2Kids爱阅读 -- Another great Chinese app for kids

2Kids爱阅读 is another great app for kids to learn Chinese characters. It comes with a few free stories and you can pay $8 to unlock about 30 more. Each story has some animated story for the kids, 6 new characters to learn, and lots of games to practice each new character. Our kids and us both love it.

It's made by the same folks and is very similar to the last app we reviewed, 2kids chinese. Highly recommend them both!

Download it now on itunes!

There's different worlds with 6 stories in each world

Every time you get one right, the candy jar fills up. Notice how all the characters are similar to each other! You can tell they put a lot of thought into the game to not make it too easy and help the kids learn

Some games involve writing

You touch a character and it reads it to you. And then you have to do what it says and touch the right picture.

 I think it's well worth the $8. Our kids have gotten a lot of practice with Chinese characters. And all the audio is entirely in Chinese so in the very least it's great immersion. The more Chinese they can listen to, the better.

We think it's a fantastic app and well worth the money. Try it out for free! We get no money if you do... we just highly recommend it.

2Kids Chinese -- An awesome app for kids

2Kids Chinese is one of the best apps we've ever seen to help kids learn Chinese. It seems like it was made for Chinese kids, which is one way you know it's good. There's lots of apps made for American kids and they are just too basic without enough features. This app has it all.

Download it on iTunes now! There's some free episodes you can try, and then in-app purchases to access the 50 or so other lessons they have. Total, it would cost you about $9 to get all the episodes. We think it's well worth it!

Here are some screen shots.

2kids Chinese only lets you do 1 lesson a day. Notice one of the pictures is grayed out. When you try and hit it, it tells the kid in Chinese to come back tomorrow to learn some more.

Each episode has a story with 6 new characters. The story is fun for kids and there's lots of games in each story to help learn the characters.

They are saying 石 and you have to pick the right one. Notice that all the characters look similar -- they make it harder to help the kids learn!

The narrator is saying 大地 and you fill in the blank

the narrator is saying a sentence and you put all the characters in the right place

There's also a sticker feature where you earn stickers for doing stuff... seems silly to me but it sure motivates the kids.


We think it's a fantastic app and well worth the money. Try it out for free! We get no money if you do... we just highly recommend it.


EDIT:

Check out our son reading Chinese with the app. It's definitely helped him a lot!

胖国王 (The fat king) -- Chinese children's book

胖国王

胖国王 is another book that we really like. I think we found it at a used book store a few years ago. It's in traditional characters. It's about a king who got really fat and felt bad because he was so unhealthy. Then he went on a diet and everyone helped him eat better and exercise by putting his bed up a huge flight of stairs. It's cute, a fun story, educational, and overall a good read.

I found a youtube video that goes through the book to give you all a sample.



I think the real book is better than watching the video, so buy it or check it out if you get a chance!

This book is actually at several US libraries, including Houston and San Francisco. There might be one at a location near you, check it out!

http://www.worldcat.org/title/pang-guo-wang/oclc/43679670


Here it is on amazon.cn

http://www.amazon.cn/%E8%83%96%E5%9B%BD%E7%8E%8B%E7%98%A6%E7%9A%87%E5%90%8E-%E5%BC%A0%E8%93%AC%E6%B4%81/dp/product-description/B0011CUSEE


Haven't found it from a US based shipper. Let me know if you do!

小猴子, 追呀追 -- Great Chinese Children's Book

 小猴子追呀追 is one of the best Chinese Children's books we've ever seen!

小猴子追呀追 -- cute illustrations and fun text

小猴子追呀追 (Little monkey chase) is one of the best Chinese children's books we have ever seen. We picked it up in China. It's one of the only hard books we've ever seen in China. China is full of books that are flimsy paperback books that break easily and are illustrated in a busy, confusing way. This was one of the only books constructed with card board that is built to last more than a few weeks. It's not quite as thick as the nice board books in America, but it's close.

The story is cute. It's about a monkey who explores around the jungle, and you as the reader act like the mom chasing him around. The book prompts you to make noises imitating the different animal sounds and movements. Our kids really like reading it with us! It's fun.

Sadly, we can't find anywhere to buy it outside of China. But if you are ever in China... Look for it!

It's also in a library in Singapore and Australia:

http://www.worldcat.org/title/xiao-hou-zi-zhui-ya-zhui/oclc/829177736

And here are several links to buy it in China

http://item.jd.com/1063300882.html
http://product.suning.com/103079625.html

Here's the amazon.cn link

http://www.amazon.cn/%E5%A6%88%E5%A6%88%E5%AE%9D%E5%AE%9D%E8%86%9D%E4%B8%8A%E6%80%80%E4%B8%AD%E4%BA%B2%E5%AD%90%E4%BA%A4%E6%B5%81%E5%9B%BE%E7%94%BB%E4%B9%A6-%E5%B0%8F%E7%8C%B4%E5%AD%90-%E8%BF%BD%E5%91%80%E8%BF%BD/dp/B009NAJYVE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1401581126&sr=8-1&keywords=%E5%B0%8F%E7%8C%B4%E5%AD%90%2C+%E8%BF%BD%E5%91%80%E8%BF%BD


Let me know if you find US based seller!

Chinese Cartoon -- 小虎还乡 (Little Tiger Returns Home)

Our kids watch 巧虎, and that's a great show for toddlers. Some kids might find it boring, however. I like adventure stories and I think there's too many TV shows out there that are "educational" and are really just quite boring. Kids need more stories and adventure.

We really like the Chinese Cartoon called 小虎还乡 -- Little Tiger Returns Home. There's about 50 episodes about a white baby tiger who tries to find his way home with the help of a boy, his dog and parrot, and a girl. It's filled with adventure and it's slow enough that kids don't get lost.

A lot of times, children's TV shows talk way too slow and kids never really appreciate how people really talk. This show has people speaking regularly, which I think is better for kids to listen to in the long run. I get so tired of people speaking in slow shouts whenever they are speaking to an audience of children.

There's lots of playlists available on youtube, here is one that has all the episodes:

And here's the first episode. Watch it and let me know if you like it!

FYI, little kids under 3 might be a bit scared... our 2 year old cried in the second episode when it ended with the little tiger getting caught by the bad guys. It was adorable. But we assured him that in the next episode he would get rescued and he calmed down.

It's a fun show and we give it an A-, production is a bit old and plot can be a bit slow.