100+ Best Educational Shows For Toddlers List (Good & Bad Programs)

If you’re in search of the best educational shows for toddlers or preschooler-aged children on TV or Netflix, programs that are non-stimulating, wholesome and beneficial, then chances are you may have already grown to dislike many of today’s bright and loud kids TV shows for toddlers. 

This list has many old learning shows for toddlers. If you know of more American classics, it would be great if you could let us know in the comments!

The List: 100+ Educational Shows For Toddlers

Educational Shows For Children List

NAME	URL	VERDICT	COMMENTS
Old Bear Stories	IMDb	Yes	One of our favorites.
Nature	IMDb	Yes	Up top for a reason. Not too much climate fear mongering either.
Pingu	IMDb	Yes	We love Pingu! Have only season seasons 1 and 2 so far. Both great. Entertaining, but does have moral lessons and provides honest family insights in its short episodes. Find them all on Youtube.
The Busy World of Richard Scarry	IMDb	Yes	Early seasons only, before the introductory song changes.
The Crocodile Hunter	IMDB	Yes	We love Steve Irwin. No one like him. Perfect for children.
Kipper	IMDb	Yes	Nice show, purely for entertainment, but it's wholesome and nice.
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood	IMDb	Yes	PBS. Also, you'll find full episodes on the Mr. Rogers website
Little Bear	IMDb	Yes	Find all the good episodes on Youtube.
The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends	IMDb	Yes	View an episode.
King Babar (Old ones)	IMDb	Yes	Early seasons, before King Babar become a teenager and the intro song was changed.
Original Thomas The Tank Engine	IMDb	Yes	We like the UK version one, even though we speak American English 🙂
Tumble Leaf	IMDb	Yes	A modern childrens show that's good? Tumble Leaf is a nice show for occasional entertainment that also has an educational aspect and isn't loud, annoying or demeaning. View the Pilot episode.
Aesop & Son	IMDb	Yes	Youtube has all the episodes.
The Adventures Of Tintin	IMDb	Yes	The 1991 series. Great for boys.
David the Gnome	IMDb	Yes	Great old show! I like how the language is just normal English, not super emphasized baby-talk.
Guess How Much I Love You	IMDb	Yes	Haven't watched yet, but looks like an OK children's show.
Rupert	IMDb	Yes	I'm pretty sure this is a top 10, but haven't watched it since my own childhood, so need to watch again and update its place on this list.
The Animals of Farthing Wood	IMDb	Yes	Initial 30 second glance is OK, will need to give it a proper view and update its list placement.
Mush Mush & the Mushables	IMDb	Yes	Another YES that may be better off elsewhere. We have not watched this yet, but I have a feeling it will be suitable as okay for entertainment. Here's the Official Mush Mush Youtube Channel
Mr. Bean	IMDb	Yes	A classic!
Wishbone	IMDb	Yes	I never watched this one as a kid, but it's a good one to have in the educational screen time mix.
Reading Rainbow	IMDb	Yes	Another classic PBS kids show.
Mighty Machines	IMDb	Yes	It's different. A good one to have in the mix of good educational kids shows.
The Red Green Show	IMDb	Yes
The New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh	IMDb	Yes	Disney+. One of the few from Disney I'd let my son watch are these old classic Winnie the Pooh episodes.
The Joy of Painting	IMDb	Yes	Bob Ross. Another classic personality and show that is perfectly educational.
Zoboomafoo	IMDb	Yes	Approved from a clip. We haven't watched yet. Looks nice for occasional entertainment in English that's wholesome and educational.
The Magic School Bus	IMDb	Yes	Old episodes are best.
This Old House	IMDb	Yes	The series with Roy Underhill
The Jetsons	IMDb	Yes	An American classic.
The Hardy Boys	IMDb	Yes	For older (5+) boys.
A Charlie Brown Christmas	IMDb	Yes	Another American classic. A short TV movie.
How It's Made	IMDb	Yes	Informative short documentaries. These are excellent children's educational videos.
The Tweety & Sylvester Show	IMDb	Yes	Short made for TV movie.
Around the World with Willy Fog	IMDb	Yes	Short TV Movie
Flipper	IMDb	Yes	Another American classic.
The Little Drummer Boy Book II	IMDb	Yes	A classic TV movie.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	IMDb	Yes	Only old ones. Here's the classic Intro! https://youtu.be/5bI1RscA6rE
The Flintstones	IMDb	Yes	Another classic! We haven't watched this one yet, but pretty sure it will remain here as a "Yes."
Curious George	IMDb	Yes	There's an original and then another from mid 2000's. Haven't watched the newer yet.
Schoolhouse Rock	IMDb	Yes	Every 80's and 90's public school kid in America knows Schoolhouse Rock.
Draw Squad	IMDb	Yes	Remembered this one while writing that sentence about Schoolhouse Rock. EVERY 90's kid in southern California knows Draw Squad!
Secrets of the Zoo	IMDb	Yes
Educational Video Library	YT Channel	Yes	A large mix of wonderful educational stories and videos for children. We have a separate channels list, but this one's great I wanted to include it here.
US Auto Industry	YT Channel	Yes	Another great Youtube channel. The last I'll include here on this shows list.
The Woodwrights Shop	PBS Page	Yes	A PBS show.
Spider-Man	IMDb	Yes	This is the good, original Spiderman cartoon from 1994. New Spidermans are no good. For older.
Danger Mouse	IMDb	Yes	Another classic American children's cartoon.
The Adventures of Spot	IMDb	Yes	If you watched Kipper, then this one paled in comparison. Might give it another shot sometime.
The Woody Woodpecker Show	IMDb	Yes	American classic. Need to rewatch this to see if it has any well spoken language in it. Otherwise it's another one of the classics that is OK for occasional entertainment but not much more, nor often.
Popeye the Sailor	IMDb	Yes	A classic. Every boy needs to know about Popeye! Good for very occasional entertainment.
Land Before Time	IMDb	Yes	The movie is better. It's on our best movies list.
Clifford the Big Red Dog	IMDb	Yes
Tom and Jerry	IMDb	Yes	Some great laughs we've had from the few times watching both old and new Tom and Jerry episodes (not the movie).
Percy the Park Keeper	IMDb	Yes	The 2nd show I have on the Yes list before even watching. I have a good hunch on this one. Will update.
Inspector Gadget	IMDb	Yes	Somewhat a classic. OK for occasional entertainment. Tintin way better imo.
If You Give A Mouse a Cookie	IMDb	OK	On Amazon Prime. Haven't watched yet, but from the certain reviews I'm putting it in the OK list until I watch it.
Snagglepuss	IMDb	OK	A classic.
Trash Truck	IMDb	OK	Netflix Jr. Have not watched yet, but it has good Common Sense Media Reviews, so I'm putting it on the OK list until I watch it.
The Huckleberry Hound Show	IMDb	OK	A classic.
The Smurfs	IMDb	OK	Another OK cartoon we don't watch because we simply don't watch much.
Care Bears	IMDb	OK	Care Bears is another classic cartoon. Not educational.
The Roadrunner Show	IMDb	OK	Not Educational. Ok for short periods, occasionally.
Sesame Street (Early Seasons)	IMDb	OK	Older ones slower-paced and better
Puffin Rock	IMDb	OK	Netflix Jr. Show. Only saw a clip. Will adjust ranking up or down after seeing more.
Stella and Sam	IMDb	OK	Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo6MXzS21Xc
DuckTales	IMDb	OK	For older. Oldest DuckTales best.
Stillwater	IMDb	OK	Video https://youtu.be/38xSshV0Bgg
Simon	IMDb	OK	Probably one of the better cartoons. Not educational. Not my cup of tea. But not bad.
Mighty Max	IMDb	OK	Clip I saw was OK, need to watch more to have real opinion.
Salute Your Shorts	IMDb	OK	For when older. The Intro! https://youtu.be/s-SE96Q9dDU
The Yogi Bear Show	IMDb	OK	Classic American cartoon. Good because compared to one that doesn't have any dialogue, this one uses suitable adult-level language at a level that children should learn to pick up on. If you need more exposure to regular talking instead of baby talk, which in my opinion, can't be helpful or beneficial to children. Maybe in the first few months of life, but not after that.
Veggie Tales	IMDb	OK	Might be ok for occasional entertainment that isn't horrible. Only saw a clip. Haven't gotten to this one yet. Not my type of show.
The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show	IMDb	OK	Not educational.
Hey Arnold!	IMDb	OK	Dialogue is OK and not too overly done. For older, entertainment.
Speed Racer	IMDb	OK	Ok for older preschooler boys. Not edu.
Ask The StoryBots	IMDb	OK	Might or might not be your thing. It is educational. 30min of StoryBots on YouTube.
Classical Baby	IMDb	OK	Season 1 on HBO.com I hear this one is good, so putting it on OK list until we watch.
Recess	IMDb	OK	For older. For entertainment. Not a bad Saturday morning type cartoon for older preschoolers.
Cocomelon	IMDb	NO	Garbage
Waffles and Mochi	IMDb	NO	Garbage
Octonauts	IMDb	NO	Haven't watched, but looks targeted to 2 year olds or younger - we didn't watch these types at that age, just animal vids and docs with real footage not much animation or screen time at all (infancy to toddler was mostly music, drawing, blocks, books, and a few toys).
Llama Llama	IMDb	No
Primal	IMDb	No	I've heard this is good, so I have it bookmarked. Haven't watched. I believe it is NOT for children. Hopefully will enjoy this one with my son when he's older.
Arthur	IMDb	No
I Am Groot	IMDb	No
Animaniacs	IMDb	No	Not a fan of Speilburg, and too what I'm trying to avoid.
Grizzy & the Lemmings	IMDb	No
Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum	IMDb	No
Franklin	IMDb	No	Franklin's a whiner. Turned it off pretty quick. I believe it was right in the beginning of S1 E1.
Adventure Time	IMDb	No	Definitely not for children. And it's garbage for teens (and for adults too if adults watch these?). Seems targeted to teens or young adults.
Shaun the Sheep	IMDb	No	BBC. I'm saying No because this seems like the type of show I don't like. Will update after giving it a chance one day.
Taz-Mania	IMDb	No
Caillou	IMDb	No	From memory this is a No. Will watch again to confirm and update my rating.
Bluey	IMDb	No	Entertaining cartoon that's not the most annoying based off a 30 second clip I saw of it. Placing in the No unless it ends up being better.
Elinor Wonders Why	IMDb	No
Oswald	IMDb	No
Square One Television	IMDb	TBW
Mathnet	IMDb	TBW
TaleSpin	IMDb	TBW
Thundarr the Barbarian	IMDb	TBW
Misfits of Science	IMDb	TBW
Numberblocks	IMDb	TBW	Math show for children.
Alphablocks	IMDb	TBW	Phonics learning show.
The New Adventures Of Jonny Quest	IMDb	TBW	Purely entertainment. For when older (5+)
Samurai Jack	IMDb	TBW	Have not watched. I have a hunch it's not for children, but I am not sure atm. Will update.
Mysterious Cities of Gold	IMDb	TBW	I don't know anime, but hear this one's good.
Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood	IMDb	No	We never watched this one or those geared at infants/young toddlers. Busy World was where we started.
Dragon Tales	IMDb	TBW	For older. Episode 1 on Youtube.
Swiss Family Robinson	IMDb	TBW	1 series
The Secret Squirrel Show	IMDb	TBW
The Raccoons	IMDb	TBW
The Amazing Adventures of Morph	IMDb	TBW
The Wombles	IMDb	TBW
Lucky Luke	IMDb	TBW	Old kids show, not the movie.
Pat & Mat	IMDb	TBW
Professor Balthazar	IMDb	TBW
The Great Grape Ape Show	IMDb	TBW
The Wonderful Adventures of Nils	IMDb	TBW
Maya	IMDb	TBW	This one I think will be OK or a Yes for a cartoon.
Paddington Bear	IMDb	TBW
Art Attack	IMDb	TBW	Have never watched this. No idea what it will be. I just read 1 review that recommended it.
Postman Pat	IMDb	TBW
Fraggle Rock	IMDb	TBW	I've heard good things as far as educational show for toddlers, but have not watched this one yet.
Droopy: Master Detective	IMDb	TBW	I remember this one slightly. Just a cartoon. Might be OK for mindless entertainment from what I remember. Inspector Gadget is better.
Jabberjaw	IMDb	TBW	Somewhat a classic.

Educational Toddler TV Shows List PDF Download

It would be easiest to have this shared in a spreadsheet or PDF. For now I’ll get a PDF download of this list up here in the near future.

Keep in mind this is a very subjective list and I made judgements based on my personal preferences for my son. The list might be different if I had a daughter. Or maybe it’d be the same and I’d share with her the original Ninja Turtles? Haven’t ever thought about it.

But all the first TV shows up top on this list marked “Yes” would be the same, Old Bear Stories, Nature, Pingu, Mr. Rodgers, Kipper, etc.

These 5 I just mentioned our some of our favorites. Within those educational shows for toddlers and preschooler children I do allow him to watch, he does have his favorites and I grant his special requests on videos days.

What’s On This Best TV For Kids List?

This isn’t your usual best educational shows for toddlers list. But over time this list will get added to and might be better. I might just drop all the “No” shows from the list and keep it to approved (“Yes”) and prospective (“TBW”) shows only.

This list has both new and old kids tv shows, nature shows for kids, music videos and other educational videos, learning shows and cartoons for toddlers. You will not find many shows like Blippi on this list as we tend to avoid these Pee Wee Herman/Blues Clues guy type character led children’s shows. Steve Irwin however, is #1 around here. We watch random videos downloaded from Youtube, but if he has a series on IMDB it will be added.

• Nature documentary shows
• Host-driven character shows
• Educational cartoons for toddlers
• Good stop frame animation
• Good stop motion animation (Pingu is a computer generated claymation)
• Educational children’s shows from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s up to today.
• Some of the good, popular shows of the past several decades.

On all these you’ll need to watch for degeneration. Some shows go bad in later seasons. I try to link to the proper season IMDB if it ever has them split off.

Children Show Average Age Brackets

For your general information, and in case it may be useful when browsing other children’s educational shows, here is what these age ranges are called:

• Infant: Birth to 1 year old
• Toddler: 1 to 3 years old (some say to 2)
• Preschoolers: 3 to 6 years old
• School-aged children: 6 to 12 years old
• Adolescent children: 12 to 18 years old

A quality educational show for toddlers, one made of substance, should be enjoyable for anyone of any age – child, teen or adult.

Modern vs Old Kids TV Shows

You may find that you enjoy older educational shows for children. There seems to have been more good during the 80’s and 90’s. Most old kids TV shows still have a good sense of morality.

Introduce Old Kids Shows Before New

The order of introduction is simple a personal preference. I assume a child can be spoiled with 4K/HD to the point where they’d even be disappointed with 480p video, even its perfectly fine and able to be watched. I’m at the point of mixing these up, and also some older shows, like Mister Rogers and Thomas The Tank Engine, have been remastered and look great.

As long as the dialogue is clearly audible, the good old educational shows for children are still great to watch, even if it’s as low as 360p or 480p.

What about modern educational shows for toddlers?

Are there any good NEW kids TV shows? 

With modern toddler shows, the only thing you can guarantee is a good amount of computer-generated animation (Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) for video graphics is known as “CGI animation”). And if it’s a live-action show (real people, not an animation), silly bright outfits and loud, whiny characters and sound effects. These types of live action shows with goofy main characters can be good, but most of them out there you’ll come across when browsing are not. It would not surprise me to see characters wearing face masks as if it were normal in any of today’s popular educational programs, for example. This puts the idea together in a nutshell. Classic, timeless educational shows for toddlers for the most part are not mixing in social issues. They’re educational programs not actual social programming shows. Whether real, cartoon, CGI or puppet, these modern kids shows all have that same weird production style and feel.

View our article 5 Reasons To Avoid Screen Time & Most Kids TV Shows for more on this subject.

What I’m now finding is that there may perhaps be some good modern educational children’s programs. Tumble Leaf is one of these good new ones.

There is good CGI too. All those strange CGI children youtube channels have given this type of animation a bad name, but there is CGI that is enjoyable.

For example, we very much enjoyed a short computer animated film called, The Fox And The Bird. 

Watch The Fox And The Bird in its entirety on Youtube:

The Benefits Of Educational Kids TV Shows

• It’s a different take on children stories that hopefully they first learn from on books
• It could help visual learners as a learning tool
• Learn traditional sayings and classic jokes
• Helps learn the usage of metaphors, similes and other proper language usage
• Helpful for English as First Language children living abroad.

For Americans abroad, being raised outside of English speaking countries at least part time, traditional programs like Mr. Rogers or American Tall Tales for example, and others that are wholesome and educational are very beneficial for the screen-time days. They give you a taste of traditional American culture which is different than anywhere else abroad.

• Increases listening comprehension abilities
• Increases vocabulary and thus the ability to express thoughts
• For busy parents: Nap in peace knowing wholesome content is on the screen
• Helpful for ESL children

SUMMARY

This list of shows is a work in progress. There is enough on it to make it a useful resource now, but it will be updated periodically.

If you’re looking for an alternative to Cocomelon, this list should have something better to replace it with. If you’re looking for toddler shows that aren’t annoying, the few on this list we like better than the Blippi, Coco Melons and PAW Patrol type shows. 

We’re content with what we have and don’t need to keep looking, but if there are some good ones out there I should know about, I’ll add them to this list if anyone lets me know or I come across it. 

What do you think? Have any good learning shows for toddlers to add to the list?

Do you know of any educational shows for toddlers that I should have on this list?

Are they on youtube or available online somewhere?

Would be great to know and add to this list!

I might have to split off the YouTube channels and series and make that a separate list. 

Thanks for coming by our blog.

Next Up: 5 Reasons To Limit Screen Time For Children