Resuming Foreign language study (Chinese)

Today we read a couple of Chinese books once again. Prime is still trying to understand what the books say while J can read most of the words. I was so proud of J and a little surprised that she still remember since we haven't studied Chinese for quite some time. She was happy that she can read the books by herself.

Prime complained that he can't read Chinese and I told him, in the fall, I will send him to Chinese school to learn some. That brought a big smile to his face. He also reminded me to send him to Chinese summer camp for cultural study like I did with J. Gosh, that little guy got good memory. I better watch what I say to him.

After a little discussion with J, we decided to resume her Chinese study from the conversational "text book" for oversees Chinese children. I think this time I will not require J to memorize the conversation as before but will require that she be able to read the text fluently. This reminds me of a Chinese proverb which basically translates as "you get what you put into it". Basically there is nothing that can substitute hard work. Like before, J will not be required to write any Chinese words, only if she chooses. But I will see, maybe when she is in 2nd grade. In Chinese schools here is the US, all Chinese children starting in Grade 1 are learning to write Chinese. Although most of them, since Chinese is spoken at home all the time, they have no major problem speaking while J's situation is different. She still needs to work on speaking and that's why I don't require her to learn to write Chinese characters though she can write some.

Anyway, for any of you who are interested, below is a sample:

This is one of the books J can read by herself. It is about all the animals think they know (in fact, they think is too easy) how to put on their clothes but in reality only the child can and the dog cheers the child on.

The third picture is what J has been learning but stopped and will be resuming. It has the ping-yin above the Chinese characters (which is the phonetic pronunciation of the Chinese characters) and the English translation is next to it. Each text introduces common phrases and new vocabularies.