses a communication device to say, “Hi, Ms Rachel. I love you.” None of these children are treated as spectacles; they simply belong in the classroom, and that’s that.
The overall effect is a broad, inclusive vision of who gets to play and be cared for. There’s something both funny and touching in Accurso’s unwavering commitment to this inclusivity, with each new scene offering another spin on the “woke tombola.” Thought the multilingual greetings were something? Wait until you hear this Palestinian musician play the qanun!
Ms Rachel isn’t the first to move beyond the stiff, limited programming of older children’s shows like Watch With Mother. In a remarkable 1981 episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Fred Rogers met Jeff Erlanger, a boy in a wheelchair, for a heartfelt conversation about friendship and differences.Anger, a 10-year-old wheelchair user, shared how his recent surgery had affected him, explaining that stories lifted his spirits when he felt down, and he sang his host’s most famous song, “It’s You I Like.” In the BBC’s outstanding show Something Special, Mr. Tumble (Justin Fletcher) puts disabled and neurodiverse children at the heart of the program. Similarly, Sesame Street broke new ground by making “the four-year-old inner-city black child” its primary audience from the start.
Yet, Accurso is doing something truly radical in today’s landscape. Children like Rahaf and Jeff are still largely missing from mainstream media. Much of the low-quality content aimed at kids on YouTube seems to be created by those who view it mainly as a business opportunity—take the creator of the infamous Blippi, formerly known as Steezy Grossman, a shock comedian who gained notoriety for defecating on a naked collaborator.
In contrast, Accurso has worked at a summer camp for disabled children, taught refugee children in Maine, and spent years as a preschool music teacher. Those who might dismiss her as just another symptom of so-called “wokeness” must also acknowledge that the children who adore her are captivated for a reason. Her show Friendship & Social Skills implies that if a toddler can grasp that harming children is wrong, it isn’t a sign of simplistic thinking—it’s proof of a fundamental truth.
A conservative estimate puts Ms. Rachel’s total views at 13.5 billion. As impressive as that is, the number reflects not just algorithmic success but the trust parents place in her. They know she offers their children—and children like Rahaf, at least for a little while—delight, warmth, and above all, safety. Learn With Ms Rachel is available on YouTube.
Frequently Asked Questions
Of course Here is a list of FAQs about Learn With Ms Rachel framed as the highly anticipated event it has become for many families
General Beginner Questions
Q What exactly is Learn With Ms Rachel
A Its a popular YouTube channel and streaming show created by Rachel Griffin Accurso a certified teacher It uses songs play and simple lessons to help toddlers and young children learn speech language social skills and preschool fundamentals
Q Why is it called the TV event of the year for so many families
A For parents of young children finding engaging educational content that their child actually loves and learns from is a huge win Ms Rachel has become a trusted goto resource that provides a break for parents while being genuinely beneficial for kids making new episodes or discoveries feel like a big deal
Q What age group is it best for
A Its primarily aimed at children ages 14 but many younger babies enjoy the music and older preschoolers still find the content fun and reinforcing
Q Is Ms Rachel a real teacher
A Yes Ms Rachel is a certified early childhood educator with a background in music education She also studied child development and speech pathology techniques to help her own child which informs her teaching style
Q Where can I watch it
A The main library of videos is free on her Songs for Littles YouTube channel Some content is also available on streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video
Benefits Content Questions
Q What are the main benefits for my child
A The show is designed to encourage language development teach socialemotional skills and introduce preschool concepts in a slow engaging and repetitive way
Q How is it different from other kids shows
A Ms Rachel speaks directly to the camera as if shes talking oneonone with your child using parentese and pausing for responses Its less about fastpaced cartoons and more about mimicking an interactive learning session
Q What kind of topics does she cover
A Topics range from First Words for Babies and
