Parent Spotlight: Po’s Story

My oldest one when she was 6 years old she started reading from Beginning Reader Book 1 to the last book and she finished the whole thing about 5 months. I was in shock how much she loved it and how easy it was for her to learn it independently. Of course, in the first three sets, I sat her down and read with me almost everyday. After she got the first 300 characters, she started to understand the pattern and guessed most of the new characters herself. After that, she was addicted to read and learn all the characters. 

It was amazing to see once she got the basic characters, and she became in love with them. Now, she knows at least 1000 characters, she still would pick up Sagebooks Confident Reader (level 4)/ Fluent Reader (level 5) and read them for fun. One of the things she loves the most is how funny the content is. Also, she was motivated by the success that she had and it kept her going. I think that’s so important for kids to have.

My second child is working on it right now. I didn’t really push her to read since she is a more free will person. She didn’t like to be forced, but once she is interested in something, she will do it perfectly until it’s done. She was already learning indirectly from her older sister and throughout homeschooling. So whenever I pulled out a Sagebook and read with her, she learned very quickly. She is at the end of Budding Reader (level 2), it has been about 4 months. I’m planning on pushing her a little more in the summer, and hope she can finish more. I don’t want to require her to finish everything if she didn’t show interest. I would like her to take her time to love reading Chinese and learning Chinese with Sagebooks.