Pocoyo is the first English language cartoon I managed to get Nong Grace to watch. And she loves it a lot. What is great at that age is that they don't mind watching it again and again. Which is obviously great for retention and adding new vocabulary. I usually watch with her so that we can talk about what is happening. But, there is interaction with the narrator who keeps asking for help from the viewers. She started watching when she was four years old and when her vocab wasn't too high. I was a bit worried at first that she would get bored as there were many new words. But, she loves the characters. I know Thai kids as young as two watching these cartoons again and again.

Here is a clip from youtube:

You can download many of them from youtube if you like. I have quite a few on my ipod which she watches during car trips. You can also buy the VCD in Thailand. They are being sold at places like Central Department Stores for 120 baht each. There are two versions being sold here. Thai soundtrack and English soundtrack with Thai subtitles. Obviously I bought the latter and pretended there was no Thai. I had bought a DVD cartoon before which could switch languages. She found that out and wanted to watch it in Thai. At least with VCD you cannot switch languages.

There is also a great website at www.pocoyo.com - some games for them to play, wallpaper to download and also colouring pictures. All good stuff to help nourish the interest in this character. We have 14 CDs so far. There are six episodes on each VCD which last 7 minutes each. There are books you can buy in Bangkok, but at about 350 baht they are too expensive. Probably cheaper to make up our own books with pictures from the VCD or website.

She wasn't talking much in English so it didn't seem at first she was getting much out of these. However, it was obvious her listening and comprehension was increasing. Then, when my sister's family came over she started using long sentences straight out of these cartoons. We went to the crocodile farm and she called over to everyone and said "Come over here and look a the big crocodile. It is a very big crocodile." I don't know where that suddenly came from. It is the longest sentence I have heard fom her. She now makes up her own sentences. Sometimes wrong and sometimes just silly. But she is having fun.