Learn Chinese for Kids

15 Tips for Using Sagebooks

Sagebooks*A/N: For more information and a basic background about Sagebooks, please refer to my previous posts or GuavaRama’s previous posts. This post is part of a mini-series on Sagebooks and might not make as much sense without context. 

So, now that you’ve purchased your Sagebooks set and are ready to go, what now? Well, the books are designed so well that really, you only need to go through the books a chapter at a time.

However, since I’ve gone through the set with Cookie Monster (6) and am halfway through with Gamera (4), I have come up with a few tips that may help.

Here we go:

1) Be fluent in Mandarin. 

I know. I sound like a jerk, but it’s true. So true that I felt it important to reiterate, and if you care about why, follow the link.

Remember, Sagebooks was written for people who speak Chinese and live in a Chinese environment. It was NOT written for people learning Chinese as a second language.

2) Do Sagebooks with other people. 

By that, I don’t mean that you have a Sagebooks class with other kids. (Although, if you want to, that’s great!) I just mean that you each are going through Sagebooks on your own timetable with your own kids in your own home.

Even though mentally I realized that someone else’s child being “ahead of” or “behind” my own children’s progress had no actual effect on Cookie Monster or Gamera’s Chinese character retention, it was still a helpful goad. Use your natural competitive tendencies for good, not evil!

The main reason why it’s helpful, though, is that the kids have a shared experience (and so do you). You have peers you can ask questions or discuss ideas with. Your kids know that they are not the only people in the world learning these books.

You can even record videos of your kids reading excerpts as well as have them see other kids reading excerpts. This way, they can see that there are other kids going through the same thing. (Okokok. Really, just to show off. Who cares if it makes them want to learn?)

Similarly, if you have more than one child going through Sagebooks, it works the same way. Cookie Monster had been a bit lazy with his readings and often bragged that he knew a lot more characters than Gamera. However, when he realized that his little sister was catching up to him (she zoomed through 2 sets very quickly), that knowledge lit a fire under his ass and he scrambled to keep his “lead.”

As long as it doesn’t damage your kids psychologically, I have no problem using good-natured competition to get things done.

3) Be consistent.  

When I first started with Cookie Monster and Gamera, several days (sometimes up to a week) would pass before we would go through the books again. Since I really wanted to make sure they remembered the characters we went over last time, we started books over many a time.

That was incredibly frustrating.

Just avoid that altogether by being consistent. (And by that, it doesn’t have to be every day – but perhaps no more than 1-2 days apart. Especially if you are literally starting from scratch.)

4) Stop immediately if your kid is tired or frustrated. 

Pay attention to both yourself and your child.

It may seem counterintuitive but as soon as you notice either your own or your kid’s impatience or frustration, stop. (Even if it is just slowly creeping upon you.)

Pushing through rarely ends well.

In our house, it usually ends up with me yelling and being super demanding and Cookie Monster wilting and shutting down right before my eyes. It does no one (especially Chinese) any favors to associate learning of any kind with such pain and suffering.

I noticed also that when Cookie Monster is physically or mentally tired, he not only has a hard time remembering new characters, he even has difficulty recalling characters he used to know previously.

Just stop.

Chances are, like Cookie Monster, your kid will remember everything the next day once they’re rested and in a better mood.

5) Spell the character out in zhuyin. 

If your child knows zhuyin, consider spelling trouble characters out in zhuyin. No idea why it helped in some instances, but it almost became a mnemonic device for Cookie Monster.

6) Use context and visual clues. 

If Cookie Monster had trouble with a new character, I would usually flip back to the original instance he learned the character. Something about the combination with the original sentences and illustrations associated with the character would often be enough to jog his memory.

7) Use the Treasure Boxes.

I have heard that some kids find the Treasure Boxes boring and hate them. My kids enjoy them and are excited that they can read a book entirely on their own. This then reinforces the characters they have already learned.

Sometimes, I will go back to the Treasure Boxes instead of reviewing certain readers – both for my sanity and my kid’s.

8) Have your older child help your younger child.

Not only does this make your job easier in the sense that you get to do less work, but your older child will get practice reading and helping someone else with the characters. They say that new skills don’t sink in until you can teach someone else – so this is one way to help the characters go deep.

I’ve used Cookie Monster to help Gamera double check a character when she reaches one she forgot and I’m either driving and can’t see, or doing something else. I’ve even had Cookie Monster quiz Gamera with flashcards.

9) Flashcards can be helpful but not as helpful as reading in context.

A corollary of this would be to remember that even if your child can’t remember when you use flashcards (as is the case with Gamera), that doesn’t mean they don’t know the character. Try to see if your child remembers characters better in context. That certainly held true for Gamera and honestly, I would rather she know a character due to context than be able to rattle off a ton of flashcards.

10) Have your kids read other children’s books in Chinese.

You’ll be pleasantly surprised at just how many words they will know. Again, because Sagebooks is designed to use the 500 most frequently used characters in children’s books, your kids will be able to read many of the characters. Cookie Monster, and even Gamera, can read the majority of children’s picture books because they recognize 90-95% of the characters.

Plus, once your children see that they can use the characters they’ve learned in other contexts (and that they can read a LOT of a book), they get really excited and build confidence because of their increased competence.

For a good list of children’s picture books, I refer you to Guavarama’s excellent post.

11) Comprehension matters.

This should be part and parcel of your Chinese Language Ecosystem (CLE) anyway, so explain what phrases mean (in English if it helps). The more Chinese your children understands, the more quickly they will pick up new characters. Again, I refer you to my previous post on why that is.

12) Encourage younger children to observe you teaching your older children. 

Gamera picked up several characters Cookie Monster couldn’t remember by proximity alone. They retain more than you think.

13) Repetition of trouble characters help. 

However, not just endless drilling. I use a method my piano teacher taught me for passages I couldn’t quite get down.

The purpose of Mrs. Joanne McNeill’s method was to not only build up memory of the part you didn’t know, but to also use muscle memory to bridge between the parts you did know and the parts you didn’t. 

For example, let’s say your child is having trouble remembering 瓜 (gua/melon) in the sentence, “我愛吃西瓜.”

Usually, our instinct would be to just drill 瓜 until we think they’ve got it only to be annoyed that our child still can’t read the sentence and always stops at 西. This is because they haven’t connected the new character with the characters they already know.

So, here is what you can do:

a) Have your child repeat 瓜 a few times.

b) Then have your child repeat 西瓜 a few times.

c) Then have your child repeat 吃西瓜 a few times.

d) Repeat the process by adding the previous character one at a time until they can read the full sentence without stumbling.

It seems so tedious and useless, but it works!

14) Move on. 

Sometimes it just takes time for things to “click.”

I can’t tell you how many times Cookie Monster and I reviewed Book 4.3. I want to say we spent at least a week on it and no matter what I tried, he couldn’t recall the characters. We were both incredibly frustrated.

However, once I “gave up” and just decided to move on, it turns out that in the later readers Cookie Monster actually remembered the characters that he previously had a LOT of trouble with! I have no idea why – and quite frankly, I don’t care. I’m just happy that the characters snuck in.

15) Age matters.

I know as a society, we are often obsessed with “the earlier the better.” After all, isn’t that why we’re teaching our kids Chinese at such a young age? Don’t our brains ossify and become worthless once we hit a certain age? We have to get them while they’re young, right?

Well, that is true to a certain extent. However, sometimes, it’s not a question of innate talent or ability, and more about developmental stage.

Gamera is certainly as smart (and in some areas, smarter) than Cookie Monster. She certainly has an incredibly memory (albeit, different than Cookie Monster’s). And yet, she just doesn’t have the attention span to blaze through a ton of new characters. She wants to tangent and look at the pictures, or play, or tell her own stories.

That’s ok. I’m in no hurry with her. She’s only four.

So, keep your child’s age and developmental stage in mind. Sometimes, if you just wait a few months or years, it will go much easier for you.

Alrighty, folks! A reasonably lengthed post from yours, truly. It might be time to buy a Powerball ticket. (Oh, wait. Someone already won in Chino Hills.) Ah well. Happy Friday, then!

Author

Virginia Duan is the entertainment editor for "Mochi Magazine," a freelance writer, and an Asian American author who writes stories full of rage and grief with biting humor and glimpses of grace. She spends most of her days plotting her next book or article, shuttling her children about, participating in more group chats than humanly possible, and daydreaming about BTS a totally normal amount.

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