If you want your children to learn Spanish or another language in which you’re not entirely fluent, you’ve got some options. Ideally, you’d fly to another country and fully immerse yourselves as a family for a year (we can dream!). Or you could hire nannies and tutors, Gwyneth Paltrow style. Live classes and online Spanish lessons are great, too. But one proven way to give our kids some true, immersive Spanish-language exposure: the magic of television.
Television is how generations of immigrants have learned English, so you know it works. I myself became fluent watching Mexican telenovelas (with a little help from my mother, whom I still curse for not just speaking to me in her native tongue when I was younger). Fortunately, our own children have better options than getting caught up in the tales of scheming ex-wives and innocent peasant girls trying to make it in the big city while falling in love with rich playboys. And they have much more children’s bilingual programing than Elmo learning a word or two of Spanish from a guest-star on Sesame Street. Cable, streaming services, and YouTube have brought us so much more in the way of TV shows for kids available in their original Spanish.
The options we list here come from Colombia, Mexico, Spain, and the U.S., and appeal to children from toddlers to teens. What they all have in common is that they offer contextual clues, easy-to-follow stories, and quality entertainment. That’s far more than your typical Spanish textbook or language app can do. What’s more, if you’re not bilingually blessed, you can watch and learn right along with your kids, and practice with them later too.
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‘La Vaca Lola, La Serie’
Lola the cow started off as sweetly animated song from Colombian kids music YouTube titans Toy Cantando. Now they’ve turned her into a series, with short episodes for the toddler-preschool set.
‘Pocoyó’
You may recognize 4-year-old Pocoyo and his friends, Pato and Elly, from the English-language version of the preschool show that has aired on Nick Jr. and PBS Kids. But before it was so elegantly narrated by Stephen Fry, it was originally developed in Spain. You can catch Castellano episodes on Youtube now, but if you prefer your kids to learn Latin American Spanish, watch it on Netflix with that audio selection.
‘Canticos’
Raise your toddlers and preschoolers to be bilingual from the start with music videos, of a sort. Adorable animals sing adorable songs in English and Spanish for this series, available as a Nickelodeon TV show, YouTube channel, and app.
‘Sésamo’
Regular Sesame Street (especially bilingual Muppet Rosita) is an excellent source for anyone’s first few words of Spanish, but for real immersion, you want the real deal, formerly known as Plaza Sésamo. Play games and watch clips of Elmo, Abby, Comegalletas (Cookie Monster), and more on the Sésamo site and on Youtube.
‘Guillermina y Candelario’
This Colombian show for preschoolers features something we rarely see in kids programing Stateside, or anywhere else for that matter: Afro-Latinos. The short episodes have some standard, easy-to-follow plots set on a lovely Colombian beach. You can’t stream episodes from the official site in the U.S., but you can find episodes on YouTube.
‘Cleo & Cuquin’
Nick Jr. and Netflix also air this Mexican cartoon about a girl who helps her brother solve problems while trying out potential careers for her future. Select the Spanish audio on Netflix to get that language practice in.
‘Dora the Explorer,’ ‘Go, Diego, Go!,’ ‘Dora & Friends’
If what you’re looking for is a sprinkling of Spanish words used in context, the adventurous Nick Jr. character and her friends are a delightful option. Slightly older kids will enjoy her most recent iteration, featuring a 10-year-old Dora in “the city.”
‘Oh Noah!’
In this PBS Kids show, Noah spends time with his grandmother in a neighborhood where no one speaks English, so it’s time for him to learn Spanish, and viewers along with him. It’s a wonderful way for children to develop empathy for non-native speakers of either language.
‘Nailed It! Mexico’
If your children are as enthralled by the sight of adults absolutely failing at something as mine is, they will enjoy Nailed It! no matter what language it’s in. It’s important for everyone to know all the Spanish terms for Mexican pastry ingredients, isn’t it?
‘Elite’
At last, we’re in the realm of series that you may get just as hooked on as your older kids. Fair warning: There is some mature, disturbing content on this Netflix show about class struggles at a private school in Madrid, but it’s nothing worse than you’d see on a CW show.
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