Resources

I am continuing to build up a great deal of resources to support both Poppette and I. The Internet offers so much great content for free. I have also bought a great deal - some things well worth the cash... others less so.

I have found that a great deal of French media is available through the Amazon.co.uk at really competitive prices.

Here's the pick of the things I would recommend.

This page is a work in progress and I expect it will grow organically over time.

Last updated 13th February 2012.

Books

A great little online store selling bilingual books in various language pairs is La Passion du Papier.

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Bonne Nuit

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Martin bébé lutin


Le vilain petit canard - part of a wonderful series of classic tales that have been presented in the perfect way for little hands. Good stiff pages which are easily manipulated, short paragraphs and wonderful textures to touch. Each story also has a lovely pop up page (this can be rather delicate but is always a huge hit with Poppette when she she's the creation jump out from the pages).

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50 Histoires à lire en turbulette - a lovely compilation of short stories and rhymes with beautiful illustrations.

Activity Books

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365 activités avec mon bébé - fantastic book created by Gymboree with 365 suggestions as to how to stimulate your baby's senses. Also an absolute goldmine of baby related vocab.

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365 activites avec mon tout-petit


DVD's

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Trotro L'intégrale - Trotro is a little donkey and is as cute as they come. His stories relate to typical toddler situations and are infused with humour. Dealing with playing, sulking, learning, sharing (or not), laughing, crying etc. Each episode lasts around 3.5 minutes so they are a great length for young ones.

English DVDs with French Language Options

Another non-native Maman who is a friend of mine has done an awful lot of research into which English DVDs can be bought with a French language option (she has also helpfully noted the other available language options). These are often far cheaper to buy (through Amazon.co.uk) than their French counterparts (through Amazon.fr) even before you discount the cost of international postage. Et voilà la liste so far....

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse:
Mickey's Big Splash: French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Arabic

 
Little Einsteins: 
Team up for Adventure: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch
Mission Celebration: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch
The Christmas Wish: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Arabic

Go Diego Go:
Diego Saves Christmas: English, French, Dutch, Portuguese
The Great Panda Adventure: English, French, Dutch
Wolf Pup Adventure: English, French
Safari Rescue: English, French
The Great Dinosaur Rescue: English, French, Dutch
It's a Bug's World: English, French, Dutch
Moonlight Rescue: English, French, Dutch
Diego's Arctic Rescue: English, French, Dutch
Diego's Halloween: English, French, Dutch
Diego's Magical Missions: English, French, Dutch
Lion Cub Rescue: English, French, Dutch
Underwater Mystery: English, French, Dutch

Dora the Explorer:
Dora Saves the Crystal Kingdom: English, French, Dutch
City of Lost Toys: English, French, Spanish
Dora's Christmas: English, French, Dutch
World Adventure: English, French, Dutch, Irish
Super Silly Fiesta: English, French, Dutch, Portuguese
Egg Hunt: English, French, Dutch
Save the Day: English, French, Dutch, Irish, Portuguese
Catch the Stars: English, French, Dutch
Super Babies: English, French, Irish, Dutch, Portuguese
Rhymes and Riddles: English, French
Meet Diego: English, French
Pirate Adventures: English, French, Dutch, Portuguese
Fairytale Adventure: English, French, Dutch, Portuguese
It's a Party!: English, French, Dutch, Irish
Big Sister Dora: English, French, Dutch, Irish
Puppy Power: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch

Winne the Pooh:
Seasons of Givings: English, French, Spanish, Dutch

Handy Manny:
Manny's Green Team: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch
Happy Birthday: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch


Spongebob Square Pants:
Christmas: English, French, Dutch, German, Spanish

The Muppets:
Christmas Carol: English, French, Spanish, Swedish, Norweigian, Danish 

Maisy:
Animals: English, French, Dutch, Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish
Playtime: English, French, Dutch, Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish
Fun in the Sun: English, French


Kirikou:
Kirikou and the Sorceress: English and French with English subtitles


CD's


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Babies first steps in french - This is simply fantastic. The CD, which lasts for approximately an hour, is a combination of rhymes (some sung and some spoken) and spoken phrases entirely in French spoken by French natives. The CD is accompanied by a lyric sheet and a booklet explaining early language aquisition in babies. The idea is that if an infant is exposed to the sounds of a second language before it's first birthday it will have the ability to pronounce the sounds of that language without an accent.
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80 Comptines à mimer et jeux de doigts - 80 short and classic French rhymes with a small booklet containing the words and hand actions that go with each.

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Les Contemimes - brilliant! Completely original rhymes set to really upbeat music. Great for introducing new vocab to young children. The CD comes with a lyric book.

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Mon ABCD des Comptines - another great book/ CD combo.

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Coco et les Bulles de Savon - Coco is a little mischevious monkey who always gets himself into scrapes. This book is part of a collection. The accompanying CD tells the same story and is set to music which introduces certain everyday sounds to children.

Toys

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Vtech table d'éveil musical bilingue

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Vtech tourni piano

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Fisher Price livre interactif comptines

Product Details
Chicco Bilingual Talking Farm

Radio Stations

French Radio London - French radio station aimed at Francophones living in London. The news bulletins are a mixture of Uk and French topical news stories. Music is a mixture of English and French language music. Lots of interesting interviews and discussions.

Skyrock - High profile French radio station playing contemporary music (admittedly a lot of the music is English language based).

Radio Ouistiti - Swiss radio station aimed at children. Lots of stories and children's songs.

These three radio stations each have an iPhone App which can be downloaded so that you can listen to them on the move.

Websites

Mama Lisa's World - International Music and Culture for Kids and Adults.

Click here to read the site in English - http://www.mamalisa.com/?lang=French&t=el
Click here to read the site in French - http://www.mamalisa.com/fr/france.html
This site is a treasure trove containing international nursery rhymes, recipes, cultural discussion etc It has a list of the French and English words to practically every nursery rhyme you can think of along with an MP3 file for most of them. There is an option to view the site in either French, English or Spanish.