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French DVDs for young'uns


anabelneri
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Hello!

 

I'm looking at buying some French DVDs for my 1st grader (and 2yo, but don't tell my charter school about that since they're actually buying). Since it's through a charter school, there is a list of vendors that I have to work through, though it is possible to request additional vendors (though not Amazon :( ). There's currently only one vendor that sells French language DVDs for kids, and I was trying to search the internet for information about the different DVDs that they have available, and realized that someone here may have actually seen these! We have a DVD player but no TV, so I'm even unfamiliar with what these shows are like in English. Any feedback would be very, very helpful!

 

Here is the link to the page with the kids' DVDs.

 

I'm really looking for simple shows -- my 1st grader has had a lot of exposure to French, and has finished the 1st year of the Learnables, but still hasn't really gotten it into her brain yet. I'm learning right along with her, and my husband speaks a little French but he isn't really available right now. So I'm hoping to find something that'll continue exposure, provide excitement, and develop her already-existing vocabulary. We have watched Muzzy a lot. Sometimes we put in our Pixar/Disney movies in French, but neither of us make it more than 10 minutes into them before we're bored with pointing out the words we understood. But I figure Joue Avec Sesame or Caillou or one of the others must be easier than Finding Nemo!

 

Thanks!

Anabel

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If I were you, I would avoid translations, so Barney, Sesame Street and Dora would be out. I would also stay away from the very annoying and whiny Caillou.

Apart from the whininess, Caillou would be ok though. Traditional family, lots of love, no difficult subjects that I can remember. Just plenty of tantrums and you don't really want your kids to duplicate that.

I've seen Kirikou et la sorcière. The kids and I loved it. Just be aware that this is an African story, and women do go around bare-breasted, as per their traditional way. Nothing shocking, but north american kids might be surprised.

Babar is good, slightly outdated, but harmless fun.

Carmen Campagne is a collection of songs on DVD. I actually own the very one they have listed. Again, harmless fun in that one. The kids will sing the songs over and over and over. Carmen Campagne is from Quebec, she talks in a proper French but once in a while, on the DVD, kids are interviewed and those kids have a heavy québécois accent.

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Another option is to just go to your local Barnes & Noble and peruse the kids' section of regular English CDs. Many of them have the option to be played in French and/or Spanish. I was looking for Spanish, and was surprised how many of them came in French and not Spanish. :glare:

 

I ended up getting mostly Magic School Bus dvds - I just looked at mine and they will play in French as well as Spanish and English.

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but my children (when they were much younger) liked the Little Bear videos. You can know the story line from the books of the same name with the exception of some of the videos which seem to have been made up completely - there is one where Little Bear does a yoga position which is not in any of the books and the story wasn't from the books either. You could borrow the books from the library in English to see what they are like.

 

They are Petit Ours in French. Nonviolent and thoughtful. BUT there is a French series of almost the same name called Petit ours brun which is not at all the same.

 

So I've included a link so you could see which ones I'm talking about....

http://www.amazon.fr/Petit-ours-petit-ours-et-ses-amis/dp/B000E36Z9I/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1265813624&sr=1-9

 

Not so helpful since they are not on your suppliers list, but you could ask them to carry them if you like the stories.

 

Since I was just taking out videos from the library today I thought I would mention the series "C'est pas sorcier" which is a very interesting science series and has nothing to do with magic and everything to do with understanding natural phenomenon. They have some history videos as well. But they are for about 10yo and up...

 

 

Best,

Joan

Edited by Joan in Geneva
typo
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but my children (when they were much younger) liked the Little Bear videos. You can know the story line from the books of the same name with the exception of some of the videos which seem to have been made up completely - there is one where Little Bear does a yoga position which is not in any of the books and the story wasn't from the books either. You could borrow the books from the library in English to see what they are like.

 

:iagree: Little Bear is absolutely wonderful! We read the books in English, but got ahold of the videos in German, which is the only lanugage my kids have watched them in. But they're lovely, sweet shows.

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Thanks for the ideas!

 

I've read the Little Bear books in English (and some Petit Ours Brun also) and I'll look for those in French.

 

I also like Cleo's suggestion about sticking to things originally in French too... and that's a great heads-up about tantrums in Caillou. My toddler tried tantrums for a while but has moved on, and I'd prefer that she didn't go back to them :). I think Babar might be in my future! And the African movies looked interesting -- we run in a breastfeeding crowd so it would actually be nice to have that supported in our movies. I think the language might be beyond us at this point, though.

 

Thanks again!

Anabel

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