Home schooling - educational films

[Cocoandclive27]

Got the dc on a fairly decent timetable of schoolwork, exercise, crafts and so on. Not daft enough to think there won't be a fair bit of tv time over the next few weeks and months.

Has anyone got any recommendations for educational or classic tv shows or movies? Left to their own devices they will just choose cartoons but I think if I get them into other things they will enjoy them. So far I've got:

Blue planet/other nature shows
The goonies
C.s Lewis films like Narnia and Alice in Wonderland.

Any other suggestions?

you'll be able to find these on youtube:
Animal Atlas
Nutri Ventures
Bill Nye the Science Guy

Fab that's exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for. Along with any old/classic films.

How old are they?

The Royal Institute Christmas lectures are amazing. You have to watch each set in order but they are truly fantastic lectures.

Possibly a bit young for that at 8 and 6 🙈

Horrible histories

Oooh yes great idea!

Maybe some old classics like Mary Popping and The railway children too

The BBC “Back In Time” series are superb, and very watchable even for 6 and 8. My DC were about these ages when they first cone out, and they’ve both loved them all. There are several series ... - for Dinner, for Tea, for Christmas, for the Weekend, to the Factory and currently, To the Cornershop. Cornershop is on iPlayer at the moment, I’m not sure if the others are available to stream anywhere.

I've just done a 'science lesson' with mine - Operation Ouch.

We're watching science Max right now, ds is loving it. CBBC Newsround will be on 3 times a day. Sorry I can't help with films.

If you look at Into film they have resources for supporting lots of films. Pretty much any film can be educational if you engage with it.
Documentary wise
History - Horrible Histories, The farm series (Victorian Farm, Manor Farm - there are quite a few), Back in Time series. Sam Willis, Neil Oliver, Alice Roberts and Ruth Goodman tend to have documentaries not aimed at children but very accessible.
Science - Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are fab for that age, The Happy Scientist on youtube, Blast Lab, anything by Richard Hammond. Anything on nature on Bbc.

My list is probably a bit dated as my youngest is much older but thinking what we used at that age.

Look at iplayer under science and nature. Literally hundreds!

I player has Mallory Towers at the moment which has prompted some interesting discussions eg rationing

The wild kratts is a great children's nature series - excerpts of real animals with cartoons exploring their adaptations. You vs wild is an interactive netflix survival series with Bear Grylls where he attempts to survive in different environments and you select the best choice. we may have killed him quite a bit, oops!.