My son still remembers the Museum of Natural History in New York City, even though it’s been two years since our last visit. Perhaps that is why he enjoyed the book Dear Dinosaur so much. This is the book that inspired my son to write on his own! Really not a big deal, but kind of a big deal fro a kid that doesn’t like writing!
The book is interactive with cards and letters that you have to open to read. I struggled a bit reading the letters as the text does not have zhuyin. Some pages do have big text that is easier for those learning Chinese. I find the big text better for storytime because the kids can read along without having to stop and squint at the characters.
The story is about a boy that becomes pen-pals with T-rex from the museum. I love the details, such as T-rex bites taken out of the pages and child-like crayon drawings. The funny letters and postcards that the boy and T-rex send to each are a great way to introduce the topic of writing letters to children. I have been thinking about having the kids write letters to family in Taiwan since we returned from our trip but they haven’t been to keen on the idea.
After reading the book my son wrote his own postcard to his friend Wendy. His postcard was written in English, which was impressive because he has been in Kindergarten for two months only and we don’t focus on writing English AT ALL. His dad helped with spelling and selective editing (my son wanted to write “love” but dad said no way!) We were all wondering, WHO IS WENDY???
Chinese is a harder to write because although my can read the characters but can’t write them from memory. To help him write a letter in Chinese I created a tracing sheet. I intentionally picked characters he can read and also one or two he is having a hard time learning. My 3 year old joined in and created a letter for her best buddy at preschool. My son decorated his letter for Wendy and asked me to fold his note into a heart. Oh boy…
Chinese is a harder to write because although my can read the characters but can’t write them from memory. To help him write a letter in Chinese I created a tracing sheet. I intentionally picked characters he can read and also one or two he is having a hard time learning. My 3 year old joined in and created a letter for her best buddy at preschool. My son decorated his letter for Wendy and asked me to fold his note into a heart. Oh boy…
