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TV Viewer's Guide: Grade Schoolers

Other ages: Preschoolers | Teens

Remember the good old preschool years when your child only knew about television programs that you turned on for her? Now that she's started school, her world has suddenly become a lot bigger. Her TV choices may be more influenced by what her friends are watching than by what you want her to watch. So how do you help her choose programs that you can both feel good about?

It goes without saying that you want to avoid programs that are violent, scary or otherwise inappropriate. It's not enough though, just to sidestep what is negative. Instead, you want to keep an eye out for the good stuff. Below is a list of just that: the ingredients that make for healthy viewing and how these elements are likely to fit with your child's stage of development.

• Lessons in thinking and learning

  Help your child develop a positive attitude about school and problem-solving with shows that encourage love of learning and thinking. For example, Cyberchase features animated characters who use math concepts and reasoning skills to thwart Hacker, the show's villain. DragonFly TV highlights real kids doing real science and Reading Rainbow turns kids onto reading with a magazine-style format, hip music videos and popular personalities like Whoopi Goldberg.

• Positive social models

  Grade schoolers often are uncertain how to navigate interactions with peers, siblings and adults. Shows can help support their social and emotional development, from featuring non-aggressive ways to resolve conflict to encouraging characters to accept one another's differences. For example, at the heart of episodes of Postcards from Buster are issues of friendship, compassion and choices of right and wrong.

• Strong male AND female characters

  Grade schoolers pay close attention to how people behave in order to figure out what is expected of girls and boys, men and women. Shows that feature intelligent, outspoken role models like Mariko, one of the Dragonfly TV hosts, or a group of characters who work together, like the Cyberchase Team, let grade schoolers know their talents and futures are not limited by gender.

• Activities that get them off the couch

  Watching TV doesn't have to be passive. Shows that recognize grade schoolers are more than just viewers — they can be storytellers, game players and explorers, just for starters — develop their creativity and imaginations. For example, viewers play an active role in every episode of ZOOM (a remake of the show you may remember from your own childhood). The cast plays out suggestions sent in by 5- to 11-year-olds for "Z-Mail" brain teasers , kid-friendly recipes and wacky games. The interactive format encourages kids to create their own adventures.

• Characters from a variety of cultures and historical time periods

  As grade schoolers spend more time away from home and their neighborhood, they begin to grasp the size of the world and its long history. Shows that introduce them to new people and places — whether existing today or from the past — can satisfy their growing curiosity. For example, Reading Rainbow occasionally features classic stories with historical figures, like Abraham Lincoln and Harriet Tubman, whereas the animated lead characters of Maya & Miguel mirror an experience that is very real for many school-age children today: wanting to learn the English language while growing up in a richly diverse neighborhood.

• Characters from different age groups

  While grade schoolers typically understand basic genealogy — "my grandmother is my mom's mom," for example — they still are formulating their attitudes about family members and others in society related to age. Shows that present a wide range of characters can present healthy examples of how people can treat one another within and across generations. Several of the title character's visits in Postcards from Buster, for example, show grandparents interacting with other family members. These episodes illustrate that grandparents are far more than older people who are kind and wise but individuals with distinct personalities and experiences.

• Few or no commercial messages

  Shows that are free from commercial messages and interruptions allow the focus to be entirely on the learning and enjoyment. School-age viewers need not be distracted by product pitches or overcome by the desire to buy something. Instead they can begin to appreciate programming with no ads. All of PBS's programs are examples of where and how this is possible.