Photo by AltF Tools.

You don’t need professional cameras or advanced editing skills to make excellent family videos with your children. With a phone and a few simple tools, parents can turn ordinary moments into small creative projects.

In my opinion, when your children are under 10, the best thing to do is let them take part in the creative process while you handle the accounts, uploads, privacy settings, and final sharing.

Google Photos is likely the best place to start; when celebrating a birthday, going on a weekend trip, doing something with your family, or visiting during a holiday, take photos and short videos, then turn them into a brief highlight video. It is especially effective if you want to make memories without spending a lot of time editing.

iMovie is excellent for creating a real family movie; you and your child can make a cooking program, record a science experiment, produce a short documentary on a family trip, add voiceovers, or even try green screen effects. iMovie’s storyboarding feature can also help you decide which shots to record before you begin filming.

Canva is useful when the video focuses on storytelling; ask your child to draw characters, photograph the drawings, add text and narration, and then turn them into a simple animated story. Parents can also use the program’s video and AI features to add backgrounds, transitions, music, and other visual elements.

If you want a more fun approach, CapCut is a good choice. By using short clips, captions, sound effects, transitions, varying speed, and creative effects, ordinary family videos can become much more entertaining. For younger children, it is better to have the parent handle editing and account management rather than giving them independent access.

Another useful option is Adobe Express, which lets you combine photos, video, text, graphics, and narration. The child could explain their favorite animal, show a LEGO project, tell a story, or present something they have learned, while the parent puts all this together into a short video.

What you need to realize is that the aim doesn’t have to be to produce content for social media; instead, you could make a one-minute family news program every Sunday, a monthly video diary, a movie based on your child’s drawings, a cooking series with your grandparents, or a private ‘year in review’ which you keep for your family.

A rule I should follow with all of these tools is to consider privacy first when it comes to creativity. Avoid displaying home addresses, school names, location information, or any other images of children without permission. For younger children, I would also keep AI uploads and any public sharing under their parents’ direct control.

Technology tends to turn into passive screen time, but if used differently, the same phone or tablet can serve as a camera, an editing studio, a storytelling tool, and an opportunity for parents and children to create together.