Hello everyone. Its been a while since I last wrote on the blog that's for sure.
I just wanted to hop on and share with everyone the next round of Brillkids educational products that we've enjoyed using.
Little Reader's Chinese program is brought to you by Little Reader, the program we've been using with Maggie since completing Your Baby Can Read a year ago.
I must say we were very excited to jump in and give the Chinese program a try, as I've always wanted to teach my girls a foreign language.
I grew up in a house where Polish was spoken by my father , but was only spoken when he was with his family. I am familiar with the language when I hear it but never learned to actually speak it. So to teach my daughters to learn to speak something other than English is exciting for sure.
Since Mandarin Chinese seems to be offered as a language course in the private high schools in our area I decided this may give Maggie and also my other girls some exposure so should they decide to learn to speak it later on it may come a bit easier to them.
Little Reader Chinese
In order to use Little Reader Chinese you first my own the Little Reader program. The Chinese program is set up pretty much the same as Little Reader in that you recieve up to 12 months worth of lessons , that cover 334 categories, containing 3576 words, 2768 images, 5232 pronunciation files, 1138 picture audio and sound effects, and over 520 video clips. Just like Little Reader, Little Reader Chinese lessons comes with 3 professionally recorded voices, 3-5 quality images, 2-4 picture audio (word commentaries or sound effects), videos to better illustrate certain categories, such as animals and action words, and stories.
Little Reader Chinese is set up in Mandarin and comes in both Tradional and Simplified Chinese. I'm still learning the differences between the two and really there isn't much difference other than location of where you would live in China.
The program is set up with three native speakers. It also contains a phonics component that teaches them how to read pinyin and how to listen to the different sounds.
Our experience with the Little Reader Chinese
My girls were definitely ready to dive in and give it a try. After all I've downloaded some of the slides of Chinese on Little Reader and they've always enjoyed it.
I will say that my daughter do enjoy hearing the language but picking it up is another story I guess. Because no one in our home speaks Mandarin Chinese and its not a language you hear everyday I'm finding Maggie isn't picking it up as fast as she learned how to read. With that said though I think we'll continue to press on because the more they hear it the more they learn. I know after watching multiple Dora the Explorer cartoons that Maggie has picked up Spanish words. Though she doesn't speak in Spanish , she is at least learning the words, making them familiar to her.
I did get a small clip video of Maggie listening in on the Chinese. Though she isn't saying much I'm hoping she is at least absorbing some of it in while she's quite.
I will definitely say it doesn't have anything to do with the product either. The program is top notch and the voices are clearn to hear. I think that for learning a different language to be successful I'm thinking they really need to hear it all of the time. I know the one thing about the program that has been tough for us is that even though they give us the word in Chinese, there is a picture and the reader gives a sentence and we have no idea other then then the word we just heard , what the voice is saying. If there were only some subtitles or something so we know what all the other words are. But then maybe as time goes on and we go through the program even more , maybe it will all blend in together and make sense.
I definitely recommend this program to anyone who wants to teach their children Chinese, or even just wants at least the exposure to the program. It is fun for a child that is very visual and likes to hear the sound of the language. Since Maggie enjoys the sound and it sometimes makes her giggle. I guess we'll press on further and see what happens. I'll have to update further down the road to see how we do with it.
As for now , Little Reader Chinese is being enjoyed. Even if we aren't understanding everything that is said in the slides. Even if Maggie and my other daughters learn a few words it will definitely be worth using.
Now with all of this said I'm not running a giveaway on the product. But did find a website with someone who is if your interested in giving Little Reader Chinese a try:
http://figur8.net/baby/2011/12/02/little-reader-chinese-review-and-giveaway/#
