I feel that if you are going to let your kids watch TV or youtube videos, you may as well get them to watch stuff in another language, especially if they are learning it at school.  Kids watch stuff for the animation, and often don’t seem to bother that it is not in English!

A good series to watch is the FUN FUN ELMO （乐乐ELMO） made by Sesame Streeet.  It is completely in Mandarin, but made especially for learners of Mandarin as a second language, so it is repetitive and easy to follow.  The series is available on Youtube.  Here is episode 1 for you, but just search for all 26 episodes.

A big thing I always stress to parents, don’t worry about your kids needing to know what every word translates to in English…as adults we tend to need this, but kids don’t！ They just go along with the entertainment value, but they don’t completely switch off when they hear another language like adults do, they are actually listening and taking in the flow of the sounds.  If Chinese videos /cartoons are watched over and over in the early years, the chances of native like fluency later on are MUCH greater.

The lyrics to the Hello song are here:

你好 你好大家好, 在你身边我很开心

你好 你好大家好, 我们一起来找乐趣

有更多有趣的事情, 有好多朋友一起玩儿

你好你好大家好, 在你身边 我很开心

你好 你好大家好, 让我们一起来玩儿

你好 你好

nǐ hǎo nǐ hǎo  dàjiā hǎo, zài nǐ shēnbiān, wǒ hěn kāixīn

nǐ hǎo nǐ hǎo dàjiā hǎo, wǒmen yīqǐ lái zhǎo lèqù

yǒu gèng duō yǒuqù de shìqing

yǒu hěn duǒ péngyou yīqǐ wánr

nǐ hǎo nǐ hǎo  dàjiā hǎo, zài nǐ shēnbiān, wǒ hěn kāixīn

nǐ hǎo nǐ hǎo dàjiā hǎo, ràng wǒmen yīqǐ lái wánr

nǐ hǎo nǐ hǎo

Translation:

Hello Hello , Everyone Hello! By your side, I am happy, Hello Hello, Everyone Hello, Let’s find fun together, There are many interesting things happening, There are many friends to play with, Hello, Hello, Everyone Hello, By your side, I am happy, Hello Hello, Everyone hello, Let’s all play together, Hello Hello!