This post was sponsored by Sagebooks. All opinions are mine and mine alone. 

As much as I love progress, sometimes, the best choice we can sometimes make for our children is to slow down and review. None of my children enjoy this, but Glow Worm (5) particularly hates it.

So, despite finishing Set 4 Book 1 within the first day or two of Weeks 11&12, we spent most of the next two weeks reviewing the characters because even though Glow Worm zoomed through the book, he didn’t retain the words.

WHERE ARE WE?

We ended Week 10 most of the way through the first book in Set 4. I had initially hoped to be finished with the second book by the end of Week 12 since we seemed to be on track for a book every two weeks.

DID WE DO IT?

Nope. Not even remotely close.

I mean, I guess we eventually got to Book 4.2 but we barely cracked the surface.

What Happened?

It’s not because we weren’t going over the curriculum, it’s more that we had to review a lot. And it was frustrating for all parties involved. Also, I’m not sure it made a difference.

Whatever the reason, we reviewed 3-4 lessons every weekday – and by we, I mean Cookie Monster (9) and Gamera (7) took turns doing so. Yes, yes. During the last update, I said that likely because the older kids were in charge of reading with Glow Worm, they did not make sure he knew the characters before moving on and their main purpose was to blaze through the lessons.

That’s still the case.

Don’t judge me.

Sometimes, it’s all I can do to keep my children alive. Let’s just be happy that my kid is actually reading Sagebooks, okay?

What Else?

On the days I actually attempted to read with Glow Worm, I was reassured that at least when he misidentified characters, it was because they were similar looking or the same topics or subject matter. For example, he kept mixing up 娘(niang2) with 狼(lang2) because they share the 良(liang2) sound component. This makes me happy because at least he is looking at the character components vs guessing blindly.

However, it would make me a LOT happier if he looked at CONTEXT and guessed based on THAT. This tells me his vocabulary level is not high enough because he cannot guess from context. This also tells me that I need to stop listening to BTS CDs in the car and start listening to Chinese storybooks again. Which makes me sad inside.

I have been telling myself to swap out CDs for months now. I don’t know that it will happen anytime soon because BTS is dropping a new album in 2.5 weeks.

STOP JUDGING ME. I CAN HEAR IT FROM HERE.

Anyhow, here is Glow Worm reading Set 4 Book 4 Lesson 19.