Little Chinese Board Books for Babies and Toddlers

Another series of fantastic Chinese board books for babies and toddlers!

"Counting in Chinese", "Starting in Chinese Part 1" and "Starting in Chinese Part 2" 

I met the author when I was visiting a Chinese school in London 3 years ago, she was one of the parent at the school and very enthusiastic about children learning Chinese. I remembered we discussed about the shortage of good quality Chinese books for young children learning Mandarin in this country. 

She said has been thinking of writing books for babies and toddlers. To be honest, I did not take it seriously until a year later, she called and told me she is working on her first board book "Counting in Chinese". Since then, she has also written another 2 books "Starting in Chinese Part 1" and "Starting in Chinese Part 2" focus on Chinese radicals. 

All books are designed with careful thought based on her experiences of herself and her children who learn Mandarin in foreign country. Not only the books are in excellent quality (like those DK baby board book, if you get what I mean), the contents are great too:

(1) It shows you the stoke order of each character on a separate page for little finger tracing.

(2) Evolution of Chinese characters and their structure pattern on a separate page

(3) Eye-catching real life pictures on every page - babies and toddlers will easily understand the meaning by looking at the pictures

(4) Vocaburary tablewith English translation

(5) There is pinyin, English translation, sentence example for every word.

(6) Lastly, and the most important criteria, the Chinese word is BIG enough. Babies and toddlers able to "spot" the Chinese word easily. To me, my baby pays more attention to BIGGER Chinese characters. :)

The picture says it all, have a look at a below picture for the books:

"Counting in Chinese", "Starting in Chinese Part 1" and "Starting in Chinese Part 2" £4.99 each book Or Buy all 3 for £13.47

Chinese Idioms for Children

I have been searching Chinese idioms story books which suitable for my 7 years old. Many are too difficult for her to understand, I tried to read a few idioms books to her, but she couldn't understand most of the Chinese characters on the books and just couldn't bring up her interest. Two months ago, I received a set of Chinese Idioms books by Better Chinese, the books are for beginners to intermediate level. The sentences used in the books are very simple and easy to understand. There is also summary of story in English, vocaburary table and some questions and answer in the book.

I read 对牛弹琴 (playing instrument to an Ox) to my daughter in Mandarin, she laughed her head off as she understand the whole story, and she even able to translate into English. Very impressive. The next day, she becomes very adventurous, keen to read another idiom by herself without my help. I let her try 井底之蛙 (Frog in the well), she was able to read 90% of the characters. She has learned 6 idioms so far and have fun using some idioms in certain occasions, (although sometimes not very appropriate) in a funny way.

There are plenty of good Chinese books around these days, and not difficult to buy. Personally I feel that to find books that "tailor-made" for each individual need, you really need time and effort to search around.

If your child is around age 7-10 years old, capable of reading most of the books in "My First Chinese Words" by Better Chinese /learn Mandarin for at least 2 years/can recognise 100 Chinese characters and above/needs more challenging reading books, I would highly recommend this Chinese Idioms books.

A summary pictures of the books as below.

Stories of Chinese Idioms about Abilities (Beginners/Intermediate)  £11.00

Stories of Chinese Idioms about Aminals (Beginners/Intermediate)  £11.00

Chinese reading books for very young children (Age 2 and above)

There are more parents sending their young children to learn Chinese. How to keep the children as young as 18 months interested in this new language is really a challenging job. Teachers play a big part, in my opinion, a happy and friendly teacher will make the job easier. At home, parents who are non native speaker are encouraged to play some Chinese children songs or DVD to stimulate their brain. Let the toddlers familiar with the tone or perhaps some Chinese characters posters/flash cards with eye catching pictures on it. I found my 19 months baby tries to recite小白兔 (Little Rabbit poem) after a few months of "Little Rabbit" stimulation by me. It really works!

My new story books for toddler arrived last week, tried it on my 19 months old again. I tried the book "Numbers", pointing to the picture and count  一, 二, 三, 四。。(one, two, three), she is trying to copy my tone. Today, she is looking at the book "Magic Mirror" and point to her eyes, nose, mouth when I read them in Mandarin to her. I will highly recommend this set of books for parents who has young child learning Mandarin (but I won't let my girl touch the complimentary stickers yet!).

Below is the pictures of the new books, please refer to xihaha website (www.xihaha.co.uk) for more information.

PEP High Five Pre-school illustraded Chinese for Kids £17.82 for 4 books

or purchase £4.95 per book