One of the numerous reasons I decided to learn Welsh was so I would feel ‘allowed’ to watch children’s programmes in Welsh.
Watching telly in Welsh is a baptism of fire, but as long as you don’t get frustrated with the speed and not understanding much to start with, I think that it’s a great way to improve listening skills and pick up vocabulary, it has been great to hear and understand some of the phrases I’ve learnt with SSiW.
Children’s telly is easier as it is it is possible to work out the gist of things as it is much more visual , so learning the colours, the weather etc. I particularly love ‘Sbridiri’ where art is made, so you can see what they are talking about.
Anyway, I’ve just watched ‘Dwylo’r Enfys’ [Rainbow hands]’. The programme is aimed at children learning Makaton, a simplified sign language. The advantage of this is that everything is said slowly with Makaton sign gestures, so you will pick up a bit of sign language too! It is I believe Southern Welsh, but I would highly recommend it for anyone’s first dabble into the wonderful world of Welsh language telly.
I, too, enjoy the programmes S4C has to offer for children (and us adult learners who are at a similar language level as the kids!) As I’m doing SSiW (Gog), I particularly enjoy “Y Diwrnod Mawr” as most episodes feature children from the North of Wales. Plus, it’s available to us international viewers!
I am infamous for watching a lot of programmes with my little poodle! She probably understands more Cymraeg than English, possibly more than I do!! We like: Octonots, Y Dywysoges Fach (largely for the very funny antic of Pws and the dog), Guto Gwningen, Llan-yr-gollen (for Ceri’r Ci) and a few others! I am 74 going on 6!!!
As a fan of radio who grew up with childrens hour and listen with mother, could I put in a word for Stori Tic toc on Radio Cymru.
Sounds like you have one awesome poodle! Also, I can’t help but think that this would make for a fun children’s programme (yn y Cymraeg, of course) in and of itself. Behind the scenes with Henddraig and Her Poodle… 
Our kids are on the verge of out-growing Cyw now, and have thrown themselves with a mad passion into all things Star Wars in the last few weeks - but the other day, one of them put Cyw on, and it was Tili a’i ffrindiau, and I realised (with a faint sense of horror) that I had genuinely missed Dwynwen the crocodile and Fflur the chicken.
I did watch a lot of ‘cyw’ programmes at the weekend! I think the advantage of watching a specific programme [dangos neu rhaglen?] is that the programme repeats the same formula of events, you get used to the vocal style of the presenters/characters and kind of zone in on what they are saying, so you start hearing individual words and know the gist of things, rather than just hearing a spew of Welsh sounds.
For example, last week when listening to the radio could pick up more of what the presenter was saying, when they were discussing the passing of rock legend, David Bowie , because I knew about David Bowie, being a fan, when they went on to talk about something else I lost the gist.
Think you are on to something here. This is partly why I mainly listen just to a small subset of radio programmes and read books by the same author… (Bethan Gwanas until I run out). Other authors are available, I’m told…
This is why I like to listen to the news on Radio Cymru. I’ve usually read the news already in English so I can figure out what they’re talking about, which really helps when trying to understand the actual content.
On today’s ‘Dwylo’r Enfys’ they encountered a JCB (a company name which makes working vehicles, known for diggers) In Welsh it’s ‘Jac Codi Baw’ ? , but this seems to mean, from a dictionary ’ a getting up dirt Jack’ is this correct?. They even gave a Makaton sign for JCB! This is wonderful!
I think of codi as getting up in the morning, literally it means ‘to rise’. My Geiriadur gives baw as dirt, filth, dung, muck!!! Just what little boys like to play with!! (And some little girls, too!)
Can also mean “build” (perhaps “erect”). It was @ramblingjohn who put me on to that one; diolch John.
There’s a cute little program called Cwm Rhyd a Rhosyn that is really easy to understand and is only 5 minutes long. A lady called Gwyneth Glyn narrates and sings and she has the most beautiful northern accent, I could listen to her all day.
Thanks, gruntius! That’s a really lovely show I hadn’t seen before. When I was studying with the OU my tutor told my to listen to Gwyneth Glynn to improve my accent. She does have a lovely voice.
So she doesn’t just do that show, good to know. What else has she done?
I was told to search on youtube. All I found were her songs.
There’s this thing called ‘Google’ - you put words into it (like ‘Gwyneth Glyn’) and it tells you stuff. I think you’ll find it handy… 
Wyneb Dros Dro is the album I like best. Favourite performance was her singing ‘Adra’ at Grav’s funeral at Parc y Strade.
Oh, I remember that! I’m sorry, I can’t say “I was there”, but I saw it on the tele!
So sad. Such a man!
Then that’s what I’ll do from now on, no need to ever post on here again. 