Spanish kids' shows for 6-year-old, first-year student?

July 6, 2015 11:19 PM

Our daughter just finished her first year of Spanish in a full-immersion kindergarten. We're looking for good all-Spanish TV shows we can show her (and my wife, who wants to learn) over the summer so she doesn't forget it all.

Animated or not, doesn't matter, as long as they're entertaining and clear enough to understand. She loves stuff like Dora & Friends and Maya & Miguel, but those are only tangentially Spanish. Also that one where that annoying kid misunderstands words. Pocoyo in Spanish is a little above her level.

Bonus points if they're on Hulu, Amazon streaming, Netflix or iTunes, of course. Plaza Sesamo seems to be on at least the first two.

posted by gottabefunky to Education (12 answers total)

El Perro y el Gato is the best early childhood dual-language cartoon I've seen. Unfortunately, I've only seen a few episodes because it's hard to find. It looks like Amazon has some pricey DVDs. And of course you can find some episodes on Youtube.
posted by jonpaul at 6:24 AM on July 7, 2015

if you can find 31 minutos, it was very popular here. although it may be aimed at slightly older children (and adults!). there was also at least one CD (pretty sure one of the tracks got to no 1 here).

edit: bonus link!
posted by andrewcooke at 6:28 AM on July 7, 2015

If you search youtube for familiar kid progamming with "en espanol" added on to the end of it you will find full episodes of stuff like Arthur or Peppa Pig in spanish.
posted by poffin boffin at 6:46 AM on July 7, 2015

Don't rule out Pocoyo for being too advanced. My kids probably have less Spanish than your daughter has (I'm half heartedly teaching them at home) and they follow along well enough and actually love watching it (including my 6 year old). It does enough repetition that I think she'll follow along fine and pick it up more. The one on TV seems to be Latin America Spanish, but the ones on YouTube are Spain Spanish (if that matters to you).
posted by katers890 at 7:12 AM on July 7, 2015

A lot of English DVDs also have Spanish audio. You can just go into settings and change the audio to Spanish. I think it helps if it's a movie they already know because then they kind of know what's being said if they don't know some of the words. My kids were in Spanish immersion forever though, and they had no trouble understanding teachers and friends but always had trouble understanding television. So don't buy a bunch of shows or something before you know if your kid likes watching tv in Spanish.
posted by artychoke at 9:40 AM on July 7, 2015

Artychoke is right. We watched a lot of Disney movies and the like dubbed in Spanish when I was in school.
posted by radioamy at 9:46 AM on July 7, 2015

Don't forget to try changing the language options - some shows are available in Spanish as well but you have to check the audio options.

I'll do some checking tonight at home and see if any of the shows that my 6 year old watches are currently do so. (And if so, I'll post back here.)
posted by HopStopDon'tShop at 11:05 AM on July 7, 2015

I used to watch Once Niños as a child and I thought it was great. Their programming changes all the time and since Once TV is a Mexican TV station it may be hard to find the shows, but most are translations of Canadian TV shows and available in YouTube.
posted by cobain_angel at 11:49 AM on July 7, 2015

Try the library. They'll have some stuff made in Spanish and some dubbed stuff (check the English-language DVDs, as well, since, as noted above, those often have Spanish tracks, especially if they're animated).
posted by bentley at 12:16 PM on July 7, 2015

Thanks for all the great answers. I should have added that streaming (or YouTube) are our only options--no DVD player! Even on our laptops.
posted by gottabefunky at 12:30 PM on July 7, 2015

Maybe YouTube? I found lots of videos when I searched for ' para ninos en espanol ' or on Google, youtube videos para ninos en espanol
posted by bentley at 1:49 PM on July 7, 2015

You can always watch Spanish "Dora la Expladora" - which is 99% in Spanish with a tiny bit of English in it.
posted by Admira at 11:57 PM on July 9, 2015