The Grand Old Duke Of York And Other Favourite Nursery Rhymes [1993]
My toddler s favourite video - I was initially somewhat hesitant to buy this because of the rather crude picture on the cover and the lack of other reviews, but this has turned out to be a gem. Over 40 traditional nursery rhymes and action songs, sung and performed by a group of over a dozen girls and boys of various ages and races. The words of the songs appear as subtitles, helping the parent to remember or learn them and sing along--even my husband who is Greek has learnt a few songs already. As a linguist I would say that is the beauty of it: by sheer repetition--with memory aided by cheerful catchy tunes, the rhymes and the moves--the viewer/listener is learning sometimes complex grammatical structures and advanced lexical items, parts of the body, prepositions and some concepts, pleasantly and almost subliminally. I am also pleased by the authentic British accents, Seeing real children doing the moves, the littlest ones sometimes getting mixed up, is fun for my 16-month old who is an only child and does not see other children regularly. A generous 52 minutes running time, unlike the usual 1/2 hour or so of most child videos.I have already ordered a second copy for a friend and anticipate having to buy another for my son when this one wears out!