Choose A Mandarin Book For Your Child - 6 Key Points
I am looking for a book to start my child off with the Mandarin language, but how should I go about choosing one from a thousand and millions of books available? There are tons of award-winning books and everyone around me recommends a different title. I’m engulfed by the endless options.
If that is the problem you are facing, let us help you out. Simply take into consideration these points and you will know just the right book to pick for your little one.
1. Child’s Age
This definitely is the first and most important point to decide on the book. Picking an age-appropriate book caters to the learning needs and development of your child, therefore maximizing the learning outcome.
If you are exposing your child to Mandarin books at a young age of 0 – 2, you will want to look at novelty books that are interactive and fun, like those with flip-flap or holes.
Children that are 3 – 5 are curious, imaginative and active. They enjoy role-playing, imitating and amusing stories. At this stage, you might want to consider choosing books that not only have slightly more words but also with story content that teaches about good behavior and habits.
2. Child’s Level of Understanding
The age of your child is the first factor we take in but we also have to think about his level of exposure to the Mandarin language. Let’s say, your child might be 6 years old but he has never been exposed to Mandarin before, will he be capable to handle an Early-reader book filled with quite a number of sentences? Definitely not.
In this case, you might want to choose a book that is suitable for your child’s level of understanding.
3. Child’s Interest
We, adults, are the same, we learn best in things that we are interested and passion with. The same goes for the children, choosing a book with content they enjoyed helps them to absorb more along and cultivate their interest in reading.
You know your child best, whether they like the car, princesses, animals, robots or dinosaurs. Start them off with something they enjoy and slowly cultivates their interest in more reading variety.
4. Theme Of The Book
This is somewhat similar to the above point but more applicable to children that perhaps do not show too much preference to any particular interest or interest with limited choices. Generally, young children enjoy animal-themed books and most of the popular classic falls into this theme category as well.
Other than animals, you may want to consider a book with themes that are closely related to your everyday life such as family, friends, pets and etc. Relatable content aids children’s learning to a large extent.If after going through the above consideration, yet you still find yourself stuck with a number of choices, then let’s proceed to narrow it down further.
5. Recognized Award-winning Books
The most time-efficient way to sieve through piles of choices is to just look for a book (taking in the above consideration) that has been internationally recognized, be it in English or Mandarin. These books are all-time classic loved by children and parent all over the world for decades and still never loses its popularity.
Not a guarantee, but if most of the children love it, high chance your little one will too!
6. Author
Authors like Eric Carle, Dr. Seuss, Roald Dahl never fails to produce good books. If your children enjoy any particular author’s book in another language, try to look for a Mandarin-translated version book by the same author.
Yes, it might not be the best-personalized selection for your child but it can never go wrong, especially if you are only using it as a filter to narrow down your search.
Picking the first book to start off is not the toughest task. After all, what’s challenging (but fun and fulfilling) is the journey after embarking on our Mandarin journey. No worries though, because you have our back. To make the Mandarin language possible for anyone and anywhere, MyFirstMandarin is here.
Last Updated: 6th May 2020
Image Credit: Unsplash
- Garfield Smith
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