kirchara | Entries tagged with curriculum

Living Mandarin is a curriculum expressly written for non-native Chinese speakers. The textbooks use both traditional and simplified characters. The curriculum is not text-heavy, so you would need to add at least one set of leveled readers to teach your child.

The textbooks have traditional characters, simplified characters above the traditional characters (as needed), pinyin under the Chinese characters, and zhuyin to the right of the traditional characters. Traditional characters and zhuyin are black, simplified characters are gray, and pinyin are red. In addition to zhuyin to the right, they also included an older form of romanization underneath pinyin (as needed) in green. I bought levels 3 (my kids' approximate level) to 10.

The text is written horizontally from left to right, beginning from kindergarten levels all the way to level 10. The horizontal orientation is great because most Chinese reading pens only scan horizontally.

The sets I bought did not come with music CDs* or an e-Pen. When you purchase directly from their website, the sets come with CDs. If you can read Chinese and are teaching your children yourself, the CDs and e-Pen are probably not necessary.

* not good music

Living Mandarin sets so far goes up to Level 10 instead of 12:

- Teaching bopomofo (1 textbook + 1 workbook)
- Kindergarten levels 1 to 3 (1 textbook + 1 workbook per level)
- Levels 1 to 10 (1 textbook + 2 workbooks per level)

According to their website, ( Read more... )

You can look at some of the inside pages here:

- My Instagram post
- Issuu pages on their website. Click on each book and click on the "試看試聽" (Take a look/give a listen) tab.

( Pros and Cons of this curriculum )

I am pleased to find that level 3 is the correct level for my kids. I cover the pinyin with a reading ruler when they read and only uncover it when they do not know the character(s). My kids seem to automatically read the simplified characters and do not find the zhuyin distracting. My older one quickly figured out that zhuyin includes tones.

We have been doing Mandarin regularly since summer break. I am hoping this schedule will continue for a while, before things get hectic again. We rotate between Odonata (currently reviewing Book 4.4), SageBooks (reviewing Book 3.4) and XQKD (Book 3 Lesson 3). Sometimes we sing/learn a Chinese song or do a game/activity in Chinese instead.

We go over each textbook lesson in two sessions, and both workbooks in two sessions. For now, I plan on skipping up to half of the writing exercises to cut for time.

My tentative lesson map: ( Read more... )

The new characters in Xue Qian Kuai Du Book Two beyond Sagebooks Level 3.2: ( New characters beyond Sage Level 3.2 )

In total, there are 67 characters in XQKD Book Two that are not covered by Sagebooks 500.

You might want to finish Sagebooks 3.3 or 3.4 first before you start using XQKD Book 3.

My kids are halfway through Sagebooks 3.3, and they're starting the first lesson of XQKD Book 3.

Learning Plan: ( Read more... )

The new characters in Xue Qian Kuai Du Book Two beyond Sagebooks Level 2.1 : ( New characters beyond Sage Level 2.1 )

In total, there are 48 characters in XQKD Book Two that are not covered by Sagebooks 500.

You might want to finish Sagebooks 2.3 or 2.4 first before you start using XQKD Book 2. My kids are currently halfway through Sagebooks 2.2, and they're on the last lesson of XQKD Book 1.

Learning Plan: ( Read more... )

Xue 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:

- 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 include some 'How this character came to be' pages )

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: ( Read more... )

Here is the progression of new characters in Book One: ( 122 characters in 9 stories )

For Sagebooks parents, here are the new characters in XQKD Book One: ( New characters beyond Sage Level 1 )

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） )

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.

Sagebooks Treasure Box allows your children to be able to read every single character in the book except 1-6 new characters that they list at the end of each book. The value of this set is in giving them the sense of accomplishment of "I read an entire story book all by myself."

FYI The Treasure Box books are the exact same width and length as the Sagebooks Basic Chinese 500 books. The Treasure Box paper is more regular (thicker than regular paper) and not smooth and shiny like Basic Chinese 500.

Book Titles: ( Sagebooks Treasure Box book titles )

What we usually do:
1) Listen to the audio CD while looking at the book.
2) Listen and repeat after the audio CD while looking at the book.
3) The kids alternate reading each page. e.g. Brooks reads evens and River reads odds.
4) The kids alternate reading each page, switching the order of odds and evens.
5) The kids read the entire book on their own.

The kids' reading log: ( Read more... )

You can teach your kids Shakespeare from as young as seven. Brooks was 5.5 years old when he had these lines memorized, just because he’s heard River repeat it so often:

Captain of our fairy band,
Helena is here at hand,
And the youth, mistook by me,
Pleading for a lover’s fee.
Shall we their fond pageant see?
Lord, what fools these mortals be!

Here is what River (then 8 y.o.) wrote about A Midsummer Night's Dream:

Oberon, who is furious at Titania, wants the Indian boy to work for him as a squire. Titania replies, "No, this is the son of a beloved friend." Oberon angrily takes revenge by making Titania fall in love with the first thing she sees, a man with a donkey's head. Puck mistakenly puts the flower's juice on the wrong person's eyes. Instead of making Demetrius fall in love with Helena, he ends up making Lysander fall in love with Helena. Since Titania is in love with Nick Bottom and isn't thinking right, Oberon successfully takes away the Indian boy. After he has the boy, Oberon reverses the enchantment on Titania.

I use three books to teach River Shakespeare:

1) Ken Ludwig’s How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare

2) Mary & Charles Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare (This book preserves Shakespeare's language. Don’t get any other Shakespeare “summaries” because it’s useless)

3) my college textbook The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Longman, ed. David Bevington).

Bonus: Gareth Hinds’ Romeo and Juliet graphic novel, which uses actual Shakespeare lines. (The wedding night scene is tame and truncated, FYI.) I personally love his recasting of Romeo and Juliet as other races to show that Shakespeare is universal.

Below is a timeline of River’s Shakespeare journey, from age seven to twelve:
( 7 to 12 years old )

More information about the contents of the books below:

1) How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig
The book website has free audio recordings of the 26 Shakespeare passages in the book.
Get a hardcover because you'll be using this book for years. The edges of the hardcover is intentionally ragged, FYI.

( List of plays and passages in HTTYCS )

2) Tales from Shakespeare by Mary and Charles Lamb
The comedies are rewritten by Mary, and the tragedies are rewritten by Charles.
Your library probably has a copy you can borrow. If you're buying a physical book, be careful to get a good quality one, because some versions are just poorly photocopied pages bound in a book.

( 14 comedies and 6 tragedies )

3) The Complete Works of Shakespeare
You need a college textbook. Don't just get a random compilation because you need lots of good and reliable footnotes. Earlier or later edition doesn't matter; mine is 4th edition (there are now 7 Longman editions). Renting a textbook isn't that cheap so you might as well buy a used, older edition textbook.
The pages of my Shakespeare book is as thin as Bible pages.

+) Gareth Hinds’ Shakespeare graphic novels. We've only read his Romeo and Juliet graphic novel so I don't know what his other Shakespeare graphic novels are like. Merchant of Venice looks promising though.
The paperback is very high quality and have nice thick covers so you don't need to get a hardcover version (unless you want to).
Hinds has also written & illustrated Macbeth, King Lear, The Odyssey, The Iliad, Beowulf and Poe: Stories and Poems.

Our Sagebooks progress used to be super slow, because I was focusing on their pronunciation (reproducing consonants, vowels and tones correctly) instead of comprehension.* I would read to them and have them repeat after me phrase by phrase. They also traced the big characters in front of each Sagebooks chapter with their fingers (pre-writing).

Two years later, after four months of weekly Chinese lessons and near-daily Chinese reinforcement, we follow the Sagebooks suggestion of reading five chapters per session: four review chapters and one new chapter.

e.g. REVIEW the last four chapters in Book 1.1 (也、我、指、五) + LEARN the first chapter in Book 1.2 (两).

The CD has been essential for letting my kids hear native speakers' tone and pacing. My six-year-old rarely makes mistakes with tones, but he's pronouncing the character tones faithfully as if they are in isolation. I tell him that native speakers don't say "I-am-going-to-go-to-the-store," native speakers say "I'm gonna go to the store," and if he reads the tones exactly as they are written, he would sound like a robot.

有人/上山/来我的家.

Initially Brooks inserted pauses at the wrong places for this sentence. I played the CD for him and explained that the sentence is step by step: There's someone/ climbing up the mountain/ and coming to my home.

We've been doing Sagebooks almost everyday** ever since the entire set*** arrived. Brooks passed Book 1.1 assessment**** on July 16th (17/20 characters), and River passed on July 17th (16/20 characters).

~~~

* At 4.5 and 9 years old, their Chinese was near-zero. They would comprehend once they start taking actual Chinese lessons, was my thought at the time. Also, Sagebooks and BetterChinese have English translation right there in the books; I figured they can read it on their own if they're curious.

** We still occasionally read BetterChinese, especially during Chinese playgroups and as the subject comes up (e.g. They needed a refresher on "这是谁?"). Odonata is on hold for now; twelve to fourteen new characters at once is a bit too much. (We read Book 1.2 almost two months ago.)
ETA 10/18/19: We're slowly doing Odonata in addition to Sagebooks and Better Chinese; we're currently on Book 1.4.

*** Previously, we only had four random Sagebooks that my mom bought. Thankfully, one of the four books was book 1.1.

****For Book 1.1, their weekly Chinese lessons have covered eight out of twenty characters: 山、人、大、上、下、手、小、五.
Nine, if you include 一, which does not count toward the 500 character count of Sagebooks.
For Book 1.2, their lessons have covered eight out of twenty characters: 两、十、来、马、去、鸟、天、地.

My tentative lesson map: ( Read more... )

For English reading & writing, I highly recommend Logic of English Foundations. The books, workbooks, sandpaper cards & game cards come in manuscript OR cursive. The game cards are print + manuscript OR print + cursive.

My six-year-old did Level A and 25% of Level B before kindergarten. He's most likely beyond Level B now, but we're going through it anyway this summer to make sure his foundation is solid. You won't need levels C & D unless you're homeschooling, because their kindergarten and first grade teachers will take over teaching them reading.

Foundations can be overwhelming if it’s your first time teaching kids reading/writing. Otherwise, it’s designed to be open-and-go. It’s pricey, but it teaches reading AND writing AND spelling. Both Brooks and I find the workbooks, games & activities engaging.

Here’s my low-budget recommendation: Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading. I vastly prefer it over Teach Your Child How to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, which has nonsensical/uninspiring sentences and passages. When using EZ Lessons with River, I ended up making my own sentences (mostly Curious George stories). If you're going to spend that much time and effort, you might as well go with Ordinary Parents' Guide instead.

☆ 08/100 moments in multiples of 50 words

Cathy Duffy reviews Foundations (Logic of English): One of her top picks

“Foundations is a little more advanced than some other programs if you begin with A and B at kindergarten level. […] A covers some first-grade level standards as well as those for kindergarten while B covers even a few standards for second grade.”

Cathy Duffy reviews The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading

“The only extras you need along with this book are flashcards and a magnetic board with alphabet letters or tiles.”

P.S. It might cost you $0 to use Ordinary Parent’s Guide because your library probably has a copy in circulation.

P.P.S. Although I highly recommend All About Spelling, I feel All About Reading is nowhere as comprehensive as Logic of English Foundations.

I bought Odonata Leveled Readers after reading Chalk Academy's review. The first four sets come with pronunciation CDs, which is a huge plus. The voice of the speaker is pleasant (not grating/cloying) and very clear.

Odonata readers teach 12-14 new characters at once instead of one new character at a time (SageBooks). Brooks was at first resistant and wanted to "read SageBooks everyday" instead. The second time we read Odonata Book 1.1, he realized that the book was not too much beyond him and started paying attention.

During repetitions within the book, I establish meaning and check comprehension by:

1) Reading the first sentence in Mandarin (repeating after the CD)
2) Translating the first sentence into English, pointing at the corresponding Chinese words as I say the English translation
3) Reading the second sentence in Mandarin
4) Point to the second sentence and ask, "英文怎么说" (How do you say it in English?)
5) If they hesitate, repeat steps 1-2. Point out words and tell them what it means.

I plan to go over each book in 3-5 sessions, depending on their comprehension (prior exposure/knowledge to characters and vocabulary, etc.)

We have been doing Mandarin six days out of the week. (They get a break from me on the day their teacher comes.) We rotate between BetterChinese (8-page picture books), SageBooks (Almost done with Book 1.1), and Odonata as I see appropriate. We’ve done one TPRS circling so far. Sometimes I read a Chinese picture book to them instead. Sometimes we go over flashcards, sing/learn a Chinese song/poem, or do a game/activity in Chinese. I usually save the game/activity for a "fun" break/ending when Brooks is getting antsy or uncooperative.

When Brooks is off doing his own thing (sometimes Chinese-related, sometimes hula-hooping a few meters away while listening), I focus on River who needs more Chinese repetitions anyway. Thankfully, River still doesn't find the books childish*.

* I told him that my reading level is at Chinese children's books (really a bit worse because I probably only have ~20% of a native Chinese kid's vocabulary).

☆ 07/100 moments in multiples of 50 words

My tentative lesson map:

( Read more... )

List of the 40 book titles: ( Read more... )

(Originally posted on July 2, 2017)

Even though they're 4.5 years apart, I have been teaching River and Brooks Mandarin at the same time. Ideally, I should have had Brooks learn Mandarin the moment he turned four, but I started teaching him reading (in English) instead.

We use Better Chinese's My First Chinese Words because they are targeted to non-Mandarin speakers. In contrast, SageBooks (Hong Kong publisher) require the students to be Mandarin/Chinese speakers. (SageBooks are like BOB books in that they teach children how to read).

I try to do Mandarin two, three times a week. I read one sentence and each child repeat after me. We do two 8-page picture books each session. Brooks usually has the attention span for one picture book but not two.

So far we have done six sessions. In between sessions, I have J independently listen and repeat after the included CD.

Brooks often acts silly and intentionally gives the wrong answers (e.g. "This is my grandfather" instead of "This is my father.") Usually I end up focusing on River when Brooks has the sillies.

As expected, Brooks' pronunciation is just beautiful. Being older, River has a harder time with pronunciation. (When River was four, his Mandarin accent was practically perfect too. Once he started kindergarten, we got busy with reading/writing/spelling/poetry/etc. and stopped doing Mandarin).

I was afraid that River, who just turned nine, would find the books boring because they’re a bit childish, but he has been motivated so far. Earlier today, he asked me to do Mandarin.

☆ 06/100 moments in multiples of 50 words

~~If we do this three times a week, we should be done in a year; two times a week, a year and a half.~~

My tentative lesson map:

( Read more... )

List of the 36 book titles: ( Read more... )

Last week Brooks sang the vowels "a" and "o" in the middle of a reading lesson. "They're vowels," he said. "Can we sing 't'? T - t - t. No, 't' is not a vowel. It's a consonant," he concluded.

We have been going through Denise Eide's Foundations Level A since Brooks turned four last December. Almost every day we do read aloud time and then a reading/writing lesson for 6-10 minutes, or more. Nearly three months later, we are on lesson 17 and he has learned 9 phonograms.

Unlike 100 Easy Lessons, Foundations spend a long time laying down the foundation (pun intended) before tackling reading words. Students learn the "magic C" alphabets/phonograms first, because those are the easiest to write (a, c, d, g, o, qu). Compare this to learning 'm, s, p, a' first, where students will be able to read 'am, map, Pam, Sam' immediately.

In this program, reading words come at level 21 (after Review #4), and it is reading through spelling/writing. Foundations is more daunting compared to 100 EL and All About Reading. Then again, three months ago I would never imagine M sorting vowels and consonants by applying the singing test on them.

P.S. 'How to Develop Phonological Awareness' at All About Learning.

☆ 05/100 moments in multiples of 50 words

I told J that in Shakespeare, comedies mean happy endings, and therefore there’s always a wedding in Act V. I gave them the example of Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Me: "How about Twelfth Night? Who do you think get married in Act V?"

J: "Olivia and Cesario."

Olivia/Cesario's Willow Cabin speech must have made quite an impact on them ;-)

I have been using Ken Ludwig’s How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare with J (then-7-y.o.) since summer 2015. They have learned passages from MND and Twelfth Night (Orsino's "If music be the food of love," Viola's "Conceal me what I am," and the willow cabin speech.) The book also provides summarized plot of the plays for context.

J did memorize several poems before we dove into Shakespeare. Both of us knew that they were perfectly capable of memorizing entire poems, including long ones.

☆ 04/100 moments in multiples of 50 words

I've been using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with my five-year-old. We started when he was four (and in preschool), and we're currently on lesson 52.

I felt uncomfortable relying on his kindergarten teacher to teach him reading, and I was right. The reading abilities of the 26 kindergartners are all over the place—the six-year-olds understandably being a lot more advanced. (My kindergartner has a summer birthday.)

Most of 100 EL's example sentences are nonsensical, so I come up with sentences/passages for him to read. We will keep on with the book until lesson 70ish.

☆ 01/100 moments in multiples of 50 words

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kirchara

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Page Summary

Learning Mandarin with 蓝天生活华语 (Living Mandarin)
Using 学前快读600字 Book 3 and Sagebooks together
Using 学前快读600字 Book 2 and Sagebooks together
学前快读600字: Recommended Addition to Sagebooks
Sagebooks Treasure Box reading log
How to Get Your Kids to Love Shakespeare, from as young as age seven
Learning Mandarin with Sagebooks Basic Chinese 500
08 • Recommendation for Homeschoolers & Parents of Preschoolers/Kindergartners
07 • Learning Mandarin with Odonata Leveled Readers (幼儿首100字 etc.)
06 • Learning Mandarin with My First Chinese Words (Better Chinese)
05 • Learning reading with Foundations (Logic of English)
04 • J on Olivia and Cesario
01 • 01 • Learning reading with 100 Easy Lessons

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