In 2010, I wrote about the Basic Chinese 500 books :
There are 5 stages :
1: 启蒙
2: 萌芽
3: 跃进
4: 信心
5: 实力
In each stage, there are 5 books. Until recently, only the first 4 stages are sold in Popular bookshop. Yesterday I saw the stage 5 实力 books available in Popular bookshop.
The standard of Chinese at stage 5 is about our P2 to P3 standards. When kids have learned all the words in these books, they should be able to start reading Chinese books independently, with a little more help from parents.
The best thing about these books is that they are very easy to use, parents only need to let the kids read every word out loud. There are pictures on every page, and the font is very big, so these books are very suitable for children as young as 2 years old. I highly recommend these books to all parents.
It is best to complete these books before kids learn Hanyu Pinyin. If kids already know Hanyu Pinyin, I advise parents to cover up the Hanyu Pinyin in these books so that kids can focus on the Chinese characters.
