What To Watch
12 Shows Your Kids Will Love (and You’ll Love Watching with Them)
Animated adventures, cooking shows and science lessons ahead!
By Clint Edwards
March 4, 2026
12 Best Shows for Kids on Netflix to Watch With Your Family - Netflix Tudum
I’m a father of three, and I’m just going to put it out there: It’s incredibly difficult for parents to keep up with how many children’s shows are available to stream right now. It can honestly be overwhelming. I’ll also be the first to admit that not all kids programming is created equal. There’s honestly so many really great and innovative kids shows out there, and trying to help your children navigate all those options can be a lot.
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So, in an attempt to help parents and caregivers out there navigate what can feel like a flood of kid-friendly shows to stream, I put together a list of fun ones your kiddos are sure to love watching (and, knowing how kids can find a favorite thing and stick with it, rewatching).
Centaurworld
This wacky and truly creative animated series follows a warhorse that wanders into a magical world of centaurs. But these aren’t just the “human torsos on horse bodies'' centaurs you’re most familiar with — this world has giraffes, llamas, zebras and other unexpected creatures in the mix, too. Think of all the varying personalities that might come along with a llama or giraffe centaur, and you’ll catch onto the zany awesomeness of this show. It brings forth a message that’s important for kids to see: We might look different, but we all need to take care of each other. Between the catchy music, the healthy message of accepting differences and a narrative that highlights the importance of embracing adventure and facing challenges, Centaurworld is one of my favorite kids shows streaming right now.
Great British Baking Show: Juniors
I’m not one to watch a lot of cooking shows but my wife absolutely loves them, and it’s been pretty easy for my kids to get sucked in as she’s watching The Great British Baking Show. So when my kids noticed Junior Baking Show, they were all in, and they loved it. It has discerning judges, endearing contestants, time crunches — everything that makes a cooking show fun. The big difference here is that kids are the cooks and that shift sucked in all my children (and I often end up watching this over their shoulders). The part I love most is that the judges are much kinder here, which is what I would hope for a children’s show, and it seems like even when a contestant doesn’t come out on top, they still leave with a smile and ways to make their cooking better. That’s a message all kids can use more of.
Is It Cake?
If you’re around kids, chances are you’ve heard about this show. The part that really grabbed me and my kids, however, wasn’t the cakes that don’t look like cakes (although they are pretty awesome). It’s the underlying message that everyone has a talent, however unconventional, and everyone deserves admiration for those talents. The cakes are cool, no doubt about it, and my kids are now asking if I can make them a cake that looks like a suitcase (or a basketball or a million other random things). Easier said than done, since my skill set when it comes to cakes are rectangles or squares. But sweets aside, the message of acceptance that runs through this show is its real sweet spot.
Maya and the Three
This animated series’ incredible visuals are what first caught my kids’ attention. I was personally sucked in by the cast (Zoe Saldaña, Stephanie Beatriz, Diego Luna) and that it was created by Emmy nominee Jorge R. Gutierrez (The Book of Life). But the really fun part for all of us was learning about Mesoamerican mythology through the epic story of Maya (Saldaña), a young princess whose life changes when a collection of underworld gods appears after her 15th birthday and claims she must pay for her family's misdeeds. Bravely, Maya goes on a quest to fulfill an ancient prophecy. We spent a good amount of time watching this, phone in hand, looking up the various underworld gods that came between Maya and her destiny.
Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir
If your kids are into action and adventure, then I can’t recommend this enough. The series focuses on two Parisian teenagers, Marinette and Adrien, who transform into the superheroes Ladybug and Cat Noir to protect their city from supervillains. That might sound like a standard plot line for a kids show, but this one is full of surprises. The main villain Hawk Moth is one evil dude who uses unsuspecting butterflies filled with negative energy to turn everyday Paris citizens into supervillains, making it a lot of fun to figure out who’s turned evil. My kids regularly have this show on repeat, and without giving anything away, my wife and I found ourselves completely invested in a major character reveal.
Brainchild
There are a lot of educational programs available to stream right now, and few have grabbed my kids, particularly my youngest daughter, quite like Brainchild. It does an amazing job being entertaining with its presentation, but it really hits the mark by picking topics that will stick with kids. I’ve already been schooled on everything from why we dream, to why I need to stop believing in the five-second rule. My youngest has even sucked her grandparents into watching this show with her, along with cousins and anyone else she can get to listen to her “Brainchild is the greatest show” pitch. This is a wonderful option for keeping kids thinking over the summer, after school or as a way to get their brains warmed up before going back to school.
Carmen Sandiego
This show is very different from what you remember as a kid — and that’s not a bad thing. It’s an action-adventure series showing what Carmen Sandiego was up to behind the scenes while we were all searching the globe for her. As in the original game show, Where In The World is Carmen Sandiego?, there’s an overarching theme running through all four seasons of good overcomes evil. It’s a fun show with an inspirational protagonist and a kid-friendly story. My kids loved it, often downloading episodes before long drives, and I found myself getting sucked in, too, almost like I was visiting a childhood friend. The real kicker is that the team behind the show took care to keep many of the educational elements that made the original show so special.
Twelve Forever
My middle daughter stumbled onto this show just before her 12th birthday — and considering it’s about a 12-year-old named Reggie Abbott, who has the power to escape to a magical island called Endless where she can remain a child forever — it couldn’t have been a better fit. Created by Julia Vickerman, a former writer and storyboard artist known for her work on Rick and Morty and The Powerpuff Girls, Twelve Forever explores the formative transition from preteen to teen, while also introducing some of the most imaginative characters I’ve ever seen in a kids’ show. Mine have laughed out loud at this show more than once, and to be honest, I have too.
Pokémon Master Journeys: The Series
If you are a child of the 1990s or 2000s, do your kids a favor and turn them on to Pokémon: Master Journeys. This is the newest adventure of Ash and his Pokémon friends. It’s as fun and creative as the earlier series you knew and loved, with many returning creatures you’ll remember, along with a whole new generation of Pokémon characters. Pokémon night has become a thing in our house, a new way to flip the script on the child-parent relationship, in which I ask about the different Pokémon and my kids answer my questions. Another bonus: Because Pokémon has remained consistently popular since the ’90s, there are plenty more shows in the Pokémon universe once they finish Master Journeys.
Kid Cosmic
My 8-year-old daughter is absolutely in love with this show and for good reason. Powerpuff Girls creator Craig McCracken is behind Kid Cosmic, and this venture is equally hilarious and innovative. It tells the story of Kid Mulligan, who lives in a junkyard in a sparsely populated stretch of desert in New Mexico and fantasizes about becoming a superhero. When an alien spaceship crashes near his home, he finally gets his chance. The visuals have a comic-book feel (after all, they’re based on McCracken’s 2009 comic The Kid from Planet Earth). But what’s really captivated my daughter is Kid Mulligan, the fun-loving and incredibly optimistic protagonist, who believes that the impossible is possible even before he gains superpowers.
Floor Is Lava
This, my friends, is one you truly need to watch as a family. In this competition show, grown adults play the world's greatest childhood game, The Floor Is Lava. The obstacle courses are wild, the stakes are high, and in Season 2, there’s actually a volcano. (We’ll see how they top that one when the third season arrives Sept. 30.) It was hilarious to see all of us on the edge of our seats, cheering on the contestants and imagining ourselves on the show. But be warned, if it inspires some at-home reenactments, your furniture might feel the heat.
Eden
This is one of those true unsung gems streaming right now. It’s an anime limited series that takes place in a postapocalyptic world in which robots end up raising a human girl. It has all the elements of a good sci-fi story, along with a number of personality-rich robots and ethical questions about the interchange between humans and technology. Sara Grace (the human raised by robots) starts adorable and becomes a bold and compelling character throughout the course of the series, showing how people can change and develop into greatness. My kids loved it, and what I appreciated most was how the show became a gateway into both sci-fi and anime for them.
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