Who doesn’t like fairy tales? We all have favorite fairy tales we learned from our parents or grandparents when we were growing up.

Right now, thanks to DD’s Chinese uncle (see I have an idea to open a Chinese bookstore online!), I can read all these famous traditional English fairy tales to DD in Chinese. All the story books contain the Chinese characters and the Pinyin (phonetic transcriptions).

Although I don’t deliberately teach her pinyin at her age (see The reason why NOT to teach babies pinyin), these story books offer a great way for her to get familiar with Chinese characters and even recognize them later. The accompanying appealing and colorful cartoons illustrations also help engage her and compliment the text.

Bringing up Baby Bilingual, chinese for children, chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, Fairytales for children, Fairytales in Chinese, teaching young children chinese | August 28, 2010 8:19 pm | Comments (0)

After three series of learning Chinese (how to call family members in Chinese, how to name body parts in Chinese and how to name vegetables and fruits in Chinese), the forth lesson series starts today: Lesson 4-Animals.

The animals in this series include wild and domestic animals, sorted alphabetically by common name. Today, I am going to teach you to say alligator, ant, anteater and armadillo in Chinese.

chinese language for young children, Chinese learning for babies, How to name animals in Chinese?, learn chinese for free | August 19, 2010 7:29 pm | Comments (0)

I found this recipe in Book of Soups by the Culinary Institute of America. The author’s note caught my attention: “this silky-smooth cream soup derives its thickness and most of its texture from potatoes rather than roux. The sweetness of the leeks and red peppers make a wonderful combination”. Sound so yummy! I was eager to give it a try.

And…M loves it and DD loves it! That should be enough! The following recipe is based on the original one from Book of Soups.

Get children eat vegetables | August 11, 2010 7:20 pm | Comments (1)

Sometimes, I looked at DD, I was wondering: is she really a two-year old? She has been growing so big and tall.

At month 25, she was already near half of my height and more than a quarter of my weight. A 3T or 4T shirt wasn’t large enough for her. The perfect size was 5T. Shoes with the size of 5.5W seemed to get tight overnight. She needed an upgrade to 7W.

She could point to an object that I named, recognize the names of many objects, major body parts and some familiar members in English and Chinese, follow simple instructions, repeat some words she overhears, wash and dry hands, hop like a bunny, brush teeth (well, kind of) and play make-believe.

Baby Growth | August 3, 2010 8:00 pm | Comments (1)