When I was a child we did not have a tv in our home, but Grandma, next door, would let us watch select cartoons when we visited her. Some of our favorites were Bible Cartoons.
Many, many of the Bible stories that came to life for me as a child, and still come to mind often as an adult, are the ones I learned through those videos. The exciting thing is that my kids can still enjoy those same videos, learning the same stories and truths I did in English and in other languages.
Learning Spanish with Videos
Watching the cartoons in both languages allows them to grasp the conversational Spanish as well as the facts in both languages. Often we are talking about a Bible story and they will mix their words, or they will tell me the story in English when I know they watched it in Spanish. This means that they are learning them together, interchangeably. And because they are Bible stories it means we are teaching language, Bible and character lessons together. They are one of our favorite things to watch as a family.
Here are the Bible Cartoons we have found in Spanish:
The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible
These are a 13 video series produced by Hanna-Barbera featuring 3 young archeologists who get transported back in time to be “eye witnesses” to different Bible Stories. The interesting thing is that as kids, the time transport thing is not at all odd and does not take away from the stories, even though some of the conversations surrounding them are obviously fictional.
You can purchase the set as streaming video or DVDs from Amazon.
But you can also watch them in Spanish on YouTube. I am just listing a few for each. There are many more there (just please be careful of the YouTube ads at the beginning. They can be very inappropriate for kids):
- Joseph and his Brothers
- David and Goliath
- Daniel and the Lions Den
Super Book Bible Cartoons
In 1981, The Children's Broadcasting Network (CBN) came out with a series of animated Bible stories where the main characters (who also travel back in time to participate in the stories) were created in a Japanese style. The purpose of the series was to reach the Japanese nation with the Gospel, but they soon became a success world wide. Recently the series, known in English as Super Book has been updated to more “modern-looking” characters, but our family still prefers the older version. You can also find them in Spanish on YouTube:
- Isaac and Rebecca
- Joshua and the Battle of Jericho
- The Prophet Elija
Flying House Bible Cartoons
Another one is Flying House. This is from the Amazon description:
Come visit a house that flies back in time, carrying an absent-minded professor, three fun-loving kids, and a quirky little robot to action-packed adventures in biblical times. “Flying House” transports the viewer to the ancient biblical kingdom of Israel to meet people and witness events that changed the course of history. Fantastic miracles, intriguing characters and exotic locales fill every episode as the time-travelers take part in great moments from the Bible. They also learn meaningful lessons about love, kindness, honesty and other important values that change their lives. “Blast Off for the Past”
You can purchase these volumes on Amazon HERE. They have fewer Spanish videos available than the other two.
And don't forget about the closed caption options! See the Spanish as you hear it!
Have you viewed these with your kids? Have you tried them in another language? I would love to know what you thought of the experience!
See also:
- The Missionary Story bilingual videos we mentioned in this post
- The Dilo Conmigo Free Spanish Videos for Kids Created by Our Family
Visit the other posts in this series by clicking this image:
31 Days of Homeschool Spanish is sponsored by Classes By Beth.