What Are the Best TV Shows for 2 - 5 Year Olds?

Phineus and Ferb. Whole family loves that show.

Kids learn things from cartoons that we may not think of as educational because we already know those things. Like how to treat a friend, how to manage stress, what to do when someone isn't as nice as they should be and more. All TV shows for kids aren't bad just because they may not teach colors or letters or science. Sometimes it's fun just for fun and that's okay too.

Any of the kids shows on PBS.

If you have the more expensive channel packages there are others like Sprout that come on at certain parts of the day.

The Backyardigans is a really good one on Nick Jr. My son really loved that show when he was that age.

My daughter now (almost 4) really likes Doc McStuffins and Sofia the First on Disney Jr.

Word World and Super Why (both PBS, I think) are good, too.

I don't find any of the above shows obnoxious and actually enjoy watching some of them with my kids.

Shows my kids like but I find really annoying: Paw Patrol, Sheriff Callie's Wild West, Dora

My kids also like Bubble Guppies and Little Einsteins. I don't have much opinion about them - they are both just ok.

My kid likes Jake & the Neverland Pirates, Daniel Tiger, Super Why, Team Umi-Zumi, and Yo Gabba Gabba. I hear a lot of kids love Peppa.

Best,
F. B.

Any of the children's shows that PBS airs. Like Curious George, Sesame Street, Super Why, etc.. My daughter loved these shows when she was little, she still loves Curious George.

Forgot to add that there are no commercials on PBS which is great for so many reasons.

We watched a lot of PBS Kids when mine were little. I loved the fact there were no commercials, and the shows were just quieter overall, gentler, more slow paced. I saw TV time as down time so this kind of programming made more sense to me (for example if they watched something like Rugrats they would get more worked up and bounce around more, which sort of defeated the purpose of chilling out.)
Their favorites were Sesame Street, Bernstein Bears, Little Bear, Arthur, Thomas the Tank Engine, Clifford and Dragon Tales.

Where are you Scooby Do? in fact - we STILL love this show!!! LOL

Dora the Explorer

Sesame Street

Curious George

Wonder Pets (This is SER-WE-US!!)

Blues Clues

Basically anything on PBS is good. Enjoy!

Around this age, we really liked the Mr Rogers dvds (which we own) and at 2ish, Kiddo didn't want any content other than concert/music performance dvds, so we loaded up on those from the library. When he was five, he became interested in Dinosaur Train. Didn't really care for many of the other shows, maybe Curious George.

PBS has great shows in the mornings. Nick jr and Disney jr play preschool shows 24/7. PBS Sprout also shows preschool shows 24/7, but they have commercials. I don't think Nick jr or Disney jr show commercials, though I'm not sure about that. We DVR everything, so sometimes I don't notice.

My 5 year old used to be a big fan of Nick jr. He loved Team Umizoomi, Bubble Guppies and the Backyardigans. As far as I know, the Backyardigans are not on anymore.

He's kind of switched to Disney jr. and loves Jack and the Never Land Pirates, Sheriff Callie's Wild West, The Octonauts. He even likes Doc McStuffins and Sofia the First (but don't tell him I said that).

My 3 year-old loves:

Sesame Street
Jake and the Neverland Pirates
Bob the Builder
Super Why
Curious George

Yesterday it rained like crazy here. I love Netflix :)

Our son loved Scooby Doo at that age.
We got the whole series on DVD.
I enjoyed watching them with him all over again.

Super Why, Dinosaur Train, Blues Clues, Doc McStuffins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Daniel Tiger on PBS is kind of like Mr. Rogers that we used to watch. My guy also likes Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Dinosaur Train, (Disney & PBS). Sid the Science Kid is cute and educational, too, but I don't know when it comes on anymore. It's PBS also.

Mine watched what I watched, and I wasn't sitting through any Barney marathons.
Animaniacs was a favorite of ours.

Our whole family enjoys watching The Backyardigans! Our girls are 3, 6 and 8 and they love the show - and it's not too annoying so my husband and I like it too :)

Also a big hit in our house is Justin Time, Franny's Feet, and Mickey Mouse.

PBS kids. Some favorites for that age are Daniel Tiger, Peg + Cat (favorite!), Sesame Street, Dinosaur Train, Super Why, and Wild Kratts (better for older kiddos).

Daniel Tiger and Sesame Street are probably best for the 2yo.

Not PBS - Little Bear, Miffy, UmiZoomi.
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How on earth did I forget Curious George? Also PBS.

At that age my kids loved The Fresh Beat Band on Nick Jr. Other favorites were Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Sophia the First, Doc McStuffins, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Curious George, Wild Kratts, Sid the Science Kid, Bubble Guppies, Team Umizoomie, Max and Ruby, Olivia, Sesame Street, Super Why, Dinosaur Train, Backyardigans, Wonder Pets, Magic School Bus, Paw Patrol.....

Man, it sounds like all my kids did was watch TV!! They didn't, they just went through stages where they would only watch one or two shows for a couple of weeks or a month. We would DVR their favorites. Now they still find some of them on Netflix and will watch them.

Really, anything on PBS, Nick Jr., or Disney Jr. is probably appropriate. Some are much more annoying than others. Some I found myself continuing to watch even when the kids has wandered from the room and on to something else. I especially liked Fresh Beat Band and Wild Kratts. My kids will still surprise me with animal facts they learned from the Wild Kratts. I think they are smarter than me!

Daniel Tiger on PBS. My daughter is 2 and that's the only show I let her watch.

I bought dvds that I personally liked as a child--Little Audrey, Flintstones, Charlie Brown. I wanted him to have knowledge of those in addition to them ones for his era (Thunder cats, Ninja Turtles).

As a parenting instructor, I could tell you that a show with a beginning, middle and end are more educational. An example: Little Bear

Sesame Street is good, but, over the yrs the pace has gone into overdrive. See if you could get older DVD's of the show with a slower pace.

I loved (oldies) the Magic Garden, Zoom, Brady Bunch and Partridge Family...even Full House. With technology today, you get find all of these !

I banned Arthur because DW was so rude. DW was always tense, said bad words and stirred up trouble. I liked Barney better.

Another good tip for educational/family is to watch the show and see if the parents or adults are involved. If you watch the Brady Bunch, the parents were parents. If you watch ICarly, she "runs" her life---This is not setting a good example.....I'm glad it ended in 2012! One night, watch a clip from the Brady Bunch and a clip from ICarly--and compare the two.
Parents who have done this are shocked at how terrible viewing has become.

I knew 5 yr olds who were allowed to watch ICarly. **Not in my house !

A super fun/educational show on Netflix called Signing Time, teaches kids & adults ASL(American Sign Language), has fun songs too!
On Hulu Plus Travel With Kids. PBS shows are great!
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I'm 55, when I was 2-5 I loved Hobo Kelly. I suspect that is no longer being aired.

My kids watched everything from Baby Einstine to Bob the Builder, Dora the Explorer, PBS was huge, Sesame Street, Thomas the Tank. Are those still options?

PBS Kids!! My just-turned-three year old and my 5 year old both love watching the shows on there. Daniel Tiger, Word World, and Curious George are probably the favorites for the younger one. They also really like Peg+Cat and Wild Kratts (my 5 year old keeps coming to me with animal facts after watching Wild Kratts). Word Girl is pretty cute, and I like Cyberchase, but they're not as good for my younger one. Martha Speaks and Dinosaur Train are both good, but they haven't been as into those shows lately. Clifford is good, but it's not on as much. Oh, and they love The Magic Schoolbus. That one's not really on TV anymore, so we purchased the DVD set with all the episodes.

I don't put these on for my younger son as much, but my older one loves to watch Unwrapped and Good Eats on the Food Network.

Curious George, Bubble Guppies, Paw Patrol, Sesame Street, Team Umizoomi, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood.

Little Bear
Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood
Blue's Clues
Caillou
Max & Ruby
Peppa Pig

T. Y

My son loves Bubble Guppies, Mike the Knight, and Paw Patrol. Get out of his way when Mike the Knight comes on. It is only on for maybe 2 episodes so he doesn't get to watch much of it but he asks for it each day. And I think PBS has Dinosaur Train, he also likes that.

There are so many to pick from now a days.

Mike the Knight and Bubble Guppies come to mind.

Super Why and blues clues were favorites in our house.

When our dd was that age, our favorites were Wonder Pets, Backyardigans, and Yo Gabba Gabba.

In addition to a lot of the cartoon mentioned below, my kids like shows from Food Network, especially Chopped and Guy's Grocery Games. They also like Face Off (on SciFi, about movie-style make-up), Jim Henson's Creature Shop, and American Pickers. We usually watch one of those in the evening as a family. My younger one (just turned 4) has really gotten interested in cooking from those shows. Because of the reality element, you do get the occasional bleeped swear word or "adult" comment (stronger language or vague sexual reference), but it depends on your personal sensitivity to those things.

Curious George and Wild Kratts.