我好担心 (Wemberly Worried)

We checked out a great book from the library this week called  我好担心 (Wemberly Worried). I wish we had lots of Chinese books like this. I've seen my 4 year old looking at it all by himself several times, which tells me that it catches his interest.

It's a classic English book, and I'll refer you to Amazon.com to read the 5 star reviews.



It's about a mouse that worries a lot. She worries that snakes will come out of her radiator, that a tree will fall on her house, that things are going to come out of the cracks in the walls. Reading it with our kids it all seemed so relevant to them. They thought it was fun and silly but also novel and interesting. I pointed to a crack on our roof and I could tell the wheels in their heads were spinning.

Anyways, the book is a bit long, and I'd say you should plan on your kids being at least 4 years old to read it. I think it has a lot of re-read value and is one your kids will be interested in reading many times over and over again.

 我好担心 (Wemberly Worried)

I think it's well translated, and one thing I like about it is that there is no pin yin. I think it's good to have books with pin yin, but it's also nice to not have pin yin so your kids really focus on the characters. It's also a bit repetitive, which I think really helps with learning the characters. Worried in Chinese is  担心, and our son is getting really good at reading that word :-)

I did find a place on Amazon that carries this book!  :

我好担心 (Wemberly Worried)

It seems kinda sketchy... but Amazon always guarantees everything so I'm sure they would give you a refund if it didn't come or was messed up.

Or find it at a library near you:

http://www.worldcat.org/title/wo-hao-dan-xin/oclc/460057646&referer=brief_results


Some other Chinese websites that have it:

http://www.mmbbclub.com/product_2237.html
http://www.wjlib.com:8088/opac3/book/3276789617?globalSearchWay=subject

谁摘了我的花儿 (Who Picked my flower) -- a cute baby Chinese book

About a year ago, I found a really cute Chinese children's book in a local Chinese Book shop here in Houston. It was really cheap; I think I only paid about 2 dollars for it. We've read it at least 10 times, and now our youngest (under age 2) is old enough to really enjoy it.

It's called 谁摘了我的花儿 (Who Picked my flower)

As you can see from the screenshots, it's a very simple book where you look for the hidden object. Every page is a different type of sentence -- Who picked my flower, where's my button, etc.

谁摘了我的花儿 (Who Picked my flower) -- a cute baby Chinese book

毛毛虫藏在哪里? Where is the caterpillar hiding?

I found a place on Amazon that sells this book! $10  :

谁摘了我的花儿 (Who Picked my flower)

It seems kinda like a sketchy vendor and it ships from China, ... but Amazon always guarantees everything so I'm sure they would give you a refund if it didn't come or was messed up.

Right now, it looks like the only library it's available in is in Singapore:

http://www.worldcat.org/title/shui-zhai-le-wo-de-hua-er/oclc/606749289&referer=brief_results



Here are Chinese websites you can buy it from:

http://product.dangdang.com/20435719.html#ddclick?act=click&pos=20435719_0_0_q&cat=&key=%CB%AD%D5%AA%C1%CB%CE%D2%B5%C4%BB%A8%B6%F9&qinfo=1_1_60&pinfo=&minfo=&ninfo=&custid=&permid=20150215062657977221109172843912752&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fproduct.dangdang.com%2F20435719.html&rcount=&type=&t=1423952861000&ver=A

http://www.egou.com/product/01_1421043_3.html

http://baike.baidu.com/view/7738978.htm

Introducing the Teach Kids Chinese Podcast! Episode 1 -- Chinese Nursery Rhymes no. 1

Some people do big things and start new projects during the western New Year on January 1st, but in Chinese fashion we're doing something big on Chinese New Year. We started the Teach Kids Chinese Podcast!

Ever since we upgraded our stereo system in our car and we can now play things off our phone, we've been looking for more Chinese things to let our kids listen to in the car. We haven't found very much. There is one Kids Chinese Podcast out there, but it's geared more for an absolute beginner or even teenagers / adults. Plus you have to pay money to see transcripts. We didn't really see anything for parents teaching their kids. We decided to take things into our own hands and make a podcast ourselves!

Our first project will be to go through Chinese nursery rhymes. We will probably cover about 10-12 in all, and we did the first three today. As we go through each one for the first time, we will go slowly and explain what all the words mean in English as well. When we finish them all, we'll release a podcast that has all the rhymes in one podcast, all in Chinese, without English explanations, at a faster / more fun pace.

We cover the following Chinese nursery rhymes today:

• Little Dew Drop (小露珠)
• Little Star (小星星)
• Little White Bunny (小白兔)

Subscribe to us on iTunes here!

(We are new to this whole thing... if the link is broken or something isn't working then PLEASE let us know! Also, the podcast was just approved today, it won't be available to find by search in the itunes store for a few days)

You can listen directly here:



And you can download the mp3 directly here!





Here is the transcript of the podcast:

Hi, this is miaomiao from teachkidschinese.com. Welcome to our first ever Teach Kids Chinese Podcast!

您好，我是苗苗，来自“教孩子学中文网站”！欢迎您收听教孩子学中文的第一次播音！

Today we’re going to learn 3 different Chinese nursery rhymes.

今天我们将来学习3首不同的儿歌。

Let’s go ahead and get started!

我们来开始吧！

This first one is called Little Dew Drop

第一首名叫“小露珠”

I'm going to read it first in Chinese

我先用中文念出来

The 2015 Chinese New Year Gala (中央电视台春节联欢晚会)

The Chinese New Year Gala (中央电视台春节联欢晚会) is a Chinese TV event that has become a national staple of Chinese culture. It's full of dances, singing performances, skits, and Chinese culture. It's about 4 hours long. This year, it's on youtube. The first 2 hours are mostly just pre-performance stuff, so if you want to watch then you might want to skip to the 2 hour mark. If you're watching with young kids I would also recommend skipping over a lot of the skits. There are some amazing dances and performances and good songs, though.

It's worth a watch.

A Little Mandarin -- Chinese Children's Classics

We just discovered A Little Mandarin -- Chinese Children's Classics last week. It's now our favorite source for Chinese children's songs. We previously reviewed another CD called Little Dragon Tales, which we also highly recommend, but this album has some differences that probably make it an even better choice for your little children.

Both CD's cover classics like "Two Tigers - Liang Zhi Lao Hu". Both are produced well and have high quality music. As an adult, I prefer to listen to Little Dragon Tales. The music is more interesting, with richer layers and more complexity and originality. However, kids don't always want originality, they often want what's simple.

I'm not saying that A Little Mandarin -- Chinese Children's Classics is simple, because there are lots of different instrumentation on each song. However, the vocals are always crisp and clear, and she really has a nice voice. It makes for great sing-a-long music, but it's not too nursey-like that it will drive an adult crazy.

The first time we put this on, our 3 year old instantly started singing along to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Happy Birthday (granted, he already knew those song in Chinese, but the point is that he really, really liked listening and singing along). After listening to the album a few more times, he was even singing along to songs that he previously didn't know that well.

We think you can't go wrong with this CD and highly recommend it.

Buy the digital mp3 album here:



Or the CD here: