[jwally]

This is awesome info. Literally bookmarking this. Thanks! To your point, my kids fell in love with "Blaze and the monster machines" (a nickelodeon production that I actually like) and the 3 year old would talk about concepts from the shows for weeks after (centripetal force, reciprocating saws, stabilizer legs, metal = hard).

[snowwrestler]

We took our kid to a county park where they keep some animals that were too injured to return to the wild, and give talks about them, etc. My kid was answering a lot of the questions and the presenter said "wow, you know a lot of about animals!"

"That's because I watch so much TV!!" my kid said proudly.

Bit of a cringe moment in front of the other parents, but then again, my kid did know all the answers...

(The relevant TV show is "Wild Kratts" on PBS and pbskids.org.)

[actfrench]

My kids LOVE Wildkratts too (which is also on youtube by the way)

Recently, they've really gotten into live animal cams and zoo channels on youtube.

[was_boring]

Don’t worry about that. One of the reasons I got really into STEM at a young age was because of educational programs. Started with Magic Schoolbus, graduated to Bill Nye and copious amounts of Discovery (90s when it tried to stay about science)

[actfrench]

We live in a digital age. It's better to help kids learn to navigate technology effectively then pretend that it doesn't exist. And one of the huge advantages is they have access to the best educational programming available at the tap of a finger. Rather than wait for a teacher to teach them, they can follow their own natural curiosity to learn whatever interests them in a given moment. A challenge with technology is that it can become more of entertainment and stop kids from thinking for themselves (same for adults)! I find it helpful to sometimes engage with my child when they're watching TV to nurture our own connection and also encourage him to think critically. Sometimes he yells at me and then I go away;) But hey, I do the same when someone interrupts me when I'm trying to work! It's also often a nice bonding experience. Generally after an hour or so my child asks to play at the park. When I don't tell him he can't watch TV, TV loses it's charge, so his natural desire to get a break from digital media is able to rise up in him without me forcing me to go away from it.

[actfrench]

I'd so glad it was helpful. Every child is differently and I'd be happy to help you out with some more personalized recommendations as well.