Bao & Bun's Bilingual Journey

When our journey hits a roadblock, I often reach out to other bilingual parents or teachers, or I revisit advice from those who’ve already navigated the process. Recently, I re-read Oliver Tu’s blog and reflected on the level 2 goals he outlined. It struck me that while Little Bun has likely reached that milestone, Little Bao still has some catching up to do.

As with any goal, prioritizing is key. Since winters here are pretty cold, we’ve decided to pause other extracurricular activities in the new year until the weather warms up in the spring. This way, I can spend more time at home with Little Bao, focusing on increasing his character count and improving his reading fluency. His progress in fluency has already been encouraging, thanks to his dual language school’s daily Chinese book reading assignments. I’m thrilled to see him confidently picking up picture books and reading aloud.

Beyond Oliver’s blog, I’ve also been inspired by Julie from Motherly Notes. She provides exactly the kind of step-by-step guide I’ve been looking for, detailing the book sets she used at different ages to empower her daughters’ Chinese learning journey.

That said, some of the resources we rely on are starting to show their age. Oliver last updated his “Advice” page in 2016, and Julie’s “Journey” page was last updated in 2018. While most of the information remains relevant, some of the book links no longer work. This is also true for Guavarama’s blog, which contains a wealth of helpful insights, but a few links have become outdated.

With so many seasoned bloggers paving the way, I approach what I do here with humility. I’m simply following in their footsteps. My book reviews and reading roadmaps aim to provide current parents with refreshed resources, ensuring most links are up-to-date. Personally, I find broken links frustrating, so if you come across any that don’t work, please let me know—I’ll do my best to fix them!