our story

I first started writing a children's Chinese language book because when I first taught children Chinese, I found that children who were beginning to learn Chinese could write and read one, two hundred or even three hundred Chinese characters after learning Chinese for a year, but they did not have any "age-appropriate" Chinese characters. ” Chinese reading materials, then what is the meaning of these hundreds of Chinese characters that can be read, recognized, and written?

Children "bury their heads" and spend time and effort practicing writing hundreds of Chinese characters that they "try to recognize" every day, but they are unable to "feel" the meaning of the words, let alone get the satisfaction brought by "reading".

Maybe you will say, the streets are full of beautiful children's books, how can we say there are no "age-appropriate" children's books?

Indeed, children's picture books are becoming more and more beautiful now, and the drawings are extremely attractive, which can subtly improve children's art appreciation ability.

However, these picture books attract children to read. These high-quality picture books mostly rely on parents to read to their children. Because children in preschool and lower grades of primary school have not accumulated a certain amount of words, they are basically unable to read on their own.

These picture books (the so-called "bridge books") are indeed ideal reading materials for children who have transitioned to story books with no pictures and only text. Moreover, reading to children is a really good activity for parents, which not only helps the parent-child relationship, It also helps to enhance children's language skills. But this is "not" the child reading after all.

As a result, many parents began to actively encourage their children to read and write, hoping that they would start reading on their own as early as possible. This has also become an important "responsibility" for me when I started teaching preschool and first and second grade of elementary school. One of the main "tasks" when I was 3 years old.

 

However, my teaching experience made me reflect on this traditional way of "reading and writing" simultaneously.

Is this an ideal way?

 

I have no objection to children learning to write. Is there a better way for children to learn Chinese?

Especially Chinese children overseas who want to learn Chinese, or local children who are learning bilingualism, they have to allocate time between the two languages. These children's "peers" only need to learn simple English writing and don't spend so much time writing. "So many strokes of Chinese characters", their young minds may have unexpressable "unpleasantness": Why do I spend so much time writing, I want to play! ! !

At this time, I was thinking, is there a better way for children to learn Chinese happily?

Especially those children who learn bilingualism (similar to overseas Chinese children who go to school every day, learn the local language, and learn Chinese when they return home). Because if a child only learns one language, he will not feel "uncomfortable" because he is the same as everyone else (peers). Everyone has to "practice" Chinese characters so hard. If you want to complain, there is no one to complain to!

This also causes many overseas parents or bilingual children to gradually give up learning Chinese because it is not easy to maintain such "lasting Chinese learning." Parents and children are both working hard, and some are "heartbroken". Parents are always doing their best for their children, but their children don't appreciate it. They feel there is no need to learn another language, especially Chinese, which is so difficult. As a result, the children are also "unhappy" , even fear or even hate "learning Chinese"; it will affect the parent-child relationship because of Chinese learning, what a loss outweighs the gain!

 

Regardless of adults or children, I firmly believe in "harmonious" interpersonal relationships.

Always a source of happiness.

 

Therefore, I wanted to write some "starting" books for children to learn Chinese happily. I would use the two to three hundred words they already know to write some short stories so that they can experience the fun of "reading" and like Chinese. I further realized the benefits of literacy through "reading", so I created this series of "Reading and Literacy" books to learn 1000 Chinese characters through reading.

We publish the "Lele Listening and Reading Series", which focuses on literacy through "reading". We are not opposed to writing, but we support the separation of reading and writing. Recognition first, then writing.

In addition, to reflect the understanding of word meaning in "literacy", it is not just about matching a single word with its pronunciation, but more importantly, "understanding" its meaning. This is easy for physical characters, "Table" If a word is placed next to a real object or a picture on the table, the child will naturally understand the meaning of the word. However, for many imaginary words (non-physical words), the meaning must be grasped by reading, and there is a "fuzzy" understanding of its meaning. "Period", in other words, understanding the meaning of a word is not "complete in one step". Don't expect your children to "completely" understand its meaning after reading it once. Don't be impatient and read it several times. Children are very smart and will definitely "understand the more they read".

Therefore, the true meaning of a word is "adjusted repeatedly in the child's mind" until the child finally truly understands its "meaning." This once again reflects the importance of reading in literacy. The true meaning of literacy is to master the "form, sound, and meaning" of the word. (Generally speaking, the word recognition of "'character cards" is just to match the glyphs and pronunciations, and you may not really understand the meaning of the words. Of course, you don't have to worry about the physical word cards. The meanings of the words themselves are clear at a glance, and you don't need to complete the mastering of the meaning through reading. However, when this single entity word is combined with other words, it may not be easy to grasp its meaning. For example: flower is an entity word, but what is the relationship between flower dog and flower?

Therefore, we conclude that reading and literacy are so critical in literacy. The necessity and advantages of our step-by-step complete series of books in three levels: first, middle and high, as well as a reading pen specially matched with the series of books, are self-evident. .

Teacher Yao Nd, founder and author of Lele Culture