Reading and Writing Mandarin Chinese for Homeschoolers
/Two weeks ago, I published a guest post by Alisa, a homeschooling mom of three who has successfully taught her children Mandarin Chinese—despite the fact that she herself doesn’t speak it (what dedication!). In that post, she shared her favorite audio resources for teaching speaking and listening skills in Mandarin. Today, she’s back sharing the resources that have helped her kids learn to read and write in Chinese. If you’re learning Mandarin at home—or considering it for the future—these are a great place to start!
*Some of the links below are affiliate links—meaning that I receive a small commission (at no cost to you) for any purchases made through them. For my full disclosure policy, click here.
Resources for Reading in Mandarin:
Sagebooks
An expensive, but literally magic, resource for your child to learn to read in Mandarin is Sagebooks. Heritage Chinese parents rave about how effective and easy it is to use to teach your children to read 500 characters. Using spaced repetition, the child easily picks up each new character and the books contain pinyin and an English translation as well as an app with audio. They are available in traditional and simplified Chinese. One really needs the “Sage Formula” set - the readers and the treasure box. I didn’t get the treasure box set at first and found I really needed it and it cost me more to buy it later than if I had bought the whole set. Though I cringed at the price I haven’t regretted it at all. My son who had struggled to remember characters is learning them with ease now. Betty Choi of the blog Chalk Academy has even written about how she learned to read Mandarin with Sagebooks—alongside her three-year-old daughter!
Mandarin Companion
Once your child knows a good number of characters, lots of reading practice will help them learn grammar and vocabulary without becoming bored. Mandarin Companion has come out with graded short stories starting at the 150 key word level. They are available in traditional and simplified Chinese and there is an audiobook companion soon to be available on Audible. The stories are interesting and rewarding for kids, as they get a real sense of accomplishment when they find they can read a whole chapter book by themselves in Chinese. These are especially useful for the older learner who doesn’t want to read “baby books,” as they are not babyish at all.
China Sprout
If you’re looking to create a Chinese immersion environment in your home (which, by the way, Anne highly recommends), China Sprout can help you do just that. The website (which is in English) has resources of all kinds: Chinese language storybooks, board books, craft books, cultural learning activities, and more.
Resources for Writing in Mandarin:
Copybooks
The hardest thing with learning Mandarin is learning to write the characters. Even for Chinese children it requires a lot of practice. You can purchase copybooks off of Ebay. These are the ones that we like.
Magic Water Paper
To make handwriting more fun, my kids like to use this “magic water paper”. When you write on it with a wet paintbrush dark black marks appear which slowly fade away as the water dries.
I hope these resources help you in your language learning. Mandarin is a very fun language to discover and there are many resources out there for kids.
Once again, many thanks to Alisa for sharing all of these resources. If you’re looking for more recommendations for Mandarin learning tools, let us know here or join the conversation over in our Facebook group!
