家居 home – house, living room, kitchen, kitchenware, toolbox, gardening
购物 shopping – supermarket, chemist, shopping centre
食物 food – meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, grains and pulses, herbs and spices, bottled foods, breads and flours, drinks
学习 study – school, maths, science
交通运输 transport – bus, car, bicycle, train, aircraft
日常便览 reference – time, calendar, weights and measures, numbers, world map & flags, useful phrases and more!
contains real photographs of items and places (Montessori-friendly, helps children relate what they learn to reality)
Some items even contain the cross-section view! (super cool!) eg fruits and nuts
What we love about this
Lightweight but packs a punch!
About the size of an adult hand, suitable to bring out with us
Every term has Chinese, hanyu pinyin, English translation
Even the topics and subtopics at the top of each page have hanyu pinyin!
Some pages include a list of commonly used terms, and even conversational phrases! Eg on the page on restaurant – there is list of related terms like 特色菜 specials, 消费 tip, 收据 receipt, and even shares conversational phrases like 能让我看看菜单吗？Can I see the menu please?
How to use this
As we move about our home, community or neighbourhood, we can look at the related pages
If child has a high interest topic, we can delve deeper
Practise conversational phrases in Mandarin, included within! By ordering food, taking the bus, buying fruits and more
This will actually be an excellent book to bring along when travelling, or when we have lots of time to spare to go pore through the detailed pages with our child
Additional Resources
Free audio app, instructions on page 9 of book
Recommended Age: 2 and up Format: Softcover Number of Pages: 360 Language: Bilingual English-Simplified Chinese, Hanyu Pinyin
