Any ideas for DVDs for amusing 18 month old while I BF new baby? Totally clueless about which characters I should go for, preferably ones that speak proper English though...

[norktasticninja]

DD's never really watched TV, but I'd like to have some DVDs in just in case this new baby likes long feeds. She's bilingual (Dutch / English) and I could do with increasing her exposure to English as she's definitely putting Dutch first ATM (quite rightly really, we live in the Netherlands).

So, which characters are good? I saw a bit of In The Night Garden and TBH it's a really good example of what I'm not I'm looking for...

My 2 YR old loves Ivor the Engine. V old school, bit grey, but really funny, with lots of nice Welsh singing.

He also makes the Ivor noise which is hilarious

My DD (2 yo) likes her Very Hungry Caterpillar DVD at the moment (it has 4 or 5 other Eric Carle stories on it too).

I'd definitely stay away from Charlie and Lola (although sounds like you are anyway!) - Lola has some un-grammatical 'tics' which DD is starting to mimic (grrrr).

CBeebies website has quite a few of the bed-time stories on it - depending on where your computer is you could play one of those?

Good luck

Try the Muppets. It has the advantage of fascinating the small people, while still having jokes for the adults to enjoy.

Something Special is great. My DD1 (2 and a half) now finds some of CBeebies scary - The Numberjacks, Storymakers, and Yoko, Jakamoto, Koko, which is something to watch out for as she reaches two. DD wouldn't tell me that she was scared but would stare at the screen, so I never liked her to watch while I wasn't paying attention.

This looks good and has got a bit of everything. My 2 year old will watch all of this.

I agree about numberjacks.....an episode earlier this week frightened her something silly, and she is now scared of anything circular

You will get very fed up watching the same thing over and over.....its bad enough watching repeats on cBeebies.....let alone an episode of each on a DVD

Thanks all, this has been really helpful

I'm going to see if I can ge Cbeebies here, but it looks as if BBC4 only starts at 8pm (CET)

If not I think I'll go for Something Special, Balamory and Tikkabilla. Maybe I'll get one or two with characters as well, maybe Thomas or Maisy or Sean the Sheep.

I think some CBeebies programs are on BBC2 during the day. Otherwise, my ds1 loved the CBeebies website at 18 months. The Thomas the Tank Engine website also has lots of stuff which is not difficult for them to do themselves (once they get the hang of using a mouse).

No BBc4 starts at 8pm but it's Cbeebies on the same channel during the day.

Balamory is a bit dull imo, neither of mine like it. (although they love the theme tune).

Yes the website is great, as is poisson rouge - even better actually for this age because they can do it themselves, whereas the Cbeebies relies too much on text and an adult needs to read it.

Pocoyo is really good for little ones (and cute). It's narrated by Stephen Fry.

DD loved her tellytubbies dance dvd at that age-she first watched it in the hospital when I went for a scan and we couldn't get her away from it. Might not be what you are after though... (dd also loved ITNG at that age )

My DD is 20 months and adores peppa (you can get 3 whole series on amazon for 6.99)- she oinks at the TV when she wants to watch it.

She also loves Pocoyo and Kipper (which is nattated by Martin Clunes and is very English). The animation is quite simple so perfect for a little one. My DD often dances round the living room like a mad thing when she hears the theme tune.

Ds is 18 months and loves Pepper pig .

I quite like it too

Another one for Something Special and Tikkabilla. DS has started signing just from wathing SS - it's brilliant.

We've got a PVR, so I record the few programmes from CBeebies that he watches and then we pick when to view

He adores ITNG though

You can also get selected CBeebies programmes & bedtime stories through the BBC iPlayer - There's just been a dedicated CBeebies iPlayer launched.

Don't ask me how, but it is possible to hook up your PC to your TV so that you can view iPlayer etc on the TV...Might be worth looking into? (Not a clue how to do this I'm afraid, but my husbands done it with ours!)

You can't watch iplayer from outside the UK though MrsK.

Ahh - I didn't know that...Thanks Cherrychoc

I don't know whether they'd be too boyish, but the DVDs my little boy absolutely adores, and which have had a noticeable impact on his vocabulary, are the Here comes a.... series, especially the tractor and train ones. Justin Fletcher (Mr Tumble) has some new DVDs out as well as the Something Special ones, but I haven't seeh them so i don't know how good they are! Here's a link, though Bee Bright

Anything by the Wiggles. Lots of music and dancing to sing along too. I recommend Pop goes the Wiggles DVD. Its full of nursery rhymes, my DDs loved it.