The Kratt brothers’ first show, from PBS, with lots of real footage of animals in their habitats. You can find many episodes online.

Great for older kids: chemistry, physics, engineering and the scientific method, without them realizing how much they are learning. They predict, test and change variables, which is a good life lesson about trying again.

My kids absolutely love it. It is all about how the brain works (memory, perception, attention) and how easily it can be fooled.

Teaches history on location, so kids see the actual places while hearing the story. There are series on American, ancient and church history.

Chasing Carmen around the world teaches geography, cultures and landmarks. There are several versions, and the amount of learning varies between them.

I liked watching it as a kid. It is low-key and not flashy, so it may not hold every child’s attention, but there is lots to learn about places, food and culture.

My kids loved it when they were younger and learned so much math from it. Honestly, it grinds my gears a bit, and it is about half education and half entertainment, but it holds their attention.

For middle and high schoolers: teens meet people in real jobs (like a fashion designer working out costs) to see how math is used, then try the problems themselves. Great for the kid asking, “When will I ever use this?”

From my childhood, and my first exposure to The Odyssey, The Iliad and Robin Hood. It gives kids the big picture of classic stories, so they have hooks to hang it on when they read the full books later. It can be harder to find.

Literature topics like the history of graphic novels, what poetry is, how genres and story lines work, and how literature connects to the world around us.

A PBS series that goes behind the scenes of Shakespeare’s plays: characters, language, history, and how actors and directors interpret them. Great context for a student studying Shakespeare. It can be hard to find.

Really well done: how to develop good ideas and communicate them. Watch it in order, because each lesson builds on the last.

For older kids and teens: budgeting, debt, investing, saving and spending. It sparks money conversations in our homeschool, and I have learned things from it too.

Kansas based (I am in Kansas and had never heard of it!), but most of the careers are everywhere. Interviews about what each job involves and what employers look for. Like a virtual field trip into careers.

New to me: a cooking show that also teaches the science of cooking, like why certain ingredients go together and why techniques work.

Online safety in a cartoon. It covers heavier topics kids need, like what you post and what to do with messages or inappropriate pictures, in an age-appropriate way. I was encouraged by how they handled it, but only start when you are ready for those conversations.

Follows heroes of church history, usually from childhood through their ministry, and there are often printable lessons to go with them. Some are intense for younger or sensitive kids, so preview. We watch the St. Patrick episode every St. Patrick’s Day and Martin Luther on Reformation Day.

Kids and fun animal characters tell classic stories with lessons on honesty, hard work and more. I grew up watching it and loved it.