Finally! Today, I went through the mess that was 巧虎 (Chiao Hu) and had been bugging me for the last 3 years. I don’t think I’ve actually really looked at our Chiao Hu magazines for 2-3 years. It gets tossed into a box every month and Thumper digs it up and plays with it, strewing all her mess around before I put a stop by stuffing it into an even bigger box and then hiding it.
I love my collection even if I don’t read the books. Hmm….if I personally had a huge stash of Chinese books to go through, I think I would be in heaven.
I’m planning to add to the collection this summer with more age appropriate reading material. I’ve got a long list saved up of books to explore and buy that I need to wade through.
In my ideal world, the bookshelf would be actually tagged and sorted by subjects. Maybe after the kids go off to college. 😉
Here’s what’s on the bookshelf. Sorry the pic is kind of crappy. No time to fiddle with the light with a too-short cord.
1. My small collection of Chinese books I read. I love 侯文詠 and have all his books until the last few years. There’s also a stack of 國語日報 that we’re not using. It should take us to 3rd grade probably in content.
2. From the left, my Chiao Hu teacher’s stuff. More personal Chinese books that are really tall. The 20% I couldn’t finish sorting. School related catalogues: Rainbow Resource, Uline, etc.
3. My Chiao Hu collection spanning 4.5 years, from 2 years old to half of second grade.
4. “Readers” Three collections from Hsin Yi. Some are easy, some are hard for Thumper to read. I like the series a lot because it has both non-fiction and fiction items. It’s written by Chinese authors, so it does not have the easy language of translated works and I think super great to read to children. I also have a few sets of really thin books for 0-3 years old. The right 1/3 is board books for Astroboy.
5. Left is a set of easy picture books for Astroboy about a turtle and another set about a bug, all translated books. Then a set for Thumper called “I Love Martine”. Then another set of 12 books from Hansen which has one story for each day of the year.
6. Non-fiction Chinese books covering science, history, geography, etc.
7. My 金庸 set for when one of my kids are old enough and have good enough Chinese to read.
8. Teacher stuff. Lots of workbooks, books from 僑務委員會，北美洲華語, catalogues, etc.
9. Sagebooks, How to write, books about the Chinese language itself, dictionaries that we never use. I even have a Math dictionary!
10. Bridge books and lower elementary books for Thumper.
11. Picture books for Astroboy. Though Thumper loves them still.
12. Two sets of encyclopedias, covering topics from biology, astronomy, botany, etc. Both series follow the Montessori curriculum sequence and that’s why I bought them instead of the more often seen picture encyclopedias that kind of jump around.
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