Nowadays there is luckily increasing awareness about the fact that screens and TV are not good for kids health and growth. Very recently, some EU member states are considering forbidding social media for kids and teenagers. In the US, despite the current turmoil, there starts to be awareness that social media are designed specifically to create addiction in young people. We try to limit screens and TV as much as possible, because there are so many different things to do than spending the evening or weekend in front of them. But when we decide to give the kids some screen or TV time, we want it to be in some way educational.

Here are some of our favourite TV shows and cartoons, in different languages. You can find them all by simply searching them on Youtube:

• FR/IT: The cartoons by Albert Barillé. There are 7 “Il était une fois” series, one better than the other :
  • Il était une fois la vie (FR, this is the original version) or Siamo fatti così (IT version), teaching about the human body
  • Il était une fois l’homme (FR, again the original version) or Conosciamoci un po’ (IT version), all about history
  • Il était une fois Les Amériques : the discovery of the American continent. Done in 1992, on the occasion of the 500^th anniversary of the discovery of America by Columbus.
  • Il était une fois Les découvreurs : scientists and inventors of all times
  • Il était une fois Les explorateurs: explorers of different origins and different destinations
  • Il était une fois Notre terre:  on science
  • Il était une fois L’espace: this is more a science fiction cartoon, and while it is still very thoughtful, it’s less educational than the others
• IT: We cannot not talk about Piero Angela, an institution in Italy: journalist and science popularizer, who explains many different topics in an accessible way with a nice and soothing voice. He died in 2022 at the age of 94 years, but he left a huge amount of documentaries, that our kids love since their infancy. Some examples:
  • Il pianeta dei dinosauri: dinosaurs!
  • La macchina meravigliosa: the human body
  • Viaggio nel cosmo: about space and astronomy
  • Monographic episodes of Quark, his historical documentaries, on different celebrities such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Marco Polo
• IT: Les chats ne font pas des chiens (La mela non cade lontana dall’albero): Piero Angela’s son is now a very popular TV host: Alberto Angela is a paleontologist who started co-working with his father Piero and continued his path of science popularizer. He produces and hosts documentaries, notably on Ancient Rome. On top of Youtube, you can find some of them on RaiPlay (Rai is the national public Italian television) and download them, if you wish to keep them instead of watching them online. Here are some of the topics:
  • Le 7 meraviglie della Roma imperiale: the 7 wonders of the Imperial Rome
  • L’enigma della scomparsa dei Neanderthal: about the origin of the human being
  • Quella notte sulla luna: about the moon landing in 1969
  • Many of them are available for free on the raiplay.it site, under the name Ulisse.
• EN: Bluey. Among the cartoons, we like it quite well because it is not all flashy and it conveys positive and non-stereotypical messages. A good way to practice English, if it is not your mother tongue, because they use (Australian) native English, with phrasal verbs and all, but without speaking too fast.

These are some of our favourites. What are the favourite of your kids? Please put them in the comments below, so that we can mutually enrich our playlists!