It can be difficult to find educational preschool shows for homeschool families that are wholesome and not too stimulating. While the older kids are doing school work, why not have the preschoolers be learning from one of these educational shows? Here I list over 15 that are sure to be homeschool parent approved.
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After I had my first baby I worked really hard to keep our house screen free. I didn’t want her childhood to be glued to the television. I wanted her to be outside playing, know how to play by herself and not hinder her creativity. This is still my goal. But then I had baby number 2, then baby number 3. So between juggling three kids three and under and having a really hard time with pregnancies and postpartum, I needed a little bit of a break every day.
So I decided to research shows that wouldn’t be too stimulating, were educational and also wholesome. I figured if my kids were going to be in front of a screen, I might as well have the shows be educational. Because I was sick most of the time during that season, I wasn’t able to teach them as much as I would have liked. So I worked to make our home an atmosphere of learning and that included the shows I put on.
Educational Preschool Shows for Homeschool
We didn’t have Netflix or even cable at the time my kids watched these. My daughter didn’t even start watching shows until she was around 3 years old. So if your kids are used to super stimulating movies or TV then they may find these boring. But for my kids, these kinds of shows were all they knew so they loved all of them. And I wanted to make this list for you in case you were having a hard time finding preschool shows. So here are our families favorite educational preschool shows for homeschool families.
Preschool Prep Company
The Preschool Prep Company pretty much taught my kids their letters and numbers without me having to do much. The concept seems too simple to work: turn the letters into a character and repeat the name over and over again. But it works! When I saw these for the first time, I didn’t think my kids would like them. But they have loved these and have now started watching the ones intended for school aged children.
These ones that I have listed are intended for kids ages 9 months to 5 years old. Each one of these has the same basic idea. For the letters dvd each letter is shown one at a time and the name is repeated. Then, the letter turns into a character in a scene and then it goes back to just the letter. This same concept is performed in the other ones as well. Pretty genius as it helps the kids memorize the character but they are actually memorizing a letter (or shape, colors number, etc.). They also have coloring books, workbooks, flashcards, etc. for bringing the videos to life even more.
Leap Frog
I love these ones. I would love to own every Leap Frog dvd (which, I think I’m about there). My kids love them too. Each one that I own is about 30/35 minutes and is a story about the leapfrog characters going on some learning adventure. The Letter factory is for kids ages 2-5 and Code Word Caper and Math Circus are for kids ages 3-6. They are wholesome, educational and fun!
Side note, the letter factory had a monster that yells for the “A” and it scared one of my kids when she was younger. So if you have a sensitive kid, you could just watch for that. But other than that, there has been no hiccup from me or my kids. We think they are the perfect educational preschool shows for homeschool families.
Baby Einstein
Alright, yes. These are intended for babies. Hence, the name of them. My kids didn’t watch shows as babies though and so these were the first dvds I bought them when I wanted them to start watching some shows. They are all between 30-40 minutes and show different scenes of nature, instruments, puppets, children, etc. I would recommend them for kids ages 1-3. Although my 4 year old still chooses to watch them sometimes.
Leap Frog’s Scout and Friends
In the other Leap Frog dvd’s the characters are frogs (obviously), but in Scout and Friends they are dogs. They have their own set of adventures learning about shapes, numbers, phonics and math. These listed below are intended for kids ages 2-5 years old. Once again, I love these. The characters are nice to each other, encouraging and my kids have learned a lot from watching them.
Classical Baby
These are very similar to the concept of the Baby Einstein shows. They are very low stimulating and just show different gentle scenes. Obviously the name shows that they are intended for babies, but because my kids didn’t watch TV as babies, I started them out on these when they were around 2 or 3. This is a great introduction to having your kids watch television and I love that they integrate classical music and art. The art one features art from Passat, Monet, Pollock and Van Gogh and the musical one has music from Bach, Puccini, Tchaikovsky and Copeland. Each one is approximately 30 minutes.
Move ’N Groove Kids
I have had a really hard time finding exercise videos for kids that are wholesome and fun. If you know of more, head over to my instagram and send me a message with your recommendation! This one fits the bill of the type I am looking for though. My kids love putting this on while I am doing one of my exercise videos in another room.
This is interactive, gets them moving and has them acting out different animals. It isn’t an exercise video in the sense of one person standing in front and going through exercises the whole time. Although it does have some of that. But it goes back and forth between animal scenes and having the kids interact by doing animal moves. It is intended for kids ages 2-7. If you’re looking for an exercise video for your preschoolers, this is it!
Baby Genius
Need the kids to have a “field trip” at home on a rainy day? This very gentle dvd shows kids the different animals at the San Diego Zoo. It also has classical music in it, which I love. It is about 30 minutes long. After watching it, my kids all said they wanted to go to that zoo. You could also get a map out and have a little geography lesson about where the San Diego Zoo is located. I would recommend for ages 1-3, but once again my 4 year old likes to watch this as well.
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