I know it can be a sticky subject with some families about the Pros and cons of kids watching TV but we are trying to use our TV as a tool to help us learn. Our satalite has DVR and I try to record educational TV programs. I have found some great programs on A&E BIO, History, &PBS I was wondering if anyone else keeps an eye out for educational TV and what you might be watching. My kids really like the how it's made series and I have found biographies on Amelia Earhart, Hellen Keller and others the history channel has a cartoon called Liberty kids that is really good.

So what do you watch??

angel

I love using what we call Video Education. My Boys particularly like Cartoons so we Tivo of of DTV. jane and the Dragon, liberty's kids, prehistoric planet,. We also like How its made, how it works, all types of animal planet  stuff especially the wild kingdoms, History, Bio, BBC, Science, PBS all get a lot of time on our Screen. I am lucky in that with my boys I can use the Tv as a way to intro new ideas/concepts and then thay will turn off the tv and go research/read about it.

Great Topic! I can't wait to see what others post.

LAdystyx

Thanks for your input I forgot all about animal planet I will have to check their schedule and see what to record from them.

Believe it or not we still watch Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.  My children are 7, 5 & 2.   

Our PBS station also airs Signing Time which I've recorded most of the programs.

My daughter has loved "Unwrapped" on the Food Channel since she was 4!  It is a food version of How It's Made.

wow i bet my girls would love unwrapped  thanks

I don't think i've heard of singing time what is it like?

My 12 yo dd likes to watch the "How It's Made" program also. She also likes to watch cooking shows.

Way back when PBS ran Liberty's Kids we watched every episode.  :)  Now we enjoy Ruff Ruffman's new "game show"--even though my daughter is a little old for it.  We also like Dragonfly TV.  (We usually catch it when the teacher programming runs--see below--but I think it's on Saturday mornings on network tv also.)

Our local PBS station here in Cincinnati runs special educational programming during the day for teachers to record and use in class.  (The web site for that is www.cetconnect.org)  Check to see if your PBS station has something like that set up--you'll probably find it linked on their website.  We've found some wonderful programs for just about every age group.

my girls like sunrise earth on the discovery channel, doesn't say anything but shows them some neat places/things and its pretty to wake up to

We don't have cable, but when we have it in hotels, we love MythBusters.  We check out the DVD's from the library.  I've also rec'd some from Swap A DVD.  There are many episodes on Cosmeo, so DS watches them there also.

My son loves PBS shows.  He's watched CyberChase since it started.  They have an awesome website. 

He misses Dragonfly TV in our new city.  Thankfully we copied some to VHS at our old home.

He loves Fetch now, which sort of fills in the void left by DragonflyTV (episodes are online).

On April 2nd, the new season of Design Squad starts (on our station anyway).  They have an awesome website, too, with webisodes.

We watched Liberty's Kids when it was on PBS.  I wish I'd taped it b/c now we're starting a 2-yr American History rotation after 4 yrs of world history.

We also love Nature, Nova, Wired Science, and Globetrekker on "regualar PBS".

On TBN, we love Travel the Road and Drive Thru History (they're now doing the American series).  We have all the DTH DVD's and the first season of Travel the Road.  I believe DTH is also shown on the History Channel.

I mentioned Cosmeo earlier.  On there DS LOVES the Standard Deviants videos.  Our library system, sadly, only has a handful of them.  I've also rec'd a ton of them from SwapADVD.

I think that's about all!  :-)

My boys are 7 and 10. Cyberchase was and still is a favorite. They have seen all the Magic School Bus episodes over and over. They used to watch Zoom too.

Currently Mythbusters is a favorite of the boy who likes to know how things work.

We also enjoy reality shows like Deadly Catch (about the jobs of Alaskan crab fisherman). A new series just began Ax Men about foresters in Oregon but it is bugging us that the show is a total copy of Deadly Catch, and a bit exaggerated "the most dangerous job inthe world" when the same thing is said of Deadly Catch.

The Planets is great. The biography channel also has biographies for kids, but they are a bit dumbed down.

There is so much on TV we don't have time for it all.

Oh and our DirecTV and DVR also can record the NASA channel that shows live coverage of what is happening in space.

I should also say that we watch food TV channel. We like to cook healthy foods here and cook from scratch, slow food stuff. And so I consider this educational. The kids love Iron Chef, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, Ace of Cakes and Unwrapped. Unwrapped shows how companies invented food and how they manufacture it (in the factory) and tel the history of the food. We also like some other shows that go to regional areas and tell of the food in that place. I can't recall the name of the one that was hosted by Alton Brown. And of course, Good Eats with Alton Brown.

There are also some good craft and arts shows on DIY and HGTV network. One series is a serious pottery craftsman who shows how to do all that hard work. The kids are mesmerized by that show. We often will watch the shows then make the crafts.

When we had netflix i got the standard deviants videos the kids did enjoy them but the ship and recieve time was too long so it wasn't worth while for us to keep paying for. We live way out in the middle of nowhere so slow postal is norm so I talked dear hubby into getting the satalite and DVR for educational shows.

 Wow i'm loving all the ideas you have given DIY is another one i haven't thought of my kids love to craft and you are right about not enough time for it all but I do like to keep variety of things on DVR.

the girls love mythbusters almost as much as Hannah montana. kinda funny what keeps their intrest.

My kids always loved Magic School Bus, but the videos are better than on TV because often the networks skip over the stuff at the end where the kids call the "producer" and point out errors, and IMHO that's the best part!  ;)  We don't get much educational TV over here on AFN, but my kids do love to watch the home improvement shows with dad when they are on (must be a boy thing LOL).

My teen uses movies quite a bit as supplements to his learning.  We have the old book "History Goes to the Movies" that rates them on historical accuracy; some books/curricula we have used have "suggested viewing" sections; and we've also watched movie versions of a couple of novels (like Little Women) because my son is such a slow reader...

LIberty's Kids comes on our Fox network, so you might want to do a search for it other than on PBS.    And don't forget Wishbone, the time-traveling dog on PBS.  There's a bit of history there, too.

My girls also love the Noggin channel, which likes to call itself "preschool on TV".  I don't know how true that is, but I have heard them spit out some interesting information they got from it.

I forgot one of our favorite programs. Between the lions.

great for all sort of reading and language arts education.

ladystyx

Kim

I would be very intrested in a list of the programs you bought for the 50 states.

angel