Square Eyes: A Guide to English Language Kids Programmes Part 2

Chloe is becoming more and more of a telly addict although I try to only let her watch between half an hour to an hour a day. This means that I am discovering more and more British cartoons and TV programmes on Spanish satellite TV. I‘m not sure what Chloe‘s favourite programme is yet but one of our favs is Ben and Holly‘s Little Kingdom.(If you click on this link, it´ll take you to the official web page with stories, games,activities etc..) This is an animated cartoon about a fairy princess, Holly, and Ben, an elf and their adventures. I think it´s shown on Clan and on NickJr. Holly is often casting magic spells which don‘t turn out quite right and the cartoon is often humourous.
Another British programme I‘ve recently discovered is Olive the Ostrich, a cartoon about Olive the Ostrich´s  and her friends adventures. I‘ve only seen this once so can't tell you much about it but it seemed like a nice cartoon. Rolf Harris, a famous Australian entertainer, narrates the cartoon so you have both British and an Australian accent.You can find out more about this cartoon in this review.You can watch this cartoon on Nick Jr on Spanish satellite TV.

Ha-Ha Hairies is another new discovery so I can´t tell you that much about it.From what I can gather from the few times,I´ve seen it is that it´s about two animated fairies,one boy and one girl who narrate the story of the Ha Ha Hairy Family,played by actors.It seems like it´s for older chidren than Chloe maybe but she will still sit still and watch it.It is shown on Cartoonito.Again a British cartoon so is full of British accents.
      The Hive,or La Colmena Feliz as it´s known in Spanish, is a lovely cartoon about a colony of bees with the main characters being Buzzbee and his family and friends and the usual matters or problems that occur to children on a day-to-day basis such as playing,being friendly and spending time with your family etc.It is shown on Disney Jr but again I haven´t seen it that much due to the time it is shown at.

In The Nightgarden is another very popular British cartoon, which is shown on Clan (El Jardín de los sueños in Spanish)and is about the characters Igglepiggle,Upsy Daisy, Makka Pakka, the Tombliboos and The Pontipines and The Wottingers. It is a mixture of actors dressed in costumes, puppetry and animation and is aimed at calming children down. There is a lot of repitition and the programme is quite long. I have to say that I am not a fan and apart from the narrater, the characters don´t speak a lot and most of what they say is gibberish and there are quite a lot of invented words.It hasn´t seemed to hold Chloe´s attention for very long either although as I have said before,it is a huge hit in Britain and with the majority of children.

That´s all for now.I´ll be on the lookout for more British cartoons and TV programmes on Spanish TV. I hope you´ve enjoyed this brief guide and found it useful!

Square Eyes: A Guide to English Language Kids Programmes

As Chloe grows older, her interest in TV programmes and cartoons grows too. At the moment, she doesn´t really watch too much TV and I´d like to keep it that way as I don´t want her to end up with square eyes! However, I think that TV programmes and DVD´s can be a great way to provide bilingual kids with extra language input but can also be used for any child that is learning a language so I thought I´d take a look at some kids cartoons particularly those of English language origin and those that are shown on Spanish TV.

With DTT many programmes can be switched to the original language and many of the children´s TV programmes on Spanish satellite and cable are of American origin. One channel I really like is BabyTV, which is great for toddlers as it has many short cartoons and animated songs etc and it is really the only channel that seems to catch Chloe´s attention for now.If you click on the link provided, you can find online games, colouring pages to print out and much more. Then there are Dora the Explorer and Go,Diego, Go cartoons, which are aimed at teaching children Spanish phrases or English phrases if you watch the Spanish version. I´m not sure if I think that they really will help kids learn another language and I also find them a little irritating after watching them a couple of times.

Peppa Pig is a British cartoon so is complete with British accents, which are fairly clear and easy to understand. It is a big hit in England and seems to be pretty popular here in Spain...we like it too, even though we are adults!It was being shown on Clan but doesn´t appear to be on for the time being. Clan is a Spanish children´s channel with many popular kids cartoons,if you click on the link you can watch some of your favourite kids cartoons in Spanish or English. Clan is also showing an all-time British kids TV programme classic, Postman Pat, which I loved watching as a child so I´m glad that I will be able to share this with my daughter. However, I think that this is a new, more modern version. The voices of Postman Pat and company seem to have Lancashire or Yorkshire accents, which is also a big plus as this way my daughter and other children can get accustomed to various regional accents.

Fifi and the Flowertots is another British animated cartoon about some flower characters and their adventures so again features British accents including the Lancashire accent, which is excellent for me as I´m a Lancashire lass but haven´t got the accent so at least Chloe will hear it and get accustomed to it!It is shown on NickJr.

For now, that´s all the British cartoons that I´ve found which appear on Spanish TV and Spanish satellite but there are also a couple of Australian programmes that are also shown on Spanish satellite. These cartoons a great way to expose children to other different accents and different vocabulary. Bananas in Pyjamas  is about two bananas,B1 and B2, and their friends and the adventures they have. It is shown on Cartoonito.
Another Aussie cartoon is The Koala Brothers, about...yes, you´ve guessed it!!... two koala brothers who love helping out their friends, also shown on Clan.So these are just some of the kids cartoons I´ve found on Spanish TV and have been watching with Chloe (but I think I´m doing more of the watching than she is!!)and which I hope she´ll enjoy as she grows older. I also hope it´s helped you to find some good cartoons in the English language to watch with your kids!I haven´t looked at American cartoons as the majority of cartoons shown on Spanish TV are American so you have a wide variety to choose from!I´d love to hear Spanish cartoon reccommendations (i.e.in that they haven´t been dubbed or translated from another country!) 

The wonders of new technology

As part of my parents Christmas present, we bought them a Webcam so we could make video calls using Skype, which meant that my parents can see my daughter and my daughter can see them. Although she can´t really have a proper conversation with them yet at least she can also hear them and gain some extra English imput!!My mum sings to her, talks to her and even plays Peekaboo with her online!!It´s a great way for them to see more of each other! Chloe has even managed to switch off my husband´s iPhone a couple of time when trying to reach out and touch Granny!!!!



It´s amazing what the wonders of new technology can do. The Internet is a great resource for finding bilingual resources or for language learners. Apart from video calls to family and friends, you can find many songs and videos on You Tube , games,radio stations, programmes and activities in the languages you speak or are learning.

DTT television, which is now the norm in many countries, is also great because you can change the audio to the original language.This is really useful for bilingual or multilingual families or anyone who is learning a language.There are many American TV and some British programmes on Spanish TV so it´s wonderful to have the choice of watching them in the original version and Chloe is really going to benefit from this. You also have the option to put the subtitles on if you don´t understand something and I often still do this when I watch a film or programme in Spanish, even though I understand the majority of it, I just like to make sure I don´t miss anything!However, we watch a lot of American & British TV programmes in our house more than Spanish TV programmes and often in the original language so again that´s hopefully going to be a big help with Chloe´s minority language (English).