Bao & Bun's Bilingual Journey

Before I knew it, Little Bao started reading bridge books! 📚 Just before this summer, I felt he didn’t recognize many characters and was a bit lazy with blending zhuyin. But over the past few months, I let go of those judgments and kept encouraging him to read regularly.

We began with baby board books I’ve mentioned before, and as his zhuyin skills improved, we moved on to 亮亮的成長. Then, enrolling him in a zhuyin blending class really helped solidify those skills while I worked with him on character recognition using Sagebooks.

Now, he’s a much stronger reader and no longer hesitates when blending zhuyin. What surprised me the most was how many characters he can recognize now—it feels like the struggle with remembering characters just disappeared. Maybe it’s a sign of maturity?

One of the first bridge books Little Bun read was 鯨狗. It’s a cute story about a whale dog and his adventures at his owner’s school, with minimal text—perfect for early readers.

At first, he kept asking if he had to finish the whole book, but I encouraged him to keep going, and to his surprise (and mine), he did! He was so proud, and even Little Bun was impressed.

Now, I feel like Little Bao is ready to dive into his reading journey alongside Little Bun. I’ll reflect on what worked with Little Bun last year and continue supporting Little Bao on his path.