Unfortunately, here in Sydney Australia, we are back in lockdown for the second time because of the Covid pandemic. Not sure if it is good timing, or bad timing, but the kids are all on school holidays too! Since we are all at home, I reckon there’s no better time than now, to do a thorough assessment of the kids’ Chinese progress.
Two of the main Chinese learning aids we use are the Sage Basic Chinese 500 Readers, and the iHuman Chinese learning app. I decided to create an assessment pack for both to gauge how my three precious are learning. At this point of our Mandarin Homeschool journey, all three of my children have been using the Sage books and iHuman app since September 2020.
If you use the same two Chinese learning aids and would like to know how well your child is learning, you can download the assessment sheets for free on our member’s page. Just sign up and you will get your password to access it.
Sign up here
Da Bao 大宝 (7 Years Old)
Sage Books Basic Chinese 500 基础汉字500 (Currently Reading @ Emergent Reader)
- Beginner Reader – can read 95/100 words. Can write 10/100 words.
- Budding Reader – can read 71/100 words.
- Emergent Reader – can read 12/100 words.
iHuman App 洪恩识字
- 1-200 – can read 146 words, can write 10 words
- 201-400 – can read 31 words
Er Bao 二宝 (5 Years Old)
Sage Books Basic Chinese 500 基础汉字500 (Currently Reading @ Budding Reader)
- Beginner Reader – can read 90/100 words.
- Budding Reader – can read 35/100 words
iHuman App 洪恩识字
- 1-200 – can read 144 words
- 201-400 – can read 26 words
Xiao Bao 小宝 (3.5 Years Old)
Sage Books Basic Chinese 500 基础汉字500 (Currently Reading @ Budding Reader)
- Beginner Reader – can read 56/100 words.
iHuman App 洪恩识字
- 1-200 – can read 47 words.
What does the data say?
- Da Bao and Er Bao are almost reading at the same level!! Shocking. Da Bao needs to work harder on his Chinese acquisition!
- Xiao Bao only retained 56 Chinese words despite finishing the first level. I think I will give her a break from Sage Books and read similar level readers to work on the basic 100 Chinese words for now.
- Da Bao and Er Bao should start working on writing Chinese characters. I have to admit we don’t do a lot of writing practise at home as it can be really challenging to get them to sit willingly to practise.
What else have we been doing?
My three children have really been enjoying their Chinese nursery rhymes and songs. In particular a funny album by Lego Duplo called “每一个人都要上厕所”. Annoyingly infectious! If you would like to hear the best and popular Chinese music we love, here is the list.
Since we are in lockdown, we have been busy reading our worth of Chinese books on Ellabook and Wawayaya JoyReader Pro. We use the former to read for interest, and the latter to improve on their reading proficiency. The kids love the Rainbow Dragon Levelled Readers, which is a tidy thematic set of readers we have been reading for the past few months.
Milestone Achievement
We celebrated a milestone achievement for Da Bao this month was that he read 100 Chinese books by himself!!
One thing that I like to stick to as a daily Chinese practise is to have the children read Chinese levelled readers at their current proficiency level everyday. Using a mixture of Sage Books Basic Chinese 500, Odonata Learn Sentences Series, and Rainbow Dragon Readers, he has managed to read 100 Chinese books without assistance!!
Until the next log, Happy Mandarin Homeschooling!
