Little Pim

Little Pim is a total immersion foreign language program for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers.  Asianmommy.com received "Chinese:  Playtime, DVD 3" from Little Pim for free.

This DVD is 35 minutes long and is comprised of several short 5-minute episodes.  You'll see children playing with toys, playing dress-up, and playing in the playground.  You'll learn how to say many colors, shapes, toys, articles of clothing, and activites in Chinese.  There is a quick review of the material at the end of each brief episode.

Little Pim features a cute, animated panda bear who bounces around and is very playful.  My 5-year-old giggled almost every time he showed up on screen.  Both my 5 & 7-year-old girls enjoyed this video very much and wanted to see it again.

If you are not familiar with Mandarin Chinese, I would recommend using the English subtitles.  This is very helpful.  You can see a short video preview of the DVD on the Little Pim website.  Little Pim is also available in Spanish, French, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, and English.

What I liked:  The short video clips show children doing their daily activities, while teaching us simple, commonly-used terms.  The vocabulary words are first introduced, repeated, and then used in a sentence.  The panda bear is so adorable!  The brief segments, the sweet music, and the panda bear's silly antics really keep the kids interested in the program.

What could be improved:  I really appreciated having the English subtitles.  I wish that Pinyin subtitles were also available, which would greatly help us to improve our pronunciation of Mandarin.

 *Addendum 9/21/09:  I just found out that Little Pim offers a Pinyin guide for their DVDs in the Parents section of their website.  Also, they are having a contest for bilingual families to win a Little Pim DVD gift set.  To enter, go to:  Our Bilingual Life Contest.  Contest ends Sept 30, 2009.