My List of Educational Shows for Homeschooling – Educational Shows and Websites for Learning at Home

Often parents, but especially moms are worn-out, stressed, and busy.  Add homeschooling, and it can spin out of control with each minute adding more stress, more obligation, more guilt, more sense of urgency, more needs, more wants, more decisions, more noise… This is where educational shows for homeschooling come in.

Sometimes life happens, and keeps happening, and I need the kids appropriately occupied so I can batten down the hatches and prevent the ship from sinking.  #momtruth. 

Sometimes we need to breathe.  Sometimes we need to find something we can all enjoy learning together.  Sometimes we need a change of scenery to refresh our senses and sensibilities.

I use educational shows media as my oxygen mask.  I know, I know, there is a lot of debate about screen time.  Heck, there’s a lot of debate about virtually every aspect of parenting (see the first paragraph).  I’m not here to debate the virtues versus pitfalls of screen time.  You’ve likely already decided the role that screens will have in your family’s life.

So, assuming that you’re interested in some productive screen time, here is my current list of movies, shows, websites and youtube channels that I consider educational shows for homeschooling.  Over time, my children have been newborn now through a precocious 12 years old, so this represents a range of ages and interests.

Grab a snuggly spot, a drink, a bowl of popcorn, and enjoy some calm time together.

Bonus: Plan a trip to the library, or hit the internet to pursue any new interests your education shows for homeschooling conjure up.  Hit-up Pinterest for a fun, associated craft or outdoor activity tomorrow.

Chances are, you’ll be much more ready for some high intensity interest pursuit and creative learning scenarios after relaxing for a bit.

Even if you aren’t homeschooling, all parents have times when they’d like their children productively occupied.  So let’s get to it!

**A note: Foreign Language movies means any movie in a language you’re learning.  If it’s Spanish, consider switching the language on your kids’ favorite movie – the one that they already know the plot and dialogue for – to Spanish.  Or, next time you’re doing an amazon shopping spree, pick up a kid’s movie in your foreign language of choice.  We happen to have some favorites and preschool shows in Japanese.

DISCLAIMER: we have not watched everything on this list (or everything on every website or YouTube channel).  Always stay nearby, peek over shoulders, and use your own parental discretion for choosing what is best for your children.  And, I cannot guarantee that any of these will be offered at the time that you are reading this.  Selections are always changing.  This was last updated 3/20/2020.

 

 

TELL ME!  What are your favorite shows for learning at home? Or, YouTube channels, apps, websites… ?  We are always looking for new ideas!

>> You might also like Our Favorite Resources for Teaching Financial Literacy to Kids

DVD’s

Foreign Language Movies
Brother Francis
Leap Frog Movies
Liberty’s Kids
Magic School Bus (this is also often available on

AMAZON PRIME (You can try Prime for FREE for 30-days.  Click here.)

 

 

Bubble Guppies
The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That
Castle Builders
Creative Galaxy
Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood
Dino Dan
Dino Dana
Dinosaur Train
How the Universe Works
Empires
Leo the Wildlife Ranger
Nature Cat
NOVA
Odd Squad
Ready Jet Go!
The Real Adam Smith
Secrets of the Universe
Sesame Street
Team Umizoomi
Wild Kratts
Word World

HULU

Sesame Street
Curious George TV Series
Mythbusters
Dot
Go Eco

NETFLIX

The Cat in the Hat… knows a lot about that
Justin Time
Octonauts
Magic School  Bus
Our Planet
Dino Hunt
Story Bots

YOUTUBE

Absolute Genius
Modern Marvels
How it’s Made
Socratica Studios
Smarter Every Day
Numberphile
WowMath
Veritasium
Whiz Kids
Sick Science
TedEducation
Hoopla KidzLab
Yo Kids
Little Einsteins
Mysteries at the Museum
Dogs with Jobs
Signing Time
Wild Kratts
Bill Nye the Science Guy
National Geographic: We particularly like Brain Games, and Street Genius, if you can find the full episodes.

WEBSITES

www.neok12.com has all sort of short educational videos
Khan Academy is great for learning math any age, now has a selection even for the littlest learners!  Plus there are free classes for older kids in almost any subject.  My oldest 2 like the programming series.
TinkerCAD – make things to print with a 3D printer!  Call your local library system to see if a 3D printer is available near you.
Canva.com – simple graphic design platform
Brain Pop has games and lessons and all sorts of fun

CODING/COMPUTER PROGRAMMING WEBSITES

Code.org
Codecademy.com
Scratch.mit.edu
Codeavengers.com
Alice.org
Htmldog.com
Codingbat.com
Rubymonk.com
codeschool.com
Trypython.org
EdX Computer Science

APPS

Chess
Memory
Mastermind
Khan Academy
Dragon Box
Stack the States

I’d love to hear what educational shows for homeschooling your family loves.  Please share with all of us below…

>> You might also like our favorite small, educational games for $10 or less!

Wishing you all the simple things,
Zara