The Best TV Shows To Watch With Your Kids That Won’t Drive You Crazy

This Disney kids’s TV offering follows the titular six-year-old as she cares for various toys in her playhouse doctor’s office. Of course, the characters magically come to life for her and us as she is transported into a whole world that belongs to her and her stuffed friends. It’s a great way to show children the power of imagination while also helping them see medical professionals as kind helpers and friends.

Plus, the series is well-acted, gentle, and comforting to view for both kids and adults. Your kids won’t be listening to irritating sounds or voices and they’ll be acting out caregiving in their play.

Before Lily Tomlin was chasing after Tom Brady with Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, and Sally Field, she was Ms. Frizzle for us as kids on the classic TV adaptation of the Magic School Bus books. Now SNL alum Kate McKinnon has taken over as her younger sister and there’s a new class of kids exploring the natural world and making scientific discoveries in the same wacky, physics-bending mystical transport vehicle. The new series has all the whimsy and curiosity of the original with up-to-date science and technology.

McKinnon matches Tomlin’s energy and spark beautifully, and old-school Bus fans will love hearing Tomlin again as the older Ms. Frizzle makes cameos each episode while on various adventures of her own.

If your kids are going to watch TV, they might as well watch something clever and entertaining that you can enjoy too, and this series is just the ticket. There are several StoryBots series on Netflix from the good folks at JibJab, who bring to the animation their quirky humor and genuine curiosity. The songs in this series, which cover all sorts of scientific topics, are upbeat, fun, and funny, packed with enough intelligent lyrical humor for a Weird Al album.

Delightful for kids and adults, this series follows goofy robots as they explore the world and share their discoveries. The songs will stick in your head and you won’t mind a bit.

Puffin Rock is among the best of what kids’ TV can be, with soft music, engaging and gentle stories, and characters so adorable you’ll delight in the cuteness. Disarming and cozy, this animated show is based on the real Puffin Island, just off the coast of Ireland, with the lilting accents of its actors providing a sense of place and lovely listening. Not only does the show explore nature facts, but it shows healthy family dynamics as well that can be an aid to parents learning how to respond to various situations with young children.

It’s a great way for parents and kids to chill out and learn a little something in the process.

If you’ve got a kid who loves dinosaurs (and many parents do), this is a TV offering that will pique their interest while also teaching you a thing or two about prehistoric wildlife. Because, after all, don’t most of us still like dinosaurs too? Dino Dana is a young aspiring paleontologist who can see dinosaurs in her everyday world and conducts experiments to learn about their behavior.

It’s the same power that was granted to the original Dino Dan and his little brother Trek, who both previously had their own series and sometimes show up here. The stories are interesting, the animation of the dinosaurs is pretty cool, and the detailed information about them is fascinating.

This “wildly” popular kids’ TV series from PBS Kids follows animated versions of the real-life Kratt brothers (who you might remember as the hosts of Zoboomafoo and Kratts’ Creatures) as they use their creature suits to take on the forms and abilities of various animals to learn more about them and rescue them from a devious cast of villains. Aboard their turtle-shaped ship, The Tortuga, the brothers traverse the world with their friends Aviva, Koki, and Jimmy Z, who provide support as they explore the world and work their way out of precarious situations. Each episode is written, directed, voiced, and introduced by the real-life Kratt brothers, who show us the animals we learn about in their natural habitats.

If you and your kids are in the mood for some undersea TV adventures, you’ll enjoy this fun and educational series that functions a bit like Star Trek in the ocean. Polar bear Captain Barnacles leads the crew of animal explorers through the depths to seek out oceanic life and new discoveries, sometimes venturing to the deepest parts of the ocean. The characters are cute and the stories are accessible with lots of adventure, but the seemingly sci-fi sea creatures are all real, no matter how weird and impossible they may at times seem. 

Learning about and seeing the real creatures at the end of each episode is genuinely fascinating and you’ll get to enjoy the hijinks of the vegimals. Trust us; they’re adorable.

Can you tell us how to get a better educational kids’ TV show? We all learned our letters, numbers, and social consciousness from the human and puppet denizens of Sesame Street, and they continue to delight, educate, and encourage kids today. The show also has a ton of variety with lots of different segments, and there is always a string of celebrity guests stars parents will relate to and enjoy.

Anne Hathaway is even trying to get a Sesame Street movie made, and we hope she succeeds. From Follow That Bird to Elmo in Grouchland, this series has spun off movies that have delighted kids and parents alike.

This Australian series is animated kids’ TV at its finest, with a ton of love and care put in as it follows the adventures of Bluey, a blue dog and her family—Mom Chili, Dad Bandit, and little sister Bingo—as they learn all about the everyday adventures of childhood, family conflict, and developing responsibility. As an added bonus, Buey’s parents subtly provide some great examples of parenting with kindness, listening, and patience for the adults who are watching. Plus, the series is gentle, sweet, and endlessly watchable, no matter your age or attention span.

We also think it’s so sweet that, according to Wikipedia, the children in the series are voiced by the children of the production crew.