Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Videos of same ilk as Wild Kratts?

I'm pretty picky about what I let DD6 watch, but we've both been happy with Wild Kratts. It's funny and silly but also has a lot of genuinely interesting information. Now that she's watched them all, we're looking for something else. Doesn't have to be about animals, just educational, and entertaining for her.

Most other shows we've found just aren't as good. Magic Schoolbus, for example, is much more simplistic. Any suggestions?

Digging back in my memory...I think the same one of my kids who liked the Wild Kratts also liked Zoboomafoo.

My son LOVED Zoboomafoo but I'm not sure it's was any more deep than Magic School Bus. The Krack brother's who were the stars of Zoboomafoo, made some video's in later years that were more animal documentary's. And I do remember my DS enjoying them.

Opps.. it's the Kratt brothers and I suppose the Wild Kratts is the documentaries I was talking about.

Second correction. The wild Kratts is not the documentaries I'm talking about but I don't have the time to track them down right now.

We loved the Toy Stories series from BBC. In it, the narrator (James May) leads teams through massive construction projects using toy building products. E.g., a real house made completely of Lego, a motorcycle made from Mechano (looks exactly like Erector Sets), a 2-mile slot car race track that followed the course of a no-longer existing British race track.

These are available through Amazon Instant video. And yes - James May is a Top Gear guy. I'm sort of on a Top Gear tear this morning (see my other post).

That would be now "Meccano Erector"!

Ah ha! Now that would explain why my google search came up empty.

DS loves the Kratts, too!

Have your kids seen the old shows of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman was a favorite when DS was five.

The video's I was talking about are called "Be the Creature" by the Kratt brothers. Here is a youtube of one episode.

"Liberty's Kids" is great set of cartoons about the American Revolution. I think it is streamable for free somewhere but the 4 DVD set is currently 7.99 on Amazon, up from the 4.99 when I bought it. The primary difference between the cheap version and the $50-$75 versions is that the more expensive ones have a public display license so they can be used in schools legally while the <$10 versions are only licensed for home use.

From reading the Amazon reviews lots of the watchers are AP US History students. My kids both enjoyed watching them around age 5.

That would be "Be The Creature", http://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Brothers-Creature-Season/dp/B000679MFQ

Those were good but not much deeper than the cartoons which really are great.

If that sort of thing is interesting... you should really watch all of David Attenborough's stuff...