What TV series do your homeschooled kids enjoy?

[Wildflower]

I'm in particular looking for something for the tween age. I decided to post here because I really loathe the lot of shows aimed at tweens that seem to center around life at public school every day and make school look like a big fest of glamourous clothes and dating, so I'm avoiding most of those Disney one (I've peeked around).  Right now this one dd of mine likes Little House on the Prairie and Alf, and we end up having little kids stuff like PBS cartoons on a lot, and of course watch nature shows and pbs all the time, but she's been asking wistfully why there aren't weekly shows for kids her age. I think she's hoping for something where there are characters that she can follow and get wrapped up in week to week...I campaigned hard for her to like watching the network show "Once Upon A Time" with me, which I would love, but she watched a few and decided it was too scary.

Any recommendations would be awesome!

[kathymuggle]

Well, my daughter (a young 10) likes H2O - Just add water.  It is on Netflicks and it is about teen girls/mermaid.  There is a little bit of typical teen drama, but very little about school.

Both I Carly and Wizards of Waverly Place are not school centric, although they both have some bratty characters.  

While we have not gotten into it, some girls I know (and their mothers!) like Heartland.  It is about horses.  

Myth Busters might be fun

[lanamommyphd07]

I know this is old-timey, but in my tween years I simply loved "Eight is Enough" and "Emergency". I bet some of those could be accessed online free and whatnot. Even though some of it would be kind of cheesy by today's standards. Also 21 Jump Street and Fame were fun ones back then, but again, there's a cheese factor. She might like Land of the Lost? I can honestly not even think of a show out there today that I would find suitable...My 5 y.o. likes OUAT, but she has mentioned that she thinks the Rumplestiltskin is so very creepy. And, not enough princess types. We watched one episode of Grimm, but that one was a little more heinous.

I miss the days when they had the "after school specials"...I recall they were good stories..but this could just be my mind playing tricks too.

[onlyzombiecat]

We do just dvd's or Netflix so I can't tell you about current broadcast shows

My dd has watched things geared at all ages.

She has liked Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs and shows about how things are made.

For a time she liked I-Carly, Mighty B and My Little Pony. She has liked older shows like The Adams Family, The Munsters. She really prefers animated shows to live action shows.

Lately she has watched The Adventures of Tin Tin and is really into Pokemon.
 

[elizawill]

i just asked my daughter (11) and her best friend (12). both are homeschooled.

they both suggested the following...

"kickin it". it mostly takes place in a dojo and is about a group of teens that do karate. it's a disney show.

they love "shake it up". has very little to do with school & mainly is about two best friends on a dance show. this is a disney show.

H20 - already mentioned.

"pair of kings" - disney show about two teen boys that are kings on an island. very little to do with school. it's pretty dumb, but they like it.

"good luck charlie" - does have some school stuff, but mainly about home life.  the girl likes boys a lot in this show - kinda annoying. my daughter says there are great examples of how not to behave.

"dr who" - this will probably be too scary though if once upon a time is scary.

hope this helps.

[pek64]

Nevermind. I'm too distracted to answer right now.

[Wildflower]

Thank you everyone!  DD does have  a big mermaid interest so will check out H20.  And elizawill, thanks for asking your homeschooled tweens, great recs and I feel better knowing ma little more about the content too ;)

[AAK]

Not on netflix streaming anymore, but my kids really liked watching the old "Cosby Show".  Dh and I also enjoy it.  It is nice to watch something with the kids that doesn't annoy the heck out of me.  

Truthfully though, my kids love to watch Wizards of Waverly Place and many of the others mentioned.  Even though the girl is really a brat, I don't mind this one myself too much.  I also don't mind Good Luck Charlie.  I really dislike Jessie (OMG I hate that show), Ant Farm, Suite Life, and ICarly.  

Amy

[phathui5]

My kids are all watching Doctor Who on Netflix right now. They also like Mythbusters.

[moominmamma]

My older kids didn't watch TV shows at that age. We only have internet and DVDs, no Netflix, no TV. When stuck in motels or whatever, they would tend to watch documentaries and nature shows. We were not a TV family at all.

Now they're older and into more adult stuff. I have a 9-year-old, but you would probably be appalled by what she watches, since her tastes have been guided by her older siblings. She's not particularly sensitive, and has loved Dr. Who, Battlestar Galactica (re-imagined, not the 1980s one!), Community and 30 Rock. As a parent who has endeavoured to raise her kids in an environment of natural simplicity, away from popular culture, this seems a little odd to me that my youngest ended up watching such mature shows at such a young age.

But looking at some of the shows (iCarly, Jessie, etc.) that actually target this pre-teen age group, I honestly think that in some ways the more adult shows are healthier in the big-picture sense. They show adult relationships. And when the depictions are unrealistic or stylized or idealized or compressed and unidimensional, at least they're between adults. To my kid these shows are very clearly about people that are not like her: they're adults, they live in cities, or in the future, they have jobs and go to bars and talk about and poke fun at adult concerns. At least they're not sending my 9-year-old the message that this is how children behave. Whereas all the stylized pseudo-dramatics and social jostling that takes place in shows targeted at pre-teens can easily send the message that "this is what kids are like: these are their interests and their concerns, these are the things that are important to them." Personally I think that in our family, pre-teen shows would probably be worse for my 9-year-old than Community. 

I know this is not the approach most parents are comfortable with, and honestly, it's not something I chose. We fell into it because of inter-sibling dynamics and a particularly mature, well-grounded youngest child whose social affinity has always been more in the adult realm. But I guess I wanted to add my vote to those who are suggesting shows that are well outside the morass of mainstream tween shows like Jessie and the like. 

Oh, and an old show that my kids loved at that age is All Creatures Great and Small (BBC, BBC/A&E). Also The Good Neighbours (a.k.a. The Good Life), an obscure 1970s BritCom about a couple going back to the land on their tiny urban property outside of London. Both are available on DVD. Not sure about Netflix.

Miranda

[GirlBoyGirl]

My 11 year old niece loves Martha Speaks, it comes on PBS Kids. She doesn't really watch too many TV shows. She would rather watch documentaries about Dinosaurs lol. Netflix is nice bc you have access to tons of documentaries.

[Quaniliaz]

My 10 year old likes many of the shows mentioned. I try to find shows on http://www.commonsensemedia.org/. One that she enjoys that I haven't seen mentioned is Ocean Girl, which we get on Netflix streaming.

[onlyzombiecat]

Originally Posted by moominmamma 

Oh, and an old show that my kids loved at that age is All Creatures Great and Small (BBC, BBC/A&E). Also The Good Neighbors (a.k.a. The Good Life), an obscure 1970s BritCom about a couple going back to the land on their tiny urban property outside of London. Both are available on DVD. Not sure about Netflix.

Good Neighbors is a funny show IMO.

There are things my dd likes that I didn't mention because they don't necessarily have tween age characters.

My dd has watched Invader Zim, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Ren & Stimpy, Adventure Time & Home Movies.  Yesterday she added Clifford Puppy Days to her Netflix list which is aimed at 5 year olds I believe. She watches all kinds of stuff.

My dd and I enjoy watching Korean dramas and Japanese Anime together. There are a bunch on Hulu or Netflix. 

Dd has enjoyed Kodocha, One Piece, School Rumble, Fruits Basket, Soul Eater, Sgt Frog, Azumanga Daioh, Pani Poni Dash and Ouran High School Host Club. 

[SuperMama]

We only have internet, not television, but there is a lot available online these days.  I enjoy reality television and the two series which I am comfortable watching with the whole family are Survivor, and the Amazing Race.  The Amazing Race is more valuable because you learn interesting things about cultures all over the world.  Survivor we watch purely for fun.  

[SJSBlog]

My kids love Liberty's Kids.  I can't believe how much they now know about US Revolutionary History.  You can find all of the episodes on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=liberty%27s+kids&oq=liberty%27s+kids&gs_l=youtube.3...3066.5860.0.6102.14.10.0.4.4.0.149.1166.1j9.10.0...0.0...1ac.1.PlYKvXzizcc

[rebyell]

Carmen Sandiego, is available for under 10 on Amazon. My kids love it.

My niece loves the old Punky Brewster shows.

[incorrigible]

We use internet for our TV too, but we have Amazon Prime and Hulu Plus subscriptions in addition to just going to the network sites. So, we watch a lot of popular tv shows as they air or the next day, but the kids are really into older shows too.

Some of the ones my kids (11, 14) like are;

The Big Bang Theory

Mythbusters

A Team

Star Trek Voyager

Red Dwarf

Cosby Show

Alf

The Daily Show

Colbert Report

Go On

Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition

Eureka

How I Met Your Mother

Psych

Quantum Leap

Sliders

Daria

The Booth at the End 

Doogie Howser, M.D.

Legend of Korra

Care Bears

Dd has always been very into anatomy, so she is very into Bones...but other shows of that style are far too intense for her, so Bones is probably too much for most tweens. Even with dd, I watch the episode first so I can prepare her if it's an upsetting topic, and I generally watch it with her and talk about what we're seeing.

This list makes it sound like my kids spend all their time watching tv, but they don't even watch it daily. I just took a look at our favorites and recently watched lists for ideas. ;)

[Simran Kaur]

My kids love to watch "Wizards of Waverely Place" and "Suit life of Jack and Cody".

[granolamommie]

Originally Posted by kathymuggle 

Well, my daughter (a young 10) likes H2O - Just add water.  It is on Netflicks and it is about teen girls/mermaid.  There is a little bit of typical teen drama, but very little about school.

Both I Carly and Wizards of Waverly Place are not school centric, although they both have some bratty characters.  

While we have not gotten into it, some girls I know (and their mothers!) like Heartland.  It is about horses.  

Myth Busters might be fun

Literally my dd (10) favorite show.  She doesn't talk about anything else.  SHE LOVES it!!! lol

I also think that Once Upon a Time is a good family friendly show