Screen time can be a lifesaver for bilingual parents, but finding high-quality programming can be a challenge- especially for kids 0-7. PBS Kids Spanish is the perfect solution, and this post will tell you how to access it easily.
Why We Love PBS Kids Spanish
I love to use television in Spanish as a transition between English and Spanish time at home. We have a Google Chromecast plugged into the television closest to the kitchen, and during kitchen clean-up, I’ll often let the girls pick an episode of something to watch before we transition to storytime and bath time.
I’m pretty picky about what they watch, and I really want them to watch as much programming in Spanish as possible. We do watch a lot of Disney+ in Spanish and also there are a lot of high-quality Spanish shows on Netflix and Apple+. We also do TruFluency Spanish classes each week to keep them immersed with a good teacher and great curriculum.
But I just adore PBS Kids’ programming. It is the one channel that I feel 100% comfortable letting my kids watch unsupervised- and sometimes for longer than I originally said they could.
I feel like children learn so much from the shows- from how to treat each other kindly to concrete science and math concepts that are perfect for their ages. Even I get hooked on some of the shows! We are huge fans of Wild Kratts, Molly of Denali, Pinkalicous, Xavier Riddle, and Let’s Go Luna.
I love that with PBS Kids shows, there are no commercials, and the episodes only last between 22 and 25 minutes. And the shows are great for children ages 0-7, I’d say.
Also read: Top 100 Activities in Spanish For Bilingual Parents
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PBS Kids Spanish Shows
The shows offered on PBS Kids Spanish are the following:
- Berenstain Bears
- Peg + Cat
- Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood
- Dinosaur Train
- SciGirls
- Caillou
- Cyberchase
How To Access PBS Kids Spanish Shows
You can subscribe to PBS Kids Spanish via Amazon.
What you will do is go to this page and subscribe to the PBS Kids channel on Amazon. You’ll get a 7 day free trial for the channel, and then you will pay an additional fee of $4.99 per month. The proceeds go to support public television nationwide, which I love.
We have kept the channel for quite a while because the girls like to watch their favorite shows over and over. If you kids have a KindleFire kids tablet then they can watch PBS Kids Spanish on their own devices too.
What we do is have a Google Chromecast or AppleTV stick on the tv and I just transfer the shows over from the app on my phone to the TV to make it super easy for me.
If you are looking for games in Spanish for your kids, I can highly recommend the PBS Kids Games app. You can find free online games in Spanish here.
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You’ll also like:
- 100 Spanish Language Resources For Bilingual Parents
- 10 Spanish Kids Songs- The Ultimate Playlist
- Spanish Shows On Netflix For Kids
- Raising A Bilingual Child? 4 Best Language Learning Methods
- Huge List of Disney Songs For Kids
- Huge List Of Disney Spanish Shows For Kids
Don’t forget to pin it!
I’m subscribed to the app, yet can’t figure out how to find the programming in Spanish
You have to go through your Amazon account. We watch it via amazon video. In that app you have the opportunity to search for paid channels and you will find PBS Kids en espanol. I found it easier to do it from my desktop under my account settings and then search in paid channels. It gives you the opportunity to subscribe there. If you are still having trouble just send me an email puravidamoms at Gmail dot com and I will send you screenshots! ~Christa
I’m weirdly conflicted about this. I pay the $4.99 a month, and would normally be fine with this – especially if the subscription had all available content in all available lamguages.
However, it strikes me odd that the only way to get this content in spanish is to have a cable provider with Univision, or pay $4.99 via Amazon’s PBS channel.
I don’t think it is a stretch to consider this at least a little racist – considering that native Spanish speakers need to pay to get this content in their language, while being easily accessible to english speakers at no additional cost.
Additonally, in the case of Daniel Tiger, no new content has been released on Amazon since this was made available. Spanish speakers are left with the same 1 volume of episodes, with no newer content in sight.
PBS kids’s site is full of links and resources for parents about teaching kids about being anti-racists, yet seem to be inadvertently contributing to the problem by forcing spanish speakers to pay MORE money for LESS content than native English speakers, despite having the spanish content just as available.
I totally get it. I actually have a bit of background on this. All of this programming was free for YEARS, on over the air channels. (In Colorado where I live I only use an antenna for television and can get Univision and Telemundo for free). We could always have the Spanish programming on PBS for free- it was one of 6 public television stations we had. We also had several Spanish language radio programs that were free from National Public Radio.
In 2017 when the new administration took over, one of the very first things they did was cut funding to public television and NPR. And the cuts were MASSIVE. Almost overnight we lost 2 of the 6 PBS channels we had, and all but one of the NPR programs. While funding drives were popular, ultimately, we didn’t raise enough money to bring back all the programming. I fear we never will.
I am thankful that PBS was able to work with Amazon to make this content available, but I agree- they need to add more content in Spanish. It is a matter of funding, and keeping the free content that most people watch. I wouldn’t call the lack of access racist though- I’d just call it capitalism.
I’m super glad you brought this up though- it’s a good point of view. Hope to have you back on the site soon! Pura vida! ~Christa
Oh gee, grow up and stop blaming the administration.
Hi Silvia- It’s a factual statement, not a political statement. ~Christa