Author’s Note: Sagebooks HK is sponsoring The Sagebooks Challenge as we chronicle Glow Worm (4) and I going through their series for the first time. I am also guest posting on their Sagebooks HK Blog where I will be providing a time tested tip and a fun activity to help support you and your child as you go through the sets.
Welcome to our fifth week going through the Sagebooks HK Basic Chinese 500 series with Glow Worm (4).
This week, we made progress with book 1.3 and went at a decent clip.
WHAT IS SAGEBOOKS?
Sagebooks HK Basic Chinese 500 is a series of 5 sets of 5 books that teach your children how to read the top 500 high frequency characters in children’s books. You can find out more here.
QUICK BACKGROUND
I am an ABC/T and speak Mandarin 85% of the time to my four children (8, 6, 4, 1). My husband, Hapa Papa, only speaks English. We homeschool bilingually in Chinese and English and my older two children have already gone through the Sagebooks HK Basic Chinese 500.
Glow Worm, (4) currently knows about 50 characters and this is the first time we are going through Sagebooks. He currently splits time between two Chinese preschools for 3 hours a day, 4 days a week.
GOAL FOR WEEK 5: BOOK 1.3:1-7*
I was very proud of us for finally making good progress last week so I wanted to keep up the momentum and shoot for 1 new character a day.
HOW DID WE DO?
I was very tired this week so I fell off the wagon and only reviewed Sagebooks with Glow Worm 2-3 days. We also tried to review by playing Old Maid and Go Fish but honestly, it was mostly playing with Cookie Monster (8) and Gamera (6) because the games were too hard for Glow Worm. He was bored and just wanted to play the fishing game which was much more his speed.
HOW DID WE DO IT?
We skipped a lot of days. *hides* I have not been taking care of myself so I am low on energy and not being good about reading with Glow Worm. He’s still a good sport and will read his books when I ask him to. However, the first day, when he saw the new character, 到/dao4/arrive/ in Book 1.3, he immediately wanted to stop. Glow Worm chose to review Book 1.2 instead because he was too intimidated.
When Glow Worm realized the next few characters were ones he already knew, he was much more willing to go through the book. I’m beginning to sense that he’s a lot more like Gamera than I thought because he does not like doing things that hard for him just like her! Although, I suppose when you think about it, who enjoys feeling stupid? I have to work on him being willing to tolerate the discomfort of not knowing something so that he can learn new things.
Again, I would count the review games I did for the Sagebooks HK Blog except that Glow Worm found the games too hard and didn’t play. But he did sit in my lap and review some characters with me.
SAMPLE PICS AND VIDEOS
Glow Worm was a good sport this week and allowed me to take pictures of him reading. He’s my third kid and I still don’t understand how they’re so wiggly and squirmy and can get any reading done while moving around so much. As usual, Sasquatch (1) insisted on “reading” and participating.
Here you can see Glow Worm goofing off on his reading of Set 1 Book 2 Lesson 2.
Here, Glow Worm is reading Set 1 Book 3 Lesson 1:
Difficulties
Like last week, the main difficulty this week was on my part and not of Glow Worm’s. I don’t know why I always forget that if I want to be consistent with my children, I have to make sure I get enough sleep and food. Also, we do need to work on having Glow Worm push through the fear of not knowing a character instead of always choosing the easy path. However, since he’s been good about reviewing previous books and happy to do it, I’m not too upset.
Some Observations
I wish there were some pithy remarks for this week, but alas, I do not have any. Next week, though! Maybe?
Sagebooks Challenge Application
Are you hitting an exhaustion wall like I am or are you plugging along faithfully? Have you tried any of the activities I posted at Sagebooks HK Blog? Have you dropped in the Sagebooks HK Parent Support Facebook Group? Let me know in the group (or the comments).
See you next week!
* I refer to the Sagebooks in this formula: Set#.Book#:Chapter#. So, if I am referring to the first set, book 3, and characters 14-16, it looks like: Book 1.3:14-16.
