60+ TV shows recommended for ages 8-12 {UPDATED!}~
Written by Jamie C. Martin of Simple Homeschool and Introverted Moms
I had NO idea when I researched and wrote this article originally that it would become one of the top search results that would lead readers to this site for years to come!
I guess it makes sense, though. With the rise of streaming, parents are desperate for resources to sift through ALL that’s out there.
That’s why, years later, I decided to update this post to make it as helpful as possible for you again. My initial article featured approximately 60 shows; this updated one has 100!
To help you navigate the list that follows I’ve divided the TV shows into these categories: Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, Netflix, Peacock, and Other. Categories are accurate as of the date this post published, but keep in mind that network availability may fluctuate in the future.
Here’s what motivated me to initially create the list, back in 2014:
“After a decade of use and about a year of saving, Steve and I finally entered the 21st century when we purchased a new widescreen television and got rid of our old tube model–the one my Nana bought for us right after our first son (now grown!!) was born.
Our kids, who generally choose one show each on Saturdays and Sundays, were clamoring at their newfound options. And I knew I needed to undertake a research project to sort it all out and make sure we use our new screen intentionally.”
On TV ratings
I’ve found determining what is age appropriate for my children much easier since I discovered Common Sense Media. They give ratings and reviews on movies, television shows, music, websites, apps, video games, and more.
For the majority of the shows below, I’ve linked directly to Common Sense Media so you can read more detailed reviews. Personally I have found, however, that adding two years to CSM’s “recommended age” has generally been a better fit for our family!
I rarely watch a movie or show now without going to CSM first.
Here’s an overview of standard TV ratings (find more details here):
TV-Y: children of all ages, including young ones 2-6
TV-7: age seven and up
TV-G: program may not have been made exclusively for children, but seems appropriate for most ages
TV-PG: unsuitable for younger children
TV-14: unsuitable for children under age 14
TV-MA: not designed for children (equivalent to R movie rating)
And you’ll also see these content descriptors:
D – Sexual or suggestive dialogue
L – Coarse or crude language
S – Sexual situations
V – Violence
FV – Fantasy violence (exclusive to the TV-Y7 rating)
I also want to mention that I have not viewed all the shows listed below, so use this as a resource to determine what is right for your own unique family. And now, on to the list!
60+ TV shows recommended for ages 8-12
Common Sense Media TV shows, Ages 8-9+
(Check individual show reviews to determine what age is right for your family!)
Amazon Prime
- The Adventures of Tintin
- American Ninja Warrior
- Annedroids
- Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street
- Little House on the Prairie
- Little Women
- Odd Squad
- The Partridge Family
- Popular Mechanics for Kids
- Reading Rainbow
- Rocky & Bullwinkle
- SciGirls
- Thunderbirds Are Go
- Travel with Kids
- Wild Kratts
Disney Plus
Netflix
- Bake Squad
- Baking Impossible
- The Big Family Cooking Showdown
- The Big Flower Fight
- Dogs
- Dragons: Race to the Edge
- The Final Table
- Glitch Techs
- Good Witch
- The Great British Baking Show
- The InBESTigators
- Is It Cake?
- The Magic School Bus
- Maya and the Three
- Old Enough
- Penguin Town
- Pet Stars
- Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles
- School of Chocolate
- Sing On!
- Tiny House Nation
- Transformers Prime
- Trollhunters
- Voices of Fire
- Wheel of Fortune
- The Who Was? Show
Peacock
Other
- The Addams Family
- The Brady Bunch (Paramount+)
- Bringing Up Bates
- Ghostwriter
- Horrible Histories
- I Love Lucy
- Liberty’s Kids (on YouTube)
- Tuttle Twins
- When Calls the Heart
- Who’s the Boss?
- The Wingfeather Saga
Common Sense Media TV shows, Ages 10-12+
(Check individual show reviews to determine what age is right for your family!)
Amazon Prime
- Mr. Bean
- Diff’rent Strokes
- I Dream of Jeannie
- Charlie’s Angels
- Little Men
- The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
- World’s Toughest Race
Disney Plus
- The Book of Boba Fett
- Loki
- Ms. Marvel
- Once Upon a Time
- Running Wild with Bear Grylls
- The Simpsons
- The World According to Jeff Goldblum
Netflix
- Alexa & Katie
- Alone
- Down to Earth with Zac Efron
- The Good Cop
- Heartland
- Instant Dream Home
- The Last Bus
- Man vs. Bee
- Mr. Iglesias
- Rilakkuma and Kaoru
- A Series of Unfortunate Events
- Somebody Feed Phil
- Sugar Rush
- Ultimate Beastmaster
- The World’s Most Amazing Vacation Rentals
- You vs. Wild
Peacock
Other
- All Creatures Great and Small (PBS)
- The Amazing Race
- America’s Funniest Home Videos
- Beat Bobby Flay
- Chesapeake Shores
- Chopped
- The Chosen
- Fixer Upper
- Full House
- The Great Food Truck Race
- Highway to Heaven
- Holly Hobbie
- I Can See Your Voice
- The Masked Singer
- MasterChef Junior
- Reba
Happy intentional viewing!
Further reading:
- On How (& Why) I Use TV as a Babysitter – for those in need of recommendations and thoughts re: your younger kids and their screen time
Any other tv shows you would add to this list for ages 8-12? Please let us know in the comments!
Originally published on October 13, 2014.
What’s Your Homeschool Mom Personality? Take Jamie’s quiz now and receive a free personality report to help you organize your homeschool based on what your type needs most!
Weekend homeschool links: September 23rd
Hey Jamie,
This was a lot of work. Thank you so much for such a comprehensive list. We don’t really watch TV, but do lug our smallish set out from behind the couch to watch sports once a week. (Sports should have its own rating system! Especially the commercials!)
Anyway, we have started something I am calling “Filmstrip Friday” where we watch a documentary from netflix or you tube. Glad to have all your recommendations to augment our choices.
Have a great Monday.
Sheila
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Amazon Prime also has all the seasons of The French Chef with Julia Child. My kids love to watch it.
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Great addition, thanks!
Thankyou Jamie love the description of yourself !
Gonna have to read comments! We don’t watch much and tend to watch the same things over and over, esp since Little Man is only 3 years old. One he enjoys that I just love is Shaun of the Sheep, its on amazon streaming for free (might be on others, but this is all I have)… I think 8 to 12 year olds would also enjoy this one. The sheep and the dog are always getting into some kind of bind with the farmer. No words, just mumbling, which makes it so much fun to figure out what might of been said.
Thanks for the list!
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We love Shaun the Sheep, too! (My kids are 8, 6, & 3)
Totally – Shaun the Sheep is hilarious!
Wow. Thank you for this fabulous and detailed list. One of our favorites is Little Bear. Very slow and gentle and nature oriented. Amazon prime has the first four seasons available.
My now 12 and 10 year olds grew up watching Little Bear, and when I turned it on for our 2-year-old last night they both came in and joined us while we watched…it has a very strong sentimental pull in this house, even for the big kids!
I always thought that show was so calming and well done!
Don’t forget PBSkids.org! You can play all of their TV shows on the computer and (at least with chromecast) stream it onto your TV.
I agree with Rachael’s suggestion of Shaun the Sheep, and would like to add Jake and the Neverland Pirates on Netflix streaming. Those are both suitable (IMO) for littles.
Oops! Forgot we were shooting for 8-10. Jake is probably too babyish for that age range. Shaun the Sheep is still funny, though. Sorry! 🙂
Such an awesome resource!!
Sarah M
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On the PBS app (iPad, anyway) we’ve discovers Marketplace Warriors. In the vein of Antiques Roadshow, we get to follow 4 people (who might normally be antiques dealers, or auctioneers, etc.) as they are given a target to purchase at a particular swap meet-style marketplace. They have a friendly competition (generally the same 4 in each episode) ending with who can make the most profit selling it at a given auction house. Each person has a different background so it’s really fun to see what draws their eyes. For example, one episode they had to find antique toys, in another miniature furniture (could be for dolls, children or for a storefront sales model). There are about 8 episodes with the marketplaces throughout America. And I really like how, even though person A wants to win, they are still friends with their opponents.
I find the challenge can be to find shows that we can enjoy together. My dd (9) and I have recently been watching Master Chef Jr and it’s been really fun.
For kids looking for more of a tween kind of show, my kids have enjoyed H2O and Mako Mermaids and I have found them so much better than typical tween fare. For kids on the older end (10 +?) another show we’ve enjoyed is Dance Academy.
Thank You!
My introverted daughter and I (introvert too) enjoy watching Bob Ross. The way he paints, relaxes us. He’s on prime and I think Netflix too.
Jamie, thanks for this. I would love to know how you’re getting Discovery Ed to your Apple TV.
Kristina, Apple TV is a small box you can buy that goes along with your TV, but you can purchase it separately. (Similar to a Roku) – When you have it connected you can “mirror” what you have on your laptop or your computer onto the TV. We are still figuring out how it works, but it’s a cool idea!
Thanks for the trustworthy list. I find it really hard to filter out all the new programming, not to mention the oldies I grew up with. We recently rented a movie from the library that had a preview for Back to the Future. I was feeling a bit nostalgic and rented it from Amazon Prime. My growing complaint about Amazon Prime is all the pictures of inappropriate movies that you have to sort past to just get to the children and families categories with innocent bystanders waiting for their show. To by pass the yuck, I searched Back to the Future and along with those three movies came a movie picture of two naked men (thankfully from the waist up). My 11 yr old daughter said she felt that was so inappropriate and that she never should have seen such a thing. I agree. Not sure how to filter/preview shows in a less time consuming way. So watching Back to the Future going on just my memory also wasn’t enough, I made the unknowing mistake of exposing my kids to a bunch of swearing that I don’t remember from my youth. Learning the hard way!
I know exactly what you mean, Tracy. I almost always get the movie/show prepped alone and then call my kids in when it’s ready for this very reason! I’ve also had the experience of remembering things from my own childhood differently!
Are you familiar with Clearplay? It’s dvd player that will filter movies, and you can set the filter to the level you’re comfortable with. Some of the filter settings include vulgarity, sensuality, violence, substance abuse, disturbing, etc. It’s been nice to enjoy movies with the kids, like Back to the Future and Goonies without all the junk!
Woah, Danielle, I’m totally going to look into this!
You can create different profiles for your Prime Video (and most other services) and change their ratings on the website. I have my 8 year olds set to PG-13. PG and PG -13 tend to include things like even Ice Age, which is why I have it set there. Then you don’t see the more adult content, and if you feel like it you can let the kids pick something out to watch knowing the most salacious thing you’ll see is a kiss, and maybe some swearing and blood-less violence.
I have decided that Wild Kratts are my kindergarten son’s science curriculum. Actually my 12 year old likes them too but my son has learned so much from them.
We love many of the shows on this list and I love having new suggestions.
My girls are 4, 2, and 7 months…we love Wild Kratts! They pick up everything from that one! We recently moved back to the US from England and one of the channels over there was showing Little House on the Prairie. My oldest daughter would always ask to watch Pa and the girls. When we returned to the US I found the first three seasons at Walmart and we watch those once a week. We also loved Liberty’s Kids…if you happen to live near a Michaels and want to invest in that series, I picked up the entire 40 episodes today for only $5.99! My kids are young, but I find that I am not so stingy with TV time if I think they might get something out of it.
This post is a treasure trove! You put so much work into it – thank you, Jamie! Just pinned!
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Oh thanks so much, Katie!
you are missing Liberty Tree House on the Blaze. Great show ! informational for kids . can stream on a roku with subscription or the channel is available on dish and other carriers. just not comcast , direct, or time warner
You had me a “printable chart” Ha ha!
Thanks for putting this together!!
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Oh My!!! How fabulous! I have been meaning to make a list for my girls, but this link showed up in my email today! Thanks so much for taking the time to put in a pdf chart for us. Blessings to you and your family!
Thank you so much! I know this took a lot of time and effort to put together, but what a wonderful resource. So interesting – some women form a Bible study group and I were just talking about appropriate t.v. shows earlier this evening (more geared towards adults, but some discussion of what the children were watching). My kids rarely watch any t.v. (ages 5 and 7 – a maximum of 30 minutes a day, but I don’t think they’ve watched anything in at least a week) but it is good to know what are safe(r) options to consider. My kids love Wild Kratts, Cat in the Hat, Curious George, Word Girl, and possibly a few others on PBS. They like to watch episodes on youtube: Berenstain Bears and Bear in a Big Blue House. These are probably younger than many 8-12 y/o kids would enjoy…but back to the reason I even wrote a comment – THANK YOU!
Thanks! I have five kiddos: 11, 9, 8, 4 and 1. We LOVE Studio C!!!! It’s on YouTube or on BYUtv on the Roku. Clean comedy that my kids love to quote and my husband and I often give gut-wrenching laughs.
My daughter 9, soon to be 10 in July… LOVES LOVES LOVES 7th Heaven… She streams it on Amazon on our Kindle… That is her go to when she runs out of books she checked out at the library (several dozen a week) and also as a reward… We enjoy watching Little House on the Prairie as ‘girl time’ together… She has 5 brothers… 2 older and 3 younger…
I recently have been trying out Pureflix which only has family friendly programs and includes MANY educational programs.
Wow, this is great, thanks! We recently purchased the Discovery Education Streaming. After you recommended, I got a free 30 day trial and found we loved it, thanks! My one disappointment is not having a means to get it on our tv for easier viewing, so…
QUESTION: You say you can stream it through your Apple tv box. How does that work? I just looked one up and don’t readily understand if it could work for us too. Is this really all I need? I tried contacting DE with how to stream to my tv and they had no answers for me. I would be so grateful if you’re able to respond to this, thanks!
Hi Lynda! I’m far from an expert, but we have an Apple TV box hooked up to our TV. We also have Apple laptops, so I can pull up a show on my laptop and then have it “mirrored” onto the TV from my laptop. I hope that helps a little!
My 9 has decided (for now) that she wants to be a vet so we watch ‘Calling Dr Pol’ and ‘Vet School’ each day. They so show animals that need help so you have to decide if it is right for you.
My 11 yr old son watches as many cooking challenge shows that he can.
These spark so many lessons and opportunities for them that I almost can’t keep up some days.
This list is awesome. Sharing it to my FB page for reference and for encouragement to other moms who I know are struggling to find good shows for their kids.
Thank you, Jamie for doing all the work of putting this list together! What a great resource.
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Thanks, Cara, for sharing – I hope it’s helpful!
I have never heard of Discovery Education Streaming, I am excited to check it out. Thanks for the lists!
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You’re welcome, Sarah!
My 8 and 10 yr olds like Cupcake Wars, H2O Mermaid Adventures, Saddle Club and Elephant Princess.
What a great resource Jamie! I also check http://www.pluggedinonline
for reviews on movies, music etc. A website hosted by Focus on the Family.
Talk about TV from the 60’s, I grew up watching the Lawrence Welk show with my
parents. The re-runs now air on the public tv station. My kids enjoy it, even though the dress may be outdated, the orchestra, song and dance is creative.
My daughter is 11 and we love When Calls the Heart.
Isn’t it fabulous! We’ve just finished watching Season 2 and oh my goodness, simply counting down the days until we can find out what happens in season 3!
i am so grateful for this list. i am not a tv person at all but have relied upon youtube and dvds! we JUST got a new tv and i renewed our netflix so this list is gonna be so great as i really think if tv is mindful and chosen it can be a great thing.. i esp want to share some of the old shows i grew up on! gilligan’s island etc….so thank you for this list.
i do wonder…and maybe its not a big deal..and i dont mean to get into an online debate about it…but you have the cosby show on there. i didnt know if you made this list a long time ago and if recent events should affect the show being on the list or not. I guess, for me, i would be so distracted that i would probably never choose to show that show to my kids! its so sad that the rest of those actors and the creative team should be punished for one person’s actions…but it does seem like its a tainted show now…just bringing it up in case you made this list a long time ago! its totally fine if you keep it on there! we all know how to make our own decisions! xo
It’s funny you mention that, Tricia. I actually took that off of the online list this time around, but didn’t get around to updating the actual document. The online list in the post is the most recent one! I hope it’s helpful to you guys!
oh awesome jamie! yeah i figured it is an oversight! thank you again for taking the time to do this!!! we watched magic school bus for the first time yesterday thanks to you! hope all is well with you guys! xx
Thank you for updating this!
Another good resource for movie reviews is kids-in-mind.com. They give more detail as to what might be objectionable.
We love BBCs robin hood for my 9 year old girl.
Tv pg with a few hells and lil violent
I much prefer it to hearing littlest pet shop say OMG in a prissy voice.
Thank you so much for this list! I have taken it and putting it down in a notebook with episodes so that I can find what I need! Lots of great stuff!
I love you! I just stumbled on this page and so many of our favorites are on this list, British Baking Show, Magic Scool Bus, All Creatures Great and Small, Wild Kratts, that we will have to check out the others we don’t recognize on your list. Thank you for taking what must have been a great amount of time to put it together for others!
Found an awesome show, Gortimer Gibbons – Life on Normal Street, about 3 young teens (real actors) who are best friends. There is nothing inappropriate for children over 7. It’s about growing up and real life situations often illustrated with imaginative situations. I loved it because it shows real life kids and not cartoons or anime. My grandson, 8 yo, loved it. It streams on Amazon Prime.
Omg! Thanks for sharing!! My 11 year old son LOVED it! I’m so tired of all the inappropriate shows geared towards the kids nowadays (making them feel inadequate somehow).. this was refreshing:)
The Planet Earth DVDs are astounding and a must see for all ages!
Thank you so much jamie for the kist of tv serials it helps a lot ,but I want to ask you something I have 9 yr old age girl I want her to see some science video and all but she dont listen if ahe listen she just watch for shot time and after that She watch Jassie on netflix and Liv and maddie also ..I know that they dont teach anything but still she want to watch ,how shall I control her please reply me
Thank you for sharing this wonderful resource and allowing us to benefit from your hard work, time and sacrifice. I am wondering what age is TV-PG? It says that it’s not suitable for younger children what would be the oldest age of that range? Would you say Heartland is appropriate for a 12 yo girl to watch? My daughter’s been watching it and loves horses. I have been also watching it to determine if there’s anything I’d rather her not see. I’ve struggled a bit with the overall behavior with the amount of boy crushes occurring, kissing, teen party drinking and sassy attitudes towards one another. But these topics have given my daughter and I opportunities to process through and talk about where our family stands on these issues and why. I am trying to not be fear based in my parenting but am struggling a bit with whether or not I want my daughter viewing all the kissing going on in this show. Any advice? Thank you!
I think your mama’s intuition is right on, Heather! It’s true we can’t always go by ratings. I also paused on my kids watching this show and talked to another mom about it, who said she’d be more comfortable with her daughter watching it around age 14 and up. Hope that helps!
Overall the show demonstrates positive messages and given most television choices this is one of the more positive but wondering if we are a year too early in watching this or if we are right on track with recommmedatiion. What’s right for one family night not be the same for another. But would love some perspective from anyone who’s daughter watch it and at what age. Thanks!
I am a middle school aged kid I have seen this shows when I was little but one show I recommend is dragons race to the edge it is a how to train you dragon show taking place between the first and second movie it’s fun for older kids to watch but appropriate too
One more the flash, super girl and maybe arrow but arrow is pg 13 or 14 so maybe not but I did start watching it when I was 11 and I still watch it
How are 11 year olds going to watch Wild Karts with out being bored
I would like you to add “Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir”. It’s my kids’ favorite show and they talk about it at school as their friends at school like it too. It’s on Netflix and has 2 series but a 3rd is coming out.
And it’s PG.
Just Add Magic on Amazon Prime is wonderful! Features three girls who find a magic cookbook. Wholesome, very likeable characters, great messages, awesome show!
This is so helpful , thank you so much
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I’m wondering if I could have some advice. My 10 yr old said she watched Ginny and Georgia at a friends house, and that all the “popular” and “cool” kids were watching it. I had never heard of it, so naturally(following my mama instincts LOL) I have to see what it is about. What would you say?
Hi Nancy. I usually use Common Sense Media for looking up TV/movies/etc like this. Here’s the review for this particular show, which they are recommending for ages 15+: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/ginny-georgia
But I personally wouldn’t let my 15-year-old watch it after reading the review, so I hope it helps!
Oh my goodness, I am horrified! I will be contacting the friends parents and I will never lett my child watch this … cr** until she is 18 (at least!) Oh my, oh my, I am just so shocked. I am having a little “chat” with my daughter as I type. She is sooo grounded!
Thank you Jamie C.Martin for bringing this important issue to my attention.
You are a true hero that this world needs.
Umm, The Simpsons? What?? 😳 Not even remotely child or family friendly!!
Like I said, I don’t agree with all of CSM’s age recommendations or even shows, but my husband does watch The Simpsons with our teens and they like it. I would never suggest that all families are the same or need the same, however!
I highly recommend Carmen Sandiego (2019) on Netflix. It has a good story and got my 13-year-old daughter super into art, geography, travel, and history! I watched it with my kids, and I enjoyed it myself!
Yes, Stephanie – that’s a great one!
I have found “Plugged In” by Focus on the Family to be a great source of media screening. I am very cautious with Common Sense Media now that they are “inclusive” and “woke”. I have found that Plugged In is not hesitant to call out homosexual situations as they are rating things on a Biblical guideline. Thank you for this list.
I also like lots more shows that I will recommend for you but I can’t think of the names right now😁 Thank you so much for this list I will definitely try these shows!😉
Hi I’m 8 years old and I really like Nicky Ricky Dicky&Dawn it’s on Netflix it’s a definite add!!
Me and my kids (4, 5, 9, and 12) watch the Simpsons, we always watch it every friday.
Adventure Time (Hulu) and Phineas and Ferb (Disney Plus) are two amazing kid shows. I even enjoy watching them.
Hey ummm I’m actually a kid who was looking for some stuff to watch and I realized you don’t have one of my favorite shows on the list!! It’s called Dragon Prince. Me and my friends are older like 8th grade and up but Dragon Prince is an animated show meant for kids a bit younger. It’s a fantasy action adventure show. It’s on Netflix and it’s about two brothers who are the princes of Katolis and with the help of an elf they met find the egg of the dragon Prince! Everyone believed the egg to have been destroyed and so when they found it they start off on a quest to return the egg to its mother to stop an oncoming war between the elves and dragons and other magical creatures vs the human kingdoms.
And it’s meant for ages 9 or up I would say. My little brother who is 8 turning 9 watches it with me sometimes.
Steven Universe is my go to for life skills and interpersonal skills. They go over topics like loss, consent, teamwork, asking for help, all in ways that children can understand while allowing us adults to see the deeper meaning under the topic. Creates a safe toon for younger kids, a talking point for medium aged kids, and an actually entertaining toon for older kids/ adults. Towards the end of the last season it can get a bit heavy so I recommend watching the last season before letting your littles watch but all in all it is amazing!