Spanish children's DVDs/books

[nesomja]

Does anyone know where I can get preschool DVDs in Spanish? All I have been about to find is Dora the Explorer in English but with a choice of langauges. I can't find any on Amazon and don't know where else to look. Does anyone else know of other DVDs which have choice of lanugage like Dora? Am trying to expose my son aged 2 to as much Spanish as possible.
Thanks

I have no idea about Spanish - but I know that, for French, you have to look on the French Amazon (not the British one) and then go from there. Consider too the Latin American local Amazon sites.

If you really don't know what you're looking for, try searching for characters you already know (Dora's rubbish, but you might find things like Noddy, Mimi (aka Maisy), winnie the Pooh, etc, in Spanish versions) and seeing what "recommendations" spring up at the bottom of the screen.

Incidentally, you will need to check this, but the Maisy DVDs you buy in this country come with about 10 language soundtracks as standard and Spanish may be one of them, which would obviously save you on p&p.

Thanks! I tried the French Amazon site already but there isn't a Spanish one. Not sure about whether there is a Latin American one but I would guess those DVDs won't work in the UK- have found lots of Spanish DVDs on Amazon.com but they wouldn't work here.
The Maisy DVDs sound good though, just the kind of thing I am looking for - I'd also like to know what the popular Spanish young children's TV programmes are - I know about Pocoyo and that's it!

Unfortunately the Spanish don´t use the internet as much as we do, so no spanish amazon.

I was going to suggest Pocoyo .... What age are you aiming at? Have you heard of CantaJuegos, will drive tou MAD but kids love it. You get a DVD with the songs on so the kids can learn the dances, a CD for the car and a leaflet/ booklet with all the words. Erm what else Los Lunis, El Barrio de Seasomo. Juan and Lola (Charlie and Lola) Caillou. Clan is the main kids channel, I think you can buy DVDs on there.

HTH

Many thanks - I did some dedicated work on Amazon UK last night and found Maisy and also Little Einsteins which apparently come in multiple languages. My son is 25 months so it's pretty basic stuff but I want the programmes in Spanish, not something designed to teach him which is mostly in English. Have ordered them so we will see - my plan is that after next week there will be no more TV in English!

MIFLAW, after reading your post I have been doing lots of research on the internet and have actually been wondering whether I should try speaking French to my son as well having as the Spanish nanny (which is going really well, 4 weeks in and he started talking back to her in Spanish this week). My spoken French is good (spent 4 months living in a community in France, brought up in the Congo for several years, have done a bit of work in French) but definitely gramamatically incorrect at times, rusty and limited in vocabulary. However, it seems like opinions on this have changed in the linguistic world and that if you expose your child to enough other sources of the language this shouldn't necessarily put you off. What has been your experience? Have you met other people doing this and how good was their French? I feel sure that French people will tell me my French isn't nearly good enough (and I find African French much easier to understand that French French) but at the same time if my son was 6 I would feel happy starting to teach him French so why should I be put off doing it now when it would be so much easier for him? I am quite enthused about the possibility of him and my French improving together...

Well [ahem] have you read my blog? I've let it slide for several months now but am going to pick it up again soon. In the mean time it does have (I think) some useful insights.

papaetpiaf.wordpress.com/

And if you want to contact me direct you can do so through the comments section and then I can email you if you want.

Generally, I would say the main thing (in my view) is not that grammatical accuracy etc don't matter but that, initially, you are very much leading the conversation anyway, so you can work round it and give yourself time to check on things you are unsure of when Junior is in bed or doing something else.

I would also say that the variety of French is the least important thing; and that, as long as you stick at it, it gets easier and more rewarding.

I think that consistency is very improtant too - I am very strict about keeping to OPOL and imagine that you would be too, especially with three languages in the mix.

Who - if anyone - will be speaking to your son in English?

Also, re Spanish DVDs. I do know that - and i can't remember how this happened, but no matter - someone told me about a Belgian TV prog called Bumba that her kid loved. It was nowhere to be found on Amazon so I googled "Bumba"; found out the TV production company; and bought it direct from their website. (In a similar vein, I got my french-language Charlie and Lola books sent from a bookshop in Quebec!)

So maybe try the websites of the main Spanish TV channels; watch a few clips (there or via Youtube); and then order direct when something takes your fancy!

I am not at all worried about my son learning English, he practically speaks it already, my husband doesn't have very good French and so will speak English to him, all of our families are English speaking and so are most of his friends. In addition, we live in an area where over 50% of children starting school do not speak English as a first language, so even if his English was not that great when he starts school he would not be alone. I think he is already way ahead of where many local children will be on starting school. I think I could do it- in fact I tried this morning for the first time and he was fairly unfazed, plus repeated back to me some of what I said to him. I will look at your blog and contact you there.

Hello all. Have been reading this thread with interest. I studied Spanish and lived in Spain for 3 years but have not spoken it daily for about 10 years. Have been trying to speak to my son in Spanish but sometimes I fall back on English because am with MIL for example and with just her and me seems rude and also I struggle for vocab now that I am not emersed in it. MY BIG FEAR though is that I suspect I speak less to ds because of lack of fluency in Spanish. Have got Spanish DVDs that friend bought when she went to Madrid and also Spanish books. But worry that in the end I might not be doing him favours.

Nesomja

If you are living in an English-speaking area then you are absolutely right, he will just learn English there.

I was mor asking in terms of following through the whole OPOL idea - in other words, are there people who will speak to him consistently in English? And obviously there are.

So that's good, because then you will feel less guilty about NOT speaking to him in English.

IYSWIM.

just wanted to know how Nesomja getting on, I too am trying to speak spanish to my 15 moth old and studying the language at night