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kircharaXue Qian Kuai Du teaches children to recognize characters by reading a set of leveled literary readers. It's similar to Odonata in that they introduce several new characters at once. Compared to other leveled readers that I've seen, XQKD is superior in that it's more literary (the text often feels rhythmic and lyrical). XQKD also includes poems, nursery rhymes and riddles.
Xue Qian Kuai Du: Revised Edition* comes with:
There's a QR code that you can scan for audio of the 45 stories. The speakers have a Beijing accent; the background music is soothing.
The textbooks have a few pages of "How this character came to be." The reader includes 12 quizzes to check comprehension and a list of new characters not covered by the textbooks.
The background for the story pages in the textbooks and reader is a muted speckled yellow-green, which is more restful for the eyes compared to bright white. They also have pleasing ink painting illustrations.
At the end of each textbook there is a "Wow! I can now read ___ characters!" certificate, which includes new character list from that textbook. Additionally, at the end of the fourth textbook there are essay, story and poem samples from a third grader, two fourth graders and a fifth grader.
Your kids do not need to be able to write Chinese in order to use the exercise books (This set is written for children age 3 - 7). They just need to be able to write 1 to 4, draw a circle, draw a line, and paste stickers on a page. My kids can write Chinese characters, so they write in the blanks instead of pasting on stickers or writing 1 to 4.
If you cannot read Chinese, I wouldn't recommend this as your first/only curriculum because it has no pinyin.
For those doing Sagebooks, this set would make a beautiful addition/supplement to the Sagebooks curriculum. I bought my set for $35 from JD.com (including shipping to the US; you probably can get a better deal during the November 11th sale).
If your child has learned 100 Sagebooks characters, they should be able to pretty easily read Stories 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3.
How we have been doing XQKD so far:
I plan to slow down starting Story 1.4, which has five-ish new characters for my kids. We'll take a break and progress further in Sagebooks (we're currently in the middle of Sagebook 2.1), then revisit this set again.
Here is the progression of new characters in Book One:
For Sagebooks parents, here are the new characters in XQKD Book One:
(This list does not include the first 100 characters covered in Sagebooks level 1.)
1.1 还 (Sagebooks level 2). My kids know 还有 from Odonata.
1.2 公园 (Sb 2), 爷爷 (yé ye), 奶奶 (Sb 3) and 沙 (Sb 3). Learned 爷爷 from BetterChinese etc.
1.3 从 (Sb 2), 落 (Sb 3), 兴 (xìng). Learned 高兴 elsewhere.
1.4 春 (Sb 2), 风 (Sb 2), 吹 (Sb 4), 枝 (Sb 4), 芽 (yá), 绿 (Sb 2), 暖 (nuǎn), 发 (Sb 3), 飘 (Sb 4). My kids know five of these, but not well.
1.5 找 (zhǎo), 乐 (Sb 3), 翻 (fān), 河 (Sb 2), 定 (Sb 4). My kids know the 找朋友 song.
1.6 当 (Sb 4), 布 (bù), 娃娃 (Sb 3), 喂 (wèi - to feed).
1.7 买 (Sb 4), 每 (Sb 3), 它 (tā), 浇水 (jiāo shuǐ - to water plants etc.), 放 (Sb 2), 阳 (Sb 2), 绿 (Sb 2), 像 (Sb 2), 真 (Sb 2).
My kids also learned 她 and 它 when they were learning 他.
1.8 森 (sēn), 林 (Sb 4), 住 (Sb 2), 着 (Sb 2), 羊 (Sb 2), 牛 (Sb 3), 青 (Sb 2)
1.9 古诗 (gǔ shī - classical Chinese poem), 烟 (yān - smoke; mist), 村 (Sb 5), 亭台 (tíng tái - pavilion), 座 (Sb 4).
In total, there are 14 characters in XQKD Book One that are not covered by Sagebooks 500.
* The old edition of 学前快读600字 does not include many of these extras. Many of the stories in the textbooks are also different. Here's a comparison of the revised and old editions (The review is readable using Google translate).
List of the story titles in the four books:
《学前快读600字（修订版）》
1.1 我的家
1.2 去公园
1.3 下雨天 <-- Here we are at October 28.
1.4 春风
1.5 小马找妈妈
1.6 过家家
1.7 草娃娃 <-- November 26.
1.8 好朋友
1.9 古诗：一去二三里 -- classical Song dynasty poem -- 山村咏怀 (Shān cūn yŏng huái)
2.1 一起玩
2.2 青蛙
2.3 很黑很黑
2.4 小鱼游
2.5 宝宝画画 + extra riddle 画 (classical Tang poem)
2.6 盖新房
2.7 谁会飞？
2.8 海边
2.9 古诗：赋得古原草送别 -- classical Tang poem
2.10 下雪了
2.11 有趣的成语 -- ten Chinese idioms
2.12 纸飞机
3.1 蝴蝶
3.2 谜语（打一自然物质）-- riddle; remember to cover the answer beforehand
3.3 不要紧
3.4 古诗：山居秋暝 -- classical Tang poem
3.5 月亮的味道
3.6 有趣的汉字 -- Chinese characters: 日月明, 鱼羊鲜 etc.
3.7 比一比 -- Understanding textbook instructions: Compare which block tower is taller; count which bamboo plant has more/fewer leaves, deduce which white cabbage is heavier/lighter.
3.8 鸭妈妈的房子
3.9 怎么睡觉
3.10 黑熊过桥
3.11 排第几位
3.12 把秋天带回家
4.1 古诗：登鹳雀楼 -- classical Tang poem
4.2 板凳歪歪
4.3 酱油
4.4 不如意的一天
4.5 谁呀？
4.6 谜语（打一自然现象）-- riddle; remember to cover the answer beforehand
4.7 动手做一做
4.8 蒲公英
4.9 在花园里
4.10 冰棒的发明 -- How ice pops were invented
4.11 开学了
4.12 数学问题 -- math problems
You can look at some of the inside pages here:
Summary of important purchasing information:
Xue Qian Kuai Du: Revised Edition* comes with:
- four textbooks (totaling 45 stories)
- one I-can-read-by-myself reader (12 short stories)
- four exercise books
- 600 character flashcards (thin and one-sided)
- two wheels of character radical games
- a game instruction booklet
- two list booklets (radicals, antonyms, idioms etc.), and
- some stickers.
There's a QR code that you can scan for audio of the 45 stories. The speakers have a Beijing accent; the background music is soothing.
The textbooks have a few pages of "How this character came to be." The reader includes 12 quizzes to check comprehension and a list of new characters not covered by the textbooks.
The background for the story pages in the textbooks and reader is a muted speckled yellow-green, which is more restful for the eyes compared to bright white. They also have pleasing ink painting illustrations.
At the end of each textbook there is a "Wow! I can now read ___ characters!" certificate, which includes new character list from that textbook. Additionally, at the end of the fourth textbook there are essay, story and poem samples from a third grader, two fourth graders and a fifth grader.
Your kids do not need to be able to write Chinese in order to use the exercise books (This set is written for children age 3 - 7). They just need to be able to write 1 to 4, draw a circle, draw a line, and paste stickers on a page. My kids can write Chinese characters, so they write in the blanks instead of pasting on stickers or writing 1 to 4.
If you cannot read Chinese, I wouldn't recommend this as your first/only curriculum because it has no pinyin.
For those doing Sagebooks, this set would make a beautiful addition/supplement to the Sagebooks curriculum. I bought my set for $35 from JD.com (including shipping to the US; you probably can get a better deal during the November 11th sale).
If your child has learned 100 Sagebooks characters, they should be able to pretty easily read Stories 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3.
How we have been doing XQKD so far:
1) Read the story, translate new characters/words as necessary
2) Listen to the story audio
3a) Read the story again for pronunciation and fluency
3b) Occasionally check for comprehension: "英文怎么说" (How do you say it in English?)
4) Listen to the story audio again
5) Do the exercises
I plan to slow down starting Story 1.4, which has five-ish new characters for my kids. We'll take a break and progress further in Sagebooks (we're currently in the middle of Sagebook 2.1), then revisit this set again.
Here is the progression of new characters in Book One:
18 new characters (Story 1.1) + 15 (1.2) + 12 (1.3) + 14 (1.4)
+ 12 (1.5) + 11 (1.6) + 13 (1.7) + 13 (1.8) + 14 (1.9)
totaling 122 characters.
For Sagebooks parents, here are the new characters in XQKD Book One:
(This list does not include the first 100 characters covered in Sagebooks level 1.)
1.1 还 (Sagebooks level 2). My kids know 还有 from Odonata.
1.2 公园 (Sb 2), 爷爷 (yé ye), 奶奶 (Sb 3) and 沙 (Sb 3). Learned 爷爷 from BetterChinese etc.
1.3 从 (Sb 2), 落 (Sb 3), 兴 (xìng). Learned 高兴 elsewhere.
1.4 春 (Sb 2), 风 (Sb 2), 吹 (Sb 4), 枝 (Sb 4), 芽 (yá), 绿 (Sb 2), 暖 (nuǎn), 发 (Sb 3), 飘 (Sb 4). My kids know five of these, but not well.
1.5 找 (zhǎo), 乐 (Sb 3), 翻 (fān), 河 (Sb 2), 定 (Sb 4). My kids know the 找朋友 song.
1.6 当 (Sb 4), 布 (bù), 娃娃 (Sb 3), 喂 (wèi - to feed).
1.7 买 (Sb 4), 每 (Sb 3), 它 (tā), 浇水 (jiāo shuǐ - to water plants etc.), 放 (Sb 2), 阳 (Sb 2), 绿 (Sb 2), 像 (Sb 2), 真 (Sb 2).
My kids also learned 她 and 它 when they were learning 他.
1.8 森 (sēn), 林 (Sb 4), 住 (Sb 2), 着 (Sb 2), 羊 (Sb 2), 牛 (Sb 3), 青 (Sb 2)
1.9 古诗 (gǔ shī - classical Chinese poem), 烟 (yān - smoke; mist), 村 (Sb 5), 亭台 (tíng tái - pavilion), 座 (Sb 4).
In total, there are 14 characters in XQKD Book One that are not covered by Sagebooks 500.
* The old edition of 学前快读600字 does not include many of these extras. Many of the stories in the textbooks are also different. Here's a comparison of the revised and old editions (The review is readable using Google translate).
List of the story titles in the four books:
《学前快读600字（修订版）》
1.1 我的家
1.2 去公园
1.3 下雨天 <-- Here we are at October 28.
1.4 春风
1.5 小马找妈妈
1.6 过家家
1.7 草娃娃 <-- November 26.
1.8 好朋友
1.9 古诗：一去二三里 -- classical Song dynasty poem -- 山村咏怀 (Shān cūn yŏng huái)
2.1 一起玩
2.2 青蛙
2.3 很黑很黑
2.4 小鱼游
2.5 宝宝画画 + extra riddle 画 (classical Tang poem)
2.6 盖新房
2.7 谁会飞？
2.8 海边
2.9 古诗：赋得古原草送别 -- classical Tang poem
2.10 下雪了
2.11 有趣的成语 -- ten Chinese idioms
2.12 纸飞机
3.1 蝴蝶
3.2 谜语（打一自然物质）-- riddle; remember to cover the answer beforehand
3.3 不要紧
3.4 古诗：山居秋暝 -- classical Tang poem
3.5 月亮的味道
3.6 有趣的汉字 -- Chinese characters: 日月明, 鱼羊鲜 etc.
3.7 比一比 -- Understanding textbook instructions: Compare which block tower is taller; count which bamboo plant has more/fewer leaves, deduce which white cabbage is heavier/lighter.
3.8 鸭妈妈的房子
3.9 怎么睡觉
3.10 黑熊过桥
3.11 排第几位
3.12 把秋天带回家
4.1 古诗：登鹳雀楼 -- classical Tang poem
4.2 板凳歪歪
4.3 酱油
4.4 不如意的一天
4.5 谁呀？
4.6 谜语（打一自然现象）-- riddle; remember to cover the answer beforehand
4.7 动手做一做
4.8 蒲公英
4.9 在花园里
4.10 冰棒的发明 -- How ice pops were invented
4.11 开学了
4.12 数学问题 -- math problems
Look at the picture below and answer:
1) Count how many bunnies are on the left? On the right? Which group has more bunnies?
2) Left group + right group = how many bunnies?
3) How many black bunnies are in the picture? If all the black bunnies went elsewhere, how many bunnies are left?
4) Circle the third bunny from the left.
5) Can you come up with another math problem and solve it?
You can look at some of the inside pages here:
- My Instagram post
- A Sohu.com review comparing the revised and old editions. The revised edition is the book/page on the left, the old edition is on the right.
- A Zhuanlan Zhihu review comparing Xie Qian Kuai Du: Revised edition with Si Wu Kuai Du. The reviewer prefers XQKD, but SWKD has an easier/lower starting point.
Summary of important purchasing information:
- Product name in Chinese: 《学前快读600字（修订版）》(XQKD 600: revised edition) or 礼盒版：学前快读600字 (Gift box edition: XQKD 600)
- Where to buy: Product listing at JD.com. You will know right away what your shipping fee will be. The product weighs 2.68 kg, according to JD.com.
- How to Buy Simplified Chinese Books from JD
- You can also buy XQKD at taobao, but you will need to do your own research on which store/seller is reliable etc. and pay for expensive shipping.
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