Bao & Bun's Bilingual Journey

Midway through July, we’ve been trying to keep up with flashcards and worksheets during the summer. With a little bribing power—allowing TV on weeknights, which we don’t do during the school year—Little Bao has been reading more than usual and even more than his sister.

I mentioned before that I changed my approach to his reading. We switched from leveled readers, Greenfield books, to picture books to practice a wider variety of content. That has been going smoothly. Then, I pulled out the 亮亮的成長 series and realized I’d forgotten how big the font is in those books but I felt like he was probably ready for it. We tried it the other night and I was right! He read out the zhuyin for the characters he didn’t know and quickly read through sentences when he recognized most of the characters. We finished one book around 10 mins. Pretty painless.

About a year ago, I signed him up for a reading class using 亮亮 as the material. His sister handled it smoothly, but it was very tough for him. He had to blend zhuyin for every single character and felt like it was impossible to do on his own.

Looking back, I didn’t focus a lot on character recognition this past year and he’s been reading super short leveled readers. But maybe constant reading, even just with leveled readers, has still been helpful.

In his 100 books challenge, because those leveled readers are so short, he could only get a prize for every 20 books he read. Now, seeing him able to read longer books, especially starting with 亮亮的成長—almost the number one bridge book used by most online schools—I told him he can now earn a prize for every 10 books he reads, just like his sister. He looked surprised but happy, knowing he’s accomplished something and is getting closer to independent reading (just closer, we’re not there yet).

I thought to bring out 亮亮’s books because he’s been working on his English reading as well. Recently, we asked him to get an English book and read, and he picked up an English picture book and just started reading it. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is an achievement for him. Before this, he wasn’t confident reading on his own. After talking to his school teacher, we realized he needs constant practice, so I got decodable book sets and worksheets for him to practice at home. Little did I know, even with a bit of practice, he’s gained a better grasp of both languages and is more confident picking up a picture book (in either language) and starting to read.

There’s still a lot more to do and a long way to go, but these little wins make this journey worthwhile.