School Begins & Some Education Links

Today is the last day of the holidays! We have an ordinary weekend and then Monday, the first day of school, is here. I think we all have mixed feelings about this. Kyle doesn’t want to do all the writing related to First Grade but wants friends. Hannah doesn’t want to leave my side but wants to play. I want them to go out and start life at school and have some time away from me, but I want them to stay with me, too. So, today we will spend our last day of the holidays together at Happy Bear gymnastics, the play area, and MacDonald’s.

Kyle is still shining in the area of language and literacy – so far only the English language. His Chinese has some catching up to do. Kyle is reading up to four chapter books a day, and I am ever-thankful for the Taipei City Library for its extensive English-language section. The English area of our Muzha branch library is bigger than my hometown’s library, and we also have access to all the books at the many other branches in the city. Parents have asked me how I taught him to read, and even though he is naturally talented in this area, I would like to share a few good books I found for parents to use.

How To Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons – I followed this book step-by-step, ten minutes a day, over several months. We didn’t use the book everyday but we did every lesson. It covered all the foundations of the mechanics of reading. I am now using it with Hannah, and she is also learning quickly with the book.

Wise-Bauer’s series of books on literacy – Wise-Bauer follows a more classical approach to teaching. Each lesson has clear steps to follow and should be easy for parents even without any teaching experience. Writing With Ease Strong Fundamentals: Children only have to write one or two sentences each day, and through this they gain confidence in their ability. Kyle was unsure of his writing and unwilling to try, but after several lessons he started to write spontaneously without prompting.

Bob Books (Readers) I used these to support lessons in How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. The stories are quirky and appeal to most children.

I was a bit concerned about Kyle’s preparation for his Chinese pronunciation classes. My friend sent me a link to a number of very nice Chinese language sites for children. Here is the link to a woman's blog, that you can click through to find more that your children might like.

I am also using a daily practice series of books to support science and math. The children love these as each day’s lessons are very short and to the point.

Finally, Hannah has been using a set of Kumon books that introduce concepts such as shapes and time, and provide practice cutting, pasting, and coloring. This series encourages children to work independently at their own pace. It’s working for my determined, independent little girl.

I hope some of these books are helpful, or at least start a search in a direction that saves someone time and money!