Makaton - Something Special

Once upon a time, I used to watch Ready, Steady Cook everyday. If the normal journey to University took 40 minutes by foot, return journey normally took 30 minutes or less for I didn't want to miss the programme - every 4.30pm Monday to Friday.

Now is a different story. Sarah and Amar dominate what to be watched on tv. I know some parents control what their children can watch and limit the time too. I do not mind my children watching the Cbeebies channel. To me, the programmes are all very educational and informative for the whole family. (I'm hearing some older children retching already!)

Remember we learnt a recipe or two from Big Cook, Little Cook programme? And you don't have to remind me of Sarah's numerous attempts on craftworks from her favourite programme, Smarteenies.

image: kudos Makaton official website (http://www.makaton.org/about/about.htm)

I am so tempted to list every single programme on the Cbeebies channel and share why I think they are very good. But I will just elaborate on one; Something Special. The presenter is Justin Fletcher. We all love Justin! He has this special charm to attract especially young viewers to watch his programmes.

In this programme, Justin uses Makaton signs and symbols that easily fascinate children in the early stages of language development. Sarah has learnt a lot of signs just by watching this programme. She sometimes uses the signs UNintentionally while she talks to us. I find it very interesting and started to learn some signs too. Sometimes Sarah and I test each other if we know so-and-so sign, just for fun.

image: kudos This is Lancashire - Life's one big circus for Justin.

Of course the best part of the programme is the ever so lively Mr Tumble. He is actually Justin dressed up as a clown. Sarah and Amar would stop doing anything just to watch this show. You will even see them rolling on the floor laughing at Mr Tumble's funny facial expressions and Laurel and Hardy sort of gestures. You will get "Mr Tumble is very funny" and "I like Justin" a lot from Sarah.

The above is the only clip I could find on you tube. Not very good quality. But enough to give you an idea what it's all about. Of course you can surf on Cbeebies: Something Special website for more proper videoclips.

By the way, Something Special has already won the Royal Television Society award for best early years programme for the last two years and it recently became a BAFTA nominee for best pre-school programme.

Highly recommended for educational purposes!