This week’s Parent Spotlight is Ying.
She has three children and although her first two children didn’t fit with the Sagebooks curriculum well, her youngest has been doing well with the series. All the children will read along with Ying if she reads to them and they enjoy a variety of picture books, several different sets of early readers, low level magazines, and fun comic books that have zhuyin.
FAMILY BACKGROUND (in her own words)
Both my husband and I were born in Taiwan. He and my brother both completed 1st grade and can read pretty well; they both attended Chinese school on Saturday.
Me with my Kindergarten level Chinese didn’t have much a foundation in zhuyin or pinyin so I’m glad to be learning at least 500 basic words with my kids.
CHILDREN
12-year-old son (started but didn’t finish)
9-year-old daughter (started but didn’t finish)
5-year-old daughter (started: ~3-4yo; currently at: near the end of Building Reader and beginning of Confident Reader)
IN HER OWN WORDS
1. Why did you choose Sagebooks?
I wanted to learn to read and also learn to read with my kids.
2. What was your experience with going through Sagebooks?
I did it with all 3 but by far the youngest finished the most of level 4 before we slacked off. The other 2 it didn’t take as well as with my youngest daughter. She’s reading Sagebooks’s level 3 and 4 (Building Reader and Confident Reader) text books.
3. What did your typical lesson look like? Did you do additional activities?
Initially it was a new word a day, review all previous lessons, then back to highlight word of the day and that chapter.
4. What did you like about Sagebooks? Was there anything you didn't?
I like the audio so I didn’t always have to read it. I was sad didn’t receive CDs and that the online audio files sometimes skipped chapters or were completely silent so I had to download the files.
5. If you have more than one child, would you do it again?
Yes. I went through it 3 times. Once with each child when they were about 3-5 years old.
6. Any advice for parents who are just starting?
If you just do a chapter a day, try to squeeze in 3-4 times a day. Review can be done quickly, too.
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Thank you so much for your answers, Ying! We love how you introduce so many types of books to the children in order to build up a love of stories and a foundation in the Chinese language. Your incorporating of Sagebooks as part of helping them read other books is what we love to see. We also admire your tenacity of spirit and willingness to persevere in Sagebooks with your youngest.
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