Category: 6 years old

6 years old, Taiwan Trip

Planning a Fun and Educational Trip to Taiwan

McG

Many folks online have shared their experience with taking their kids to Taiwan for full Mandarin immersion. It is a bit trickier for me since I don’t have friends or family there. I’ve been to Taiwan twice before but my last trip there was over ten years ago 😬.

The main reasons for 2019 being the year is because:

  1. Age – Last summer as a 5 year old I only enrolled him in activities and classes and no camps. This year as a 6 year old is the first year I signed him up for camps both within the USA and Taipei. Most summer camps are geared for kids entering 1st grade, for good reason. I have noticed him being much more independent this year. (Of course this is varies with personality, some kids being more plucky than others)
  2. Chinese Proficiency – His Chinese is really much better now than last year. Seeing him play so well with some kids from China a few months ago made me feel assured that he will get along with Chinese-speaking peers. I definitely don’t want him to have no clue what is going on or be unable to express himself.

As I was planning out our trip, it was immensely helpful to me to read other blog reviews so I’m typing out our experience to share as well.

Note that some details will be kept private because I am selfish and don’t want others to ‘steal’ my bookings from me.

When to start planning?

I started loosely planning more than a year prior! Here’s a suggested timeline:

A year before:

Summer Camp

Tip: Make lots of real-life and online Taiwanese friends because they can give you invaluable advice! The kind of advice you can’t get from Google.

Many people post online (e.g. Motherly Notes Facebook group, Summer Taipei Kids) about their experiences so read all the posts the summer prior, e.g. posts from Summer 2019 to help you plan Summer 2020. Think about what are your goals as a parent (“academic” or “play based” camp?) and your child’s interests (sports, cooking, science, crafts, outdoors, etc). Then go to their websites and jot down camp dates/costs for 2019 because it will likely be similar for 2020.

Your summer camp decision is THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE. That’s why I listed it first, because every other decision revolves around it. Obviously you need to make sure your flight dates correspond to camp dates, and ideally book accommodation close by.

Once you have narrowed down your camp(s), follow their Facebook page so you get notified when they begin enrollment, usually around April. REGISTER IMMEDIATELY. This is just like in the US where the popular camps fill quickly. You snooze, you lose.

Taiwan has their summer vacation for the months of July and August. There are some camps in June but not many. If you go during off-peak season it will be cheaper (and not boiling lava hot 🥵) but there will not be camps. Of course you can still do activities, classes, travel, or even enroll your kids in school.

6-8 months before:

Flights

I used Google to monitor the flight prices and found that the cost of flights from our city to Taipei ranged from $800 (non-peak season) to $1300 (peak season).

I started being more serious about the dates and booking flights in January. I booked my flights for around $1000 in end January which is a really decent price for peak-season. Many of my friends who booked in February and beyond ended up paying hundreds more per person. Again, you snooze you lose.

Lodging

If you’re staying for a few weeks or months in Taipei, probably your best option is to book an Airbnb or similar. It is more affordable and spacious than a hotel room.

My main criteria was 1) Walking distance to metro station 🚇 and 2) Walking distance to summer camp. Since we have to drop off and pick up every day, I figured walking would be the most convenient.

I found a place that was 1-min walk from MRT and 5-min walk from camp, and you can bet I jumped on it!

FYI, Airbnb does not disclose their exact address so it takes some detective work to find the precise location you want. I did a search for the MRT station I wanted to be close to, short-listed a few apartments, then PM the hosts to ask how far of walking distance to the camp address. I asked three hosts and I got the answers 9 minutes, 15-20 minutes and 5 minutes. Obviously I chose the one that was 5 minutes away. I liked it the best anyway. 😉

Our apartment is small but has a full-size refrigerator and a washer. I did not care about having a full kitchen since I didn’t think we’d be cooking. I also decided to book with a Superhost (high reviews) since this was our first time with Airbnb and I figured we should play it safe.

Having an apartment right next to the MRT station was the best idea ever. Find a place right next to an MRT, not a 10-min walk from MRT, because really a 10-min walk with small whiny children feels about an hour long.

If you’re like me and have never used Airbnb before, you can get 15% off your first trip by clicking my referral link: Airbnb discount!

I suggest booking accommodation in a central location in the city. We stayed in Xinyi District and it was great. If you stay in the outskirts it may be cheaper per night but you’ll pay for it in higher transportation costs and inconvenience.

2-4 months before:

Bank Accounts

  • Do you have a credit card that doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees? If not, apply for one.
  • Do you have a bank account that you can withdraw money at foreign ATMs? If not, apply for one.

A trusted friend recommended Charles Schwab checking account which enables me to withdraw cash at any ATM anywhere in the world for free. This is stupendously useful because I don’t have to carry large wads of cash while traveling and no money changers needed.

I’ve never tried other banks so I can’t compare but Schwab worked great. I easily withdrew cash from any ATM in Taiwan and Singapore. Note: You will need A HECK LOT OF CASH in Taiwan. Many food places and bookstores do not take electronic payment!

Book List

If you’re the over-planning sort (like me), then you probably want to put together your book list in advance so you know what to buy. That way you’re not in the bookstore overwhelmed by choices. Browse around online and get familiar with the prices to get the best deals.

You can order books online from 博客來 etc. in advance and have them ready for pickup at 7-11 when you arrive. This is a good option if you’re only visiting Taiwan for a few days and don’t have time to shop.

Itinerary Planning

Again, being the over-planner that I am, I put together a draft itinerary of all the fun kid-friendly spots that I thought my child would enjoy. After all, the main reason for this trip is to have lots of Chinese exposure and have a blast so that he wants to keep coming back and keep loving Chinese!

Refer to these posts for some ideas of kid-friendly Taipei activities: Motherly Notes: Visiting Taiwan. I’ll blog our favorite places as well over the next few weeks.

I used Google Maps app to save all the places I wanted to eat and play. This made life much easier as I could visualize and go to places close together on the same day.

As you can see, most activities are located in central Taipei. This is why I recommend finding lodging there because towing kids long distances on public transportation and boiling heat is NO FUN.

1-2 weeks before:

Unlock Cell Phone

Check with your mobile phone provider that your phone is unlocked and can accept a travel SIM card. You need to get a travel SIM card so you can have a Taiwanese phone number for your camp to call you in case of emergencies, make reservations, etc.

I initially thought I could get a pocket WiFi and stick with my US phone number but later realized I really do need a TW number. I got called a lot by everyone from the hotel to taxi driver to confirm bookings. And the SIM card is cheap (this is the one we used) and gives you unlimited data!!!

Download Apps

It’s almost crunch time so it’s time to get serious!! Book your airport ride (Taoyuan International Airport is ~45 mins to the city), tickets to museums, workshops, etc etc.

Kid workshops sell out fast so reserve your spots as soon as you possibly can. Taxis can be booked just 1-2 days before.

I don’t like having too many apps on my phone and always try to streamline things but these were absolutely necessary:

  1. Google Maps – must!!!!
  2. LINE – Taiwanese prefer to communicate by texting using this app. This is how I made appointments with hairdresser, taxi driver, etc. while I was still in the US.
  3. Klook, KKDay, FunNow – to purchase tickets for various activities
  4. Uber, Find Taxi – to book rides

Note:

I think a majority of my readers are in the USA. Keep in mind that traveling halfway around the world to Taiwan to a completely different time zone is very harsh on the body. My husband was extremely sick right after we arrived and spent the first two days incapacitated and throwing up.

We arrived three full days before Little Man’s camp started which I had thought was sufficient to get acclimatized. Nope. He was okay at first but then fell horribly ill on the fourth day. Also, due to the time change he kept waking up in the wee hours of the morning and hence was extremely tired by afternoon. All in all, the first week of camp did not go that smoothly due to illness and fatigue.

For me, I did not fall sick but I did not have an appetite for about a week!

On a similar note, one of my teacher friends who brought a group of 7th and 8th graders to China this summer said it was awful as half the students got so sick they almost had to be hospitalized. So yes, the jet lag does some horrible things to your body even if you’re normally a very healthy person.

(Maybe we will try Melatonin on our next trip to ease the symptoms 🤷‍♀️ )

Ideally, give yourself a full week to get adjusted to Taiwan weather and time zone. I also wished I had left a few days at the end of the trip for some free time. There were several things that Little Man really wanted to do again (e.g. Baby Boss, surfing) that we were sadly not able to as there was not enough time.

{Follow my Facebook page and blog for more Taipei updates!}

5.5 years old, 6 years old, Chinese Resources, Reviews

西游記 Journey to the West for Kids (Part I)

McG

Happy summer 2019!

We are having so much fun in the sun and I have been so lazy to blog. But here I am, finally got off my lazy *** to share some of our favorite 西游記 materials for beginners. These materials are abridged for preschool/early elementary age and are introductory level, so don’t expect it to include all the details. The main purpose is to hook kids’ interest.

I’ll start out by saying that I had no interest in Journey to the West when I was a kid growing up in Singapore. I remember it being on TV and my thoughts were that Monkey King and the Pig looked sooooo fake and dumb. I especially hated how Pig’s ears looked glued on and his big belly and man boobs are so ewwwww.

xiyouji

Anyway, things change when you get older right. Especially after you have kids. It’s like you have to force yourself to do things you hate, and then realize that it’s actually not so bad after all. (Am I the only who feels this way?)

Why Read Journey to The West?

  • Reason 1: It is one of the four classics of Chinese literature. There are constant references to it in books, songs, tv shows… Last week, I watched a talk show and someone said her husband has “火眼金睛”, a reference to Monkey King. Yesterday, my son was reading a completely unrelated book and he recognized several characters in there like 牛魔王 (Bull Demon King) and  蜘蛛精 (Spider Spirit) from Monkey King. Like I said, it’s everywhere.
  • Reason 2: It is also a nice stepping stone to other Chinese mythology and legends as it introduces many Chinese “gods” and “goddesses” like Jade Emperor, Guanyin, Erlang Shen, etc. This is also a huge part of Chinese culture.
  • Reason 3: It’s FUN. Both boys and girls will find this story irresistible. Kids really love knowing about each “god” and their “powers” and “weapons” and who is more powerful and who will defeat who (comparison of “powers” is also why my son loves the 小妖怪 series).

Materials We Used

I’ll share what we used in the chronological order that we acquired them.

#1. 西游立體書 3D Pop-Up Book

This was my son’s very first introduction to at 5 y.o. and I think it was a great choice because he was jaw-droppingly WOWED by the stunning illustrations and pop-ups.

3d1
Click here for Taobao link to buy

Unfortunately, I found it difficult to read this book since it didn’t have pinyin and I wasn’t familiar with the character names (although I could probably read it now). My son was also afraid of the “spider” page. As a result he only requested me to read only the first two pages of this book over and over. As I later found out, the first two pages tell the story of 大鬧天宮 (Havoc in Heaven) which is sometimes told as a stand-alone story, so I guess it turned out just fine.

Regardless, this book was the beginning of his interest in Journey to the West so it served its purpose. It really is a lovely book.

#2. Little Fox Chinese

I really recommend these YouTube videos produced by Little Fox Chinese because it’s free, well produced (not crappy homemade videos), and short! Each video is only about 5-6 minutes long and easy to understand, perfect for short attention spans. Little Fox Chinese even has the companion printable books and MP3 for download on their website if you sign up for an account. We didn’t do this because, you know, lazy.

littlefox

These videos really helped my son understand the story. Little Fox is made for Chinese language learners so the language is by far the easiest to understand of the whole lot. This is a great introduction for kids.

#3. 西游記 注音版 Chapter Book (pinyin version)

This book comes in Traditional Chinese (buy from 博客來) or Simplified Chinese (buy from Taobao). What I like about it is each chapter is really short, only about 5-6 pages, so it was manageable both as a read-aloud and for kids to read themselves. The pictures are cute and I like them far better than the numerous other versions out there with ugly pictures.

The story is summarized (a bit too summarized in my opinion) into about 120 pages and a lot of details were left out. But, I definitely feel like it was a worthwhile buy since it was only $2 on Taobao. 👌 This was easier for me to read aloud to him since it has pinyin!

#4. 幼福 金鼎獎西游記 You Fu Audio CDs (24 CDs)

youfu

Link to buy here and here

This is an award-winning audio narration from Taiwan and highly recommended by many parents. I bought it when my son was ~5.5 and we only listened to a bit before he lost interest. It was probably too long and complicated for him at that time.

However, he suddenly picked it when he was 6.5 years old and this time he loved it and listened to the whole thing (12+ hours) in the car over several weeks. Goes to show that sometimes we just have to be patient and wait for kids to be developmentally ready.

Note that this is not an audio book (where someone is reading out a book), but more like an 廣播劇 audio drama (with a narrator and actors acting out parts). There is a lot of sound effects and clinging and clanging and overall very LOUD. I did not like it at first but got used to it after a while. It has a lot of advanced vocabulary and idioms and we both benefited from listening to it.

#5. Back to #3

Shortly after listening to #4, my son picked up the book (listed in #3) and read it. I was beyond thrilled! I just wanted to point this out because it is evidence that listening leads to reading. Having your kids listen to the audiobook first will build their vocabulary and comprehension enough that they can eventually read the book.

#6.米小圈快乐西游记 Mi Xiao Quan Xi You Ji

Link here: XimalayaFM

mi

Mi Xiao Quan is a hugely popular series in China, the equivalent version of Wimpy Kids. I’ve mentioned numerous times how much my son loves Mi Xiao Quan, starting with the original books and audiobooks, then the other spin-off series like idioms and riddles. I recently realized there’s yet another spin-off series Journey to the West.

Unlike the Diary of Mi Xiao Quan audiobooks which are free, the Journey to the West audio cost about $12 USD. Well worth it in my opinion as it is extremely well produced. In the introduction they stated that the author spent six months writing it and they found the best voices in China to record and the best producers for the music.

I absolutely ❤️ it. I like it even better than #4 You Fu CDs listed above because they do a good job of providing lots of details and descriptions. It also includes interesting snippets from the unabridged 原著 Journey to the West – e.g. asking “Do you know how tall the Monkey King is?” then quoting that it says that he is not taller than 4 feet tall. What a good way to introduce kids to the unabridged version!

It is also more “modern” – it is a recent production so the music and sound effects are toned down, not as “old fashioned” as You Fu CDs which were produced in 2003. Nonetheless I think they both have their merit and I don’t regret buying them both.

And… that’s all I have for right now! I am looking for more intermediate-level books and will update more as we get to that level.

6 years old, Audiobooks, Home Library, Kinder Reads, Learning to Read, Magazines, Reviews

Review: 康軒學習雜誌 Top945 Learning Magazine for 3-12 y.o.

McG

There are several Chinese children’s magazines out there but my personal favorite is Top945 康軒學習雜誌.

Magazines are better than books?!

Did you know that childhood experts recommend magazines over books? Magazines provide diverse knowledge and a wide variety of texts like fiction, non-fiction, poems, and interactive content.

Why we love Top945 Learning Magazine:

#1. Well-rounded vocabulary and General Knowledge – I want him to be able to converse on a wide variety of topics in Chinese, not just his limited interests of superheroes, potty jokes and all that useless stuff. 😝

pg1pg2

#2. Mix of real photos and drawings – My son loves the cute characters of Doudou, Nini and Professor Why. They really hold his attention and interest!

doudou

#3. TWO magazines per month for the elementary versions – This basically covers all of my non-fiction needs and is good value-for-money.

#4. Audio CD with every issue!! – Fabulous way for child to acquire advanced vocabulary especially if parent is not a native speaker.

#5. Ideal for busy families – We listen to this in the car and it makes our car trips so so enriching and productive. I don’t need to do anything except hit the play button. Yay for lazy parenting! 😉

The accompanying CD is REALLY REALLY GOOD. Worth its weight in gold in my opinion. My picky son who refused to listen to anything except 米小圈 for the last several months enjoys listening to them. The speakers have perfect enunciation and are very engaging.

Sample clip from CD (PreK-K version). The voices are younger and cuter.

Sample clip from CD (1st-3rd grade version). The voices are more mature and the language more advanced compared to the clip above:

We are listening to them for the second time now because there’s lots of idioms and complex vocabulary that he only understood about 50% of it the first time. The second time listening, his comprehension increased to 70-80%. I explained some key words to him in English as well. I always love materials that are challenging because that’s how kids learn and improve right??

Little Man is not able to read this magazine by himself yet (aside from the comics), so I am having him listen to build up vocabulary. Next year when he is in first grade, I plan on having him read it so he can learn how to read informational text, towards the long-term goal of reading newspapers as an adult.

***I just found out only the US version of Top945 still comes with CD. If you order from Taiwan it will not come with CD but you can download MP3 from their website. ***

Look Inside

Click on the images below to see the inside pages. Full magazines are available online so you can see every page! Wow.

PreK-Kindergarten version 學前版:prek

1st-3rd grade version 初階版:1st

4th-6th grade version 進階版:4th

Supplemental Teaching Materials

Top945 comes with additional materials such activity books, board games and hands-on activities etc., (Click here for details on what is included with your subscription: PreK-K version, 1st-3rd grade, 4th grade and up).

supplemental
Annual subscription comes with activity books, hands-on toys, board games, etc.

Free Gifts!

Exclusive free gifts for my readers: The first 30 subscribers will receive two of the following comic books with MP3 CDs (worth $30)! These are additional to the other free books you will receive when you subscribe to 1 year or more.

These comic books are AMAZING. The quality of the paper and the audio CDs are top notch and my son absolutely loves them. Really recommend to increase kids’ interest in reading Chinese books.

{Click here for review and sample pages of 紅豆綠豆碰 comic books}

U.S. Subscribers

Click on the links below to subscribe to Top945 Learning Magazine (payment via PayPal). In the comments section, type in “Hands On Chinese Fun” to receive your free comic books!

C-Stems is the official distributor of Top945 and other children magazines like Ciaohu and Little Newton in the USA. An issue of Top945 was provided for review. 

Questions or comments? Contact me via my Facebook page!

6 years old, Kinder Reads

Chinese Goals for the Next 1-2 Years

McG

I started out this academic year with very vague notions of what I wanted to accomplish. I wanted him to get “better” in Chinese, but what exactly does “better” mean?

The last few months have been bumbling along trying to balance reading that is neither too easy or too hard, as well as Simplified and Traditional, Pinyin and No Pinyin. 

But I think I finally have a plan. And having a plan makes me happy. Even if I don’t check off all of my goals, so what? We will still have accomplished a lot.

Condensed version of goals for 2019-2020:

  1. Learn 1500 characters by summer 2019 (end of Kindergarten)
  2. Learn 3000 characters by summer 2020 (end of first grade)
  3. Read Zhuyin fluently

Currently Little Man reads books with Pinyin fluently, ~130 characters per min when reading aloud. I think he has made really good improvement in this area because he used to read choppily and pause in all the wrong spots, like right smack in the middle of a 成语. Lately I’ve noticed that he pauses correctly, which is I think mostly due to his improved comprehension and language skills.

His Zhuyin reading is much more hesitant and has errors. I would say he can read Zhuyin probably 80-90% accurately and speed is on the slow side. He is also slow at reading vertical print. I have not measured his reading speed but I’m sure it’s less than 100 characters per min and I’ll really like to bump it up for him to read Zhuyin as fast as he reads Pinyin.

Character recognition is really pesky and annoying. The last few months I got super annoyed and frustrated with his forgetting previously learned characters. And some of them are not even hard ones, mind you. They were characters that he learned in 四五快读 but because he hasn’t seen them in a while.. poof! They’re gone.

Essentially what was happening was that he seemed to forget characters as he learned new ones, the result being that we were STUCK at 1000+ characters and it didn’t feel like we were moving forward and possibly even moving backward. The horror!

But I have since calmed down after realizing that this is totally normal brain 🧠 function and there is a lot of research showing that forgetting is part of remembering. What? Crazy, I know.

A month ago we started using a systematic method of a Leitner box (Spaced Repetition System) to improve memory to a reported 95% retention rate. I won’t go into the specifics because this webpage explains it extremely well and you should read it if you’re interested.

There are digital versions of this out there, such as using the Anki program where other people have already created digital flashcards of first 3000 or 5000 Chinese characters. However I decided to go the old-fashioned way and use paper flashcards. Part of the reason is that I already bought 1500 flashcards from Taobao that I should put to good use, and the other reason is for 6-year-old, I think it is beneficial to have the “hands on” component of holding, touching, seeing, feeling.

Instead of making my own Leitner box, I bought a craft storage container from Amazon. All I had to do it label it from 1-7. It is huge and roomy for hundreds of flashcards! Then I printed the revision schedule online and taped it to the box and we highlight what day we’re on.

We do 5 characters a day and assuming a retention rate of 90%, we should be able to master 1642 characters a year. Presumably then he can get to 3000-4000 characters by 2nd grade and be able to read fluently without phonetic assistance, which is particularly important for Simplified Chinese since there is no pinyin in all the books from China from 3rd grade and up.

I explained the basic principles of the Leitner box to Little Man so he understands the theory behind it. He has also assumed some of the responsibility to review the characters by himself. Since there is pinyin on the back of the cards, he is able to test himself and check if he’s right. This has been a really nice step for us – me letting go of micro-managing and him stepping up with independence.

In case you’re wondering, we are doing only Simplified characters. The reason for this is that Simplified and Traditional are 70-80% exactly the same, and even the 20-30% that are not the same are very similar looking. For myself and most of my friends who grew up in Singapore, we all learned to read Traditional Chinese not through any formal teaching but simply by osmosis from watching TV, reading song lyrics, etc. Little Man has exposure to Traditional Chinese through books and weekend Chinese school, I feel somewhat confident that he can learn it via exposure as well.

Obviously it is too early for me to gauge the success of this method, but it is going well so far. I just have to be patient, patient, patient, and continue trudging along bit by bit, every single day. I will report the results in a year’s time! 😉

6 years old, Bridge Books, Kinder Reads

Chinese Home Library 2019

McG

Happy New Year everyone! Starting off this year with an update on our Chinese Home Library since there’s been massive changes since my last post about it. Our library actually changes quite frequently. Every couple months or so I do a purge and get rid of books that are either outgrown or we don’t like. Life is too short to read crappy books, right?

I estimate that we have about 500 Chinese books in “circulation” at our home library, which is modest compared to others I know, but we’ve barely even read one-third of it!

The factors to consider when building your library is considering your personality, child’s personality, age, Chinese level, budget, space, time, etc. Do what works for you and don’t succumb to peer pressure to buy what you don’t like or need. 😉

Little Man is 6 years old and all our books are for around 5-7 years old, or kindergarten to first grade. Personally I don’t like to buy too far in advance because his interests change rapidly.

Where to buy Chinese books:

90% of my books are Simplified which I buy from Taobao (China) directly. For Traditional books, I buy box sets from Gloria’s Bookstore (USA) and singletons from 博客來 (Taiwan). Generally I stick to Simplified (which is what I grew up with and most comfortable) unless there is a series I really love that is only available in Traditional then I get them in Traditional.

Copy and paste the book names below into the bookstores’ search engines and you will be able to find the links.

What to buy:

My tip for people just starting to build their home library is: buy famous, well-known sets. Well-known books have better storylines, better quality paper, and good resale value. Stay clear from obscure authors and obscure sets – they can be really bizarre or awful quality!

I have included the Traditional Chinese names for them in parenthesis if available. I also linked to book reviews by the awesome Julie @ Motherly Notes. Big thanks for her hard work and time! I always watch her videos to determine if it’s a set I’ll like or not.

How to Organize:

You can see that I organized my stuff into three main categories: Picture Books, Pinyin Books, Bridge Books. Aside from being the most logical way to sort them, it is also because books in the same category tend to be of similar size. For example, all the bridge books are small and narrow and fit well on the rotating bookcase. They are then organized by height from tallest to shortest, and following that, they are organized by color in rainbow order.

And without further ado… I present to you our January 2019 inventory! 

img_8500

Pinyin Series (left to right):

  • 流利阅读 注音版 Set of 4
  • 蜗牛典藏屋 童话故事 Set of 4
  • 老师没说的为什么 Set of 8
  • 米小圈上学记 一年级 Set of 4
  • 小屁孩上学记 一年级 Set of 6
  • 台湾大奖好性格童话故事 Set of 8 (小兵快樂讀本)
  • 罗尔德达尔 注音版 Set of 5 (Roald Dahl)
  • 笨狼的故事 Set of 8
  • 趣味漫画名著：西游记
  • 中国传统节日故事绘本 Set of 10
  • 好宝宝健康成长儿童绘本 Set of 4

Comics (left to right):

  • 紅豆綠豆碰
  • 米小圈 成语漫画
  • 植物大战僵尸 爆笑漫画
  • 闹闹漫画乐园 Set of 5

Picture Books:

You can see our favorite picture books in this blog post. Other picture books I love are 壳斗村 and 蜡笔小黑 (pictured below), 3D 西游记 pop-up book, and 奇先生妙小姐 Mr. Men series.

Bridge Books (3000-7000 characters):

Section 1:

  • 阅读123 第一辑 第二辑 Set of 21 (閱讀123, Reading 123)

Section 2:

Section 3:

  • 中文识字典
  • 儿童财商教育绘本 Set of 10

Section 4:

Section 5:

Section 6:

Section 7:

Section 8:

  • 怪杰佐罗力 Set of 5 (怪傑佐羅力, Zorori)
  • 小妖怪系列 Set of 6

Others:

I have some other sets scattered around the house but I’m too lazy to take pictures of them. 😛 I also update our book display pretty often with holiday-related books or books that I want to “promote” to him. His current interests are Chinese legends and 米小圈.

Questions? Comments? You can follow our updates on Facebook or Instagram.

6 years old, Bilingual Journey

Chinese Home Learning Schedule (2018-2019, Kindergarten)

McG

Hello friends! It’s been three months into the start of Kindergarten for my son and we finally have our Chinese learning routine down. Undoubtedly, some people will find what we do either too darn little or too crazy much. 🤷‍♀️🤣

Social media is really a double-edged sword. It can be inspirational and helpful, but on the flip side, competitive and stressful. As they say, 一山还有一山高. There will always be someone who does things bigger and better, so I just try to do what I can and be okay with it.

What is his current state of Chinese? At 6 years old (~1.5 years of Chinese exposure):

  • Listening and Speaking: A couple of weeks ago, we were at a holiday party and Little Man played extremely well with two 6 and 7 y.o. boys from China (children of visiting professors) and conversed in Chinese for hours. While his speaking ability is below theirs, they had no issue understanding and conversing with one another. 🙂
  • Reading: I have lost track of how many characters he knows, around 1200+. He is more comfortable reading Simplified books with/without pinyin and to a weaker degree Traditional books with zhuyin.
  • Writing: Knows basic strokes and some basic characters. More importantly (to me at least), he is showing interest in writing and often writes on his Boogie board for fun. He is learning to write zhuyin in Saturday class.

We devote most of our time towards listening/speaking/reading and minimal expectations for writing.

Read Aloud

Because my spoken Chinese (Singaporean Chinese) is not the best, my son’s primary means of acquiring advanced language is through read aloud. Most days I squeeze in 30 minutes read aloud and on an extremely good day, around an hour.

I try to select books that target his specific gaps in vocabulary. For example, I felt that he was missing “school vocabulary” and “slang” and hence decided to read him 米小圈上学记, which is the diary of a 7-year-old first grader in China. Through reading aloud this series (now on Book 4), he acquired a lot of vocabulary pertaining to schooling in China.

Follow my Pinterest board to see what we’re currently reading:

readaloud

Daily Routine

#1. Reading

I have him read aloud to me around 15-30 minutes every day. It is usually shorter on weekdays and longer on weekends. I used to pick out the books for him, according to what I deem an appropriate reading level, however lately he has been selecting his own books to read. It’s nice that he is starting to be more confident and self-directed with Chinese reading.

I try not to obsess over reading levels (let it go, let it gooooooo…). We jump around quite a bit, sometimes reading easy picture books and sometimes longer bridge books. It doesn’t matter how easy a book is, there will be at least a few characters he doesn’t know. And it also doesn’t matter how hard a book is, he will read it if he’s interested. So, we’re just going with the flow.

Somehow we ended up with a routine of reading 简体 Simplified on weekdays and 繁體 Traditional on weekends. This enables us to maintain our current level of being able to read fairly decently in both.

Follow my Pinterest board to see what he is currently reading:

readinglist.PNG

#2. Flash Cards

We do a review of 10 characters every day using flash cards (video demo below). This takes around 5 minutes and I have found it to be stupendously helpful in making sure he can read characters in isolation without any contextual clues, and also pay attention to the radicals/meanings for words that look or sound alike 油，邮，由.

We are using a set of 1500 flash cards I purchased from Taobao and randomly review 10 every day. For characters he knows very well, I store away in a box. For characters he made mistakes or is not 100% certain, we do spaced repetition until they are mastered.

#3. Writing

We started the school year using Singapore Chinese textbook 1A, however, after completing it I decided not to continue to 1B. The main reason for this is that juggling Singapore textbook/workbook/exercise book in addition to Meizhou textbook/workbook/worksheets (below) proved to be TOO MUCH for me.

I decided to simplify things and just use one handwriting book shown below. He copies 4 lines every day. I do not bother giving him 听写 to test what he remembers. I periodically supervise to make sure he is writing in the correct stroke order and his writing is acceptable-looking. Again, we are just going with the flow.

Saturday Chinese School

We love our Saturday Chinese School because everyone there is so friendly and it’s great to connect with Taiwanese families and local resources. We had so many fun play dates together last summer!

We spend almost our whole Saturday involved in Chinese activities – 2 hours zhuyin class, 1 hour extension class, 1 hour art class. On top of that we have homework (~30 mins per week) and preparing for tests/exams (~30 mins per week). Not going to lie, some weeks it’s a drag to supervise homework and force myself to review zhuyin with him. Especially since I don’t even know it myself!

In spite of the workload, I really really appreciate our Chinese school because I probably would not have introduced Little Man to Traditional Chinese otherwise. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine my son would pick up both Simplified and Traditional at 6 y.o., something which I did not do until I was in my teens.

So there you go! That’s the state of our busy lives right now. Overall I am just really thankful that I got his Chinese on track before he entered school and now I just have to maintain it.

More challenges up ahead I’m sure, as he gets older and ever busier. 😝

Comments? Questions? Leave me a comment on my Facebook page or Instagram.

6 years old, Chinese Apps, Elementary Music, Preschool Music

Favorite Chinese Kids Music – 7 albums FREE!

McG

My 6 y.o. is at the stage where he is outgrowing classic Chinese kids songs like 《两只老虎》and《拔萝卜》, but not quite ready for pop music. While I don’t think there’s anything wrong with exposure to “teen” or “adult” music at a young age (I remember listening to Mandarin/Hokkien radio a lot with my parents/grandparents), I’m on the search for music that is geared for kids.

A big THANK YOU to the mom who recommended the Taiwanese band Hoop Kids to me. Their music is just perfect, exactly what I’m looking for. It sounds like pop music (and hence more palatable to adult ears), but the content is all very healthy and kid-appropriate.

I recently discovered that all their albums are available for FREE on Ximalaya and I’ve downloaded them to put on my son’s MP3 player. I’ve compiled all the links here for everyone’s convenience.

You can listen to them online or via the Ximalaya app but if you’re like me and want to save them, refer to this tutorial by Guavarama – Technology: Downloading Audio from Ximalaya

 

  1. Children Playground 儿童乐园
  2. The Sky Tree 天空树
  3. The Sweet Home 宝贝我的家
  4. The Love River 孩子的暖暖河
  5. My Honey Baby 亲亲我的宝贝
  6. Welcome Happiness! 快乐，快乐一直来
  7. All is Love 爱你爱我

Enjoy!

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6 years old, English Reading, Kinder Reads

English Reading List 2018-2019

McG

English reading has been on my mind a lot lately and I’ve done some online research and asked experienced friends on how to progress English reading levels. My previous English posts here:

Several challenges presented themselves since he started Kindergarten last month:

  1. Life is very very busy. Aside from full-day school, he has many extracurricular activities now at that he didn’t have as a preschooler.
  2. One of my goals for him is to try different genres instead of sticking to his preferred. I would like to balance reading “fun books” and “classics”.
  3. How to gauge comprehension? Since he is left to read English silently to himself, how can I assess if he really comprehended the book?

This blog post is mainly about how I problem-solved the aforementioned challenges.

#1. Finding Time to Read

One thing that changed since starting Kinder is that he is completely wiped out by 8pm. As in his eyes are all puffy and he can barely keep them open. He has always done most of his reading before bed but clearly this would no longer work.

The other thing I realized is that my son really does best when he reads alone in his room. It’s impossible for him to read in the presence of other people because he wants to snuggle or talk or people watch or whatever. After a bit of trial and error, he now does his reading right when he wakes up in the morning from 7-8am. This is a sufficient amount of time where he is able to either finish a short chapter book or read several chapters from a longer book.

At bedtime I read to him in Chinese and his dad reads in English. He just sits back and listens. I am happy to report that this change in schedule is working very well.

#2. Balancing “Fun Books” and “Classics”

Depending on who you talk to, some will say let your kids read whatever they want. Others will say only let kids read “Montessori style” or “Charlotte Mason living books” or you’ll rot their brains.

I guess I would like to balance both. I read a lot of junk growing up and still enjoy it so I have no issue with my son reading useless crap like Plants vs. Zombies or Dog Man, as long as that’s not the only thing he reads.

Assessing Reading Level

I started by assessing his reading level using the San Diego Quick Assessment shared by Guavarama. I scored him strictly on this test even if the errors were slight, such as when he read “interrupted” as “interrupt” or “develop” with the wrong intonation. I’ve given such tests at work and know that scoring should be done very strictly.

The results turned out pretty much as I expected, with him able to read independently at “3rd grade level” and should be instructed at the “4th grade level”. This of course is not entirely true because he is 6 y.o. and does not have the maturity or comprehension of a true 3rd or 4th grader. In fact I would say that he has trouble reading some “2nd grade level” if it’s not a topic he is familiar with, but can read “5th grade level” if he’s interested and it has plentiful illustrations like Captain Underpants. 

I decided it would be appropriate for him to read books from 3rd-5th grade and found some recommended lists online and bugged my friends with genius kids with lots of questions. Amount of illustrations, size of font, length of book, child’s interests, etc. have to be considered as well.

Creating a Reading List

Several things to note about kids: 1) They like to have choices and 2) They like to see the covers of books. These are stated in Jim Trelease’ The Read-Aloud Handbook and I think holds true for most children.

Of all the books I shortlisted as appropriate for his reading level and age, I made a visual reading list using images from the internet, scotch tape, and a manila folder. It makes it much more captivating to see the pictures of books vs. if I just gave him a written list.

It’s also very important that he has choices vs. me saying this is the assigned book you’re going to read RIGHT NOW.

It’s been a couple weeks and the visual list is working out really well. He has read books I didn’t think he was capable of or interested in!

Two weeks ago:

Now:

I have all the books organized in order of reading level from The Magic Finger AR 3.1 (beginning 3rd grade) to The Mouse and The Motorcycle AR 5.1 (beginning 5th grade). I did not tell him this because it is for my own reference. I do not think AR levels are 100% accurate but are helpful as a guideline. As you can see, he is able to read across a range of reading levels and I do not discourage him from reading something that is “too easy” or “too hard”.

When he finishes a book, he moves it over from the “Books I’m Going to Read” on the right side to the “Books I’ve Read” bookshelf on the left. This is very motivating for him to have a goal and see his bookshelf fill up. 🙂

I also get him “fun books” such as graphic novels and 13-Story Treehouse series from the library. These are no-stress, enjoyable reads. He generally alternates between the “reading list” and “fun books”. After he finishes something challenging, he takes a break for a few days. I also encourage him to try more by the same author if he liked a book. For example after he read Roald Dahl’s The Magic Finger, he was inspired to read Matilda even though it’s not on the list.

#3. Assessing Comprehension

I usually spend most of our time together focused on Chinese and largely leave him to read English on his own. However my concern is how much he comprehends, particularly for lengthy books with few pictures, or books that have a lot of bombastic vocabulary (e.g. Roald Dahl) he may be unfamiliar with.

Anyway, I don’t want to give him a quiz or play 20 questions or have him write a book report. Those are all things I’m not too fond of. Instead, I came across the idea to have him do narration using five-finger retell (blog post about five-finger retell) (blog post about Charlotte Mason narration as a learning tool). Retelling is great not just for comprehension but also improves verbal skills and future writing skills. (How many times have we asked kids a question only to get a jumbled mess of an answer?)

We practiced a few times together with highly familiar short stories such as Little Red Riding Hood, Three Little Pigs, then less familiar stories, before I had him try on his own. For shorter books I have him retell the whole book, but for longer books such as Matilda I have him summarize a chapter. I do not do this every day! It would drive us both crazy. It’s more like every few days or whenever I feel like I need to do a comprehension check.

In Summary…

I feel like his English reading is on the right track and expect that at this rate he can finish this list by the end of Kindergarten or before. We do not have much time for English supplementation at home (no time even for English audiobooks, only Chinese) so this reading list and Lakeshore Daily Language Journal is all we are doing for now.

Questions? Comments? You can follow my updates on Facebook and Instagram.

5.5 years old, 6 years old, Bridge Books, Learning to Read, Preschool Reads

List of Simplified Chinese Bridge Books

McG

Because I’m borderline OCD, I attempted to organize all my bridge book sets by level to incrementally scaffold Little Man’s reading level.

Little Man finished 四五快读 a month ago and we are slowly making headway into reading real books. We are starting with simple picture books to boost his confidence. Because most simplified books have NO PINYIN, there are new characters for him to learn even in the most basic books.

Most picture books are not ideal for beginners due to the small font and distracting background. As such I’m planning to move him into bridge book territory soon due to larger font size and clear black print on white background. (Refer to my post here about differences between readers, picture books and bridge)

Note:

  • I have not read most of them yet so cannot comment on whether they are good or not.
  • They are organized by length of book and difficulty of content. A lot of the bridge books from Taiwan/China have cultural elements that are difficult for my American son to understand.
  • Most of them were purchased from Taobao (read: How to Buy Chinese Books from Taobao), with the exception of Odonata from Malaysia.
  • I use a 3-step process to guide my son’s reading:
    • Step 1. I read the book to him and explain all the unknown vocabulary to him a few days prior to having him read it. This familiarizes him with the story thereby making it much easier for him to read.
    • Step 2. He reads it.
    • Step 3. He reads it again the next day. I always have him read the same book two days in a row. The second time he is always much faster, fluent and reinforces the new characters.

This is a very tentative list! I will update as we go through it. For your reference, he currently knows about 800 characters and reads pinyin 90% accurately.

Summer Reading List 2018

🇯🇵可爱的鼠小弟 (Set of 22, picture books) 5/30/18

🇫🇷 超人兔 (Set of 7, picture books) 6/6/18

🇨🇳 我会读 (Set of 8, readers w/ pinyin) 6/12/18

🇲🇾 Odonata Preschool Readers (Set of 48, readers) 8/19/18

🇺🇸 亲爱的小熊 (Set of 5, bridge) 6/22/18

🇹🇼 聪明孩子安全有绝招 (Set of 12, bridge) 7/4/18

🇺🇸 青蛙和蟾蜍 (Set of 4, bridge) 7/13/18

🇹🇼 乐读123 (Set of 18, bridge w/ pinyin) 8/17/18

🇯🇵 黄色小水桶 (Set of 5, bridge) 8/27/18

Reading List 2018-2019

Update 8/27/18: We completed all the books on our summer reading list – YAY! Little Man currently knows 1000+ characters and reads pinyin fluently. I decided to omit pinyin books from our reading list as he can read them on his own. We will continue to read non-pinyin books together for him to learn new characters.

Due to limited time on weekdays, I plan to have my son read short stories (~1500 characters) on weekdays and longer stories (3000-5000 characters) on weekends. Some of the Reading 123 series has several short stories/chapters per book so I’m putting it in the short story category.

Little Man is quite confident in his reading and has been making decisions on what he wants to read next, e.g. he expressed interest in reading 亮亮 even though it’s in Traditional text. I am happy to follow his lead. I will update this list as we go through it so you get an idea of reading levels and progression.

Short Stories

🇹🇼 亮亮的成長 (Set of 25, picture books, 繁體)

🇨🇳 小豆包，第一辑 (Set of 5, bridge)

🇹🇼 阅读123，第一辑 (Set of 10, bridge)

🇹🇼 字的童话 (Set of 7, short story collection)

Long Stories

🇹🇼 无奇不有魔法学校 (Set of 12, bridge)

🇯🇵 小妖怪 (Set of 6, bridge)

🇯🇵 谁在摇铃铛 (Set of 4, bridge)

🇯🇵 启发童话小巴士，第三辑 Raccoon (Set of 5, bridge)

🇯🇵 启发童话小巴士，第二辑 Refrigerator (Set of 5, bridge)

🇯🇵 启发童话小巴士，第四辑 Witch (Set of 5, bridge)

Questions? Contact me on Facebook or Instagram.