Done with Sagebooks 1.1

My first Sagebooks blog post was exactly 1 month ago! I am happy to share that we are FINALLY done with Sagebooks 1.1. This is the first book of 25 books and we have a long way to go.

臭雞蛋’s Progress

My 2 year old daughter is our little bookworm. Her brain has an amazing ability to retain everything. Another mom taught us 瓢蟲 (ladybug) when we saw one at the park a few weeks ago. She still remembers even though I’ve never used 瓢蟲 since that day. My daughter learned her first few Chinese characters practically on her own!

She completed Sagebooks 1.1 a couple weeks before her brother and we are holding off on starting book 2 until he catches up. She so badly wanted to learn the next book that she got it out of the box herself! Below are the learning activities my 2 year old daughter really enjoyed.

臭豆腐’s Progress

Learning to read Chinese been a real struggle for my son. At 5 years old I thought he would be ready to learn Chinese characters. In fact, I held off for a couple years. His dad wanted him reading by age 3 and boy does he remind me of his disappointment! Then there’s added pressure because my son knows his baby sister is learning faster than him. They are so competitive!

The difference between them is that my daughter enjoys learning, but my son isn’t interested. We have been taking it slow to prevent him from associating negative feelings with Sagebooks. When he gets frustration or resists reading the book, I put the it away and move onto another activity. Here are three activities he loves asks to do again.

Children learn on their own pace. Not all children respond to traditional learning methods. Writing practice can be effective because it forces your brain to visualize the character and write the strokes. The repetition helps with character retention. However, my son really dislikes writing practice. And I get it! To a 5 year old, writing practice is super boring! What helps my son are educational games and activities. Here are a couple other ways I helped him learn the characters from Sagebooks 1.1.