Documentaries for kids

CelestialBadger

I'm trying to make a regular documentary night for my family. My daughter is 6. I would really appreciate recommendations of documentaries that are suitable and interesting for young children. Not just nature docs!

[edit] Forgot to mention, we have Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime.

Quid

Crash Course on YouTube is excellent, but might be a bit advanced for her right now.

Our Planet was recently released on Netflix and is gorgeous.

Edit: Oh, Tier Zoo on YouTube is also a great short nature documentary channel.

Hahnsoo1

Yeah, nature documentaries are always great because ANIMALS. Planet Earth and Planet Earth 2.

CelestialBadger

Crash Course sounds interesting, she was vaguely engaged by some astronomy YouTube videos I showed her.

I think she mostly likes people-centric documentaries, though, particularly with kids in.

TychoCelchuuu

Just keep in mind that most of the Crash Course philosophy videos are wrong, so you'll be filling her head with misinformation.

Tofystedeth

I haven't watched them, but maybe something like The Toys That Made Us, which is technically history, but about a topic she might like.

Aridhol

Tofystedeth wrote: »

I haven't watched them, but maybe something like The Toys That Made Us, which is technically history, but about a topic she might like.

Both my sons LOVE this show. They've seen all the episodes over a dozen times.

I'd also suggest older shows like popular mechanics for kids and bill nye etc.
It's not quite documentary but it's educational and kid focused.

My oldest son (he's 7) loves "Mayday" too but that can be pretty brutal in terms of explaining death tolls though there are no "gross" parts.

The shows I mentioned are available on YouTube.

ceres

My 6-year-old loves Scishow Kids, I mean loves it. There is a Crash Course Kids, but I haven't spend any time with it because my son seemed disinterested.

What kind of "people-centric" are we talking about? Feel-good, historical, etc? PBS's Origins of Everything is pretty good and a lot of fun.. stuff like how women got started shaving their legs and the 5-day workweek.

CelestialBadger

I don’t know exactly what she means by wanting more people in the documentaries and I doubt she does either! She’s going through a phase of wanting storybooks about people, not animals, too.

I think she might like a kids history thing because she’s very interested in her books on Abraham Lincoln and Rosa Parks.

mts

the lego brickumentary is great, but I don't think you can stream it for free

Shadowfire

I wish it was still available on streaming but Cosmos looks good on any shelf.

Enigmedic

The old bill nye episodes. The history channel has a kinda neat docuseries called the story of us, which is basically american history (sorry if you arent from the us)

Burtletoy

I love watching cooking shows, and a lot of them now a days are in foreign locations and talk a lot about the history of the place and why the cook like they do and stuff.

But I guess those are also very often with subtitles.

Aridhol

Burtletoy wrote: »

I love watching cooking shows, and a lot of them now a days are in foreign locations and talk a lot about the history of the place and why the cook like they do and stuff.

But I guess those are also very often with subtitles.

Yeah our "dinner show" is anything bourdain travel & food

CelestialBadger

My daughter requested a documentary on Egypt so we watched a National Geographic archaeology documentary. Not sure how much she understood but she seemed very engaged by it.

Riboflavin

Not sure its still there but one of my sons used to like "How its made"

Mayabird

I don't know if she'd be interested or not, but the Townsend 18th century history (mostly cooking) videos on Youtube are very family friendly. There are a few of them made with his daughter Ivy too, if she specifically wants to see ones with kids in them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1Z2qwyHcPo&list=PL4e4wpjna1vx-MLe-MOSOI2NDdAVuAPUD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofANlXsPoys

CelestialBadger

That sounds interesting, Mayabird, she loves cooking.

Iruka

Travel and Food documentaries really opened up my ideas about what the world had to offer. Bourdain is of course a bit heavy/brooding for 6, but some of bon appetites videos are pretty light:
https://video.bonappetit.com/genres/Restaurants & Travel

Recommend Brad makes tortillas and ceramics. Might want to screen for content, they bleep curse words but, I'm not watching it for kid appropriateness. Hes doing a series where he travels, which is low key. He does a lot if hunting in those, so donno how you feel about your 6yr old knowing how food is killed. Introducing food media can help open up curiosity about food and travel, which can be a good entry point into history and culture.

Science media doesn't always fall under documentaries, but I grew up on mythbusters and les stroud's survivorman. Survivorman was great because, since he was mostly solo it was contemplative and less stunt oriented than shows like it (bear grylls) and had a good respect for nature. Mythbusters might be goofy and somewhat imperfect, but its entertaining and compelling, a good introduction to more science oriented stuff.

I like Smarter Every Day, the youtube channel. The guy usually wraps his videos with wholesome messages, but they are pretty heavy on the science, so might be a little much for 6.

I'd also look for media about the arts, but dont really have a good 6 year old level suggestion. If you have a good art museum around you, maybe see if they have any enrichment programs. Going to the art museums in DC as a kid was a huge part of my childhood.