This post was sponsored by Sagebooks. All opinions are mine and mine alone.
Friends, I should have seen it coming. I mean, I’d like to think that I have some sort of self-awareness, but apparently, I live in the Land of Denial.
[socialpug_tweet tweet=”If you’re like me + only the fear of looking stupid modifies your behavior, take advantage of this self-awareness + use the @SagebooksHK FBgroup to post your #weeklygoals. It makes a difference. #teachkidschinese #accountability ” display_tweet=”If you’re like me and only the fear of looking stupid modifies your behavior, take advantage of this self-awareness and use the Sagebooks Facebook group to post your weekly goals. I promise. It makes a difference.”]
I’d like to think that I practice what I preach, but now I realize that the reason I was so good (well, relatively speaking) about faithfully going over Sagebooks with Glow Worm (~5) every week day was because I had to write a weekly post about it. It isn’t just because Sagebooks is orchestrated so your child can learn the 500 most frequently used Chinese characters in children’s books by building upon previous chapters in a logical, thoughtful way.
I’m not going to lie to you, Marge. It has been tough.
Glow Worm letting Sasquatch cheat over his shoulder.
Without the weekly deadline of writing a post for you and the threat of public humiliation, I have been struggling.
I spent our first official week of summer binge watching (affiliate link) Avatar: the Last Airbender with my children. In my defense, not only is it an awesome show, it’s full of traditional Chinese characters so my kids got a lot of exposure to Chinese. And I did manage
The second week, my kids were in Chinese camp from 8:30am – 6pm and Glow Worm was exhausted after being in Chinese camp from 8:30am – 6:00pm every single day. He was cranky and did not want to read but I managed to still squeeze in 4 sessions.
I feel as if I deserve a medal for managing that.
PRAISE ME. GIVE ME ALL THE PRAISE.
Where Are We?
We started Week 4 at Lesson 2.3:6 (Set 2 Book 3 Lesson 6) and I planned on us at least finishing Set 2 Book 3 by the end of Week 5.
[socialpug_tweet tweet=”My ~5yo says 力/sharp is 男/male because 男 is 田/field + 力. It’s bc traditionally, men plowed the fields with something SHARP. (Boom! That’s your brain exploding w the cleverness of ancient Chinese people!) #sagebookshk #teachkidschinese” display_tweet=”Glow Worm keeps calling 力/li4/sharp/ the character 男/nan2/male/ because 男 is a 田/tian2/field/ on top of a 力. I LOVE seeing Glow Worm make these connections and identifying the different components of a character. I tried to explain to him that the reason 男 is written this way is because traditionally, men plowed the fields with something SHARP. (Boom! That’s your brain exploding with the cleverness of ancient Chinese people!)”]
Did We Do It?
Yes, we did! But full disclosure, I think Glow Worm already knew a few of the characters so though it seems as if I am super awesome, it’s because his Chinese teachers are super awesome. (Not that I would disagree much if you were to say that but, you know… Ahem. I’m waiting.)
What it really looks like when we’re doing Sagebooks.
What Happened?
Week 4 was basically cramming in a lot of lessons on the days we read because I had a feeling I would keep forgetting. (Honestly, June was a rough month schedule change-wise.) Glow Worm still made the same mistakes for the same characters so I should at least be grateful he is consistent in his associations vs randomly guessing. In his mind, he knows what they are. He just needed to translate it from his brain to his mouth.
Here’s a video of him reading Set 2 Book 3 Lesson 13.
Week 5, I was prepared for Chinese camp taking up his entire day and wiping him out so I made extra effort to remember to make Glow Worm read. He finally recalled 能/neng2/can/, 誰/shei2/who/, and 得/de5/(auxiliary). In fact, I think he’d been saying them correctly for awhile, I just finally noticed. He still struggled with 聽/ting/listen/, 邊/bian/side/, 為/wei4/do/, and 呢/ne/(auxiliary), but it’s getting steadily better.
Because we raced through so many lessons and I got impatient with daily review, we finally had to review a lot near the end of the week.
Anything Else?
Cool thing for my language nerds: Glow Worm keeps calling 力/li4/sharp/ the character 男/nan2/male/ because 男 is a 田/tian2/field/ on top of a 力. I LOVE seeing Glow Worm make these connections and identifying the different components of a character. I tried to explain to him that the reason 男 is written this way is because traditionally, men plowed the fields with something SHARP. (Boom! That’s your brain exploding with the cleverness of ancient Chinese people!)
Come on. Admit it. That’s pretty cool, right? And would this be a post of mine if I didn’t include something like this?
Now, I know in my last update, I already mentioned my solution for no longer writing weekly updates. But just in case you do not treasure every single word I write and store them in a special compartment of your brain (rude!), I have taken to going live in our Sagebooks HK Parent Support Group on Facebook.
If you’re like me and only the fear of looking stupid modifies your behavior, take advantage of this self-awareness and use the group to post your weekly goals. I promise. It makes a difference.
Alright. Next week, I’ll be expanding upon another of my tips for making the most out of Sagebooks (and really, learning Chinese in general). Until then, have a great week.
