I have known Kristin for awhile now as a dedicated mom who does not only believe in Montessori education but also strive to teach her children Chinese in the best way possible. So when she asked me to review two of the Mandarin Prodigies books that she wrote (out of the many other Chinese-learning materials that she has produced), I had to say yes.
The first book is called “Let’s Learn Basic Conversation”. A little bit of context here for our readers who are new to our family, we are a multilingual family that speaks mainly Cantonese and Mandarin to our kids. As such, the ability for us as parents to initiate conversations in Chinese languages is very important in our family.
The moment I flipped open this book with Ray, we already started some dialogues in Mandarin that were guided by the content and pinyins of the book.
This book introduces 15 basic conversations with little ones. Ray found the content of this book very relevant to his personal life as he points out the food, clothes, colors, family members, toys and weathers that are covered in this book. What I love as a mom whose first-language is not Mandarin is that I am aided in my reading to Ray with the nice accompaniment of pinyin on the book.
I like that the conversations on the book are easy to chew and very manageable for kids at a young age. Ray has been looking intently on the characters on the book to understand the conversations that are going on. Also, have I mentioned to you that the books that Kristin are publishing are available in traditional and simplified Chinese (the latter one in board book)?
The next book “Let’s Learn Kind Words” focuses on teaching children 30 affirmative and kind words. I like how this book infuses children with positivity through learning affirmative vocabularies. These vocabularies are reaffirmed with simple and beautiful illustrations that help Ray understand the meaning of these words. You can tell that Kirstin’s learning materials are inspired by Montessori methods and passion for teaching children Chinese (have I told you that she is also a home-schooling mom who designed these materials so that her children can learn Chinese in a more systematic way?).
Ray understood the concepts of the vocabularies pretty quickly as he was flipping through the pages. I am guessing it is because Kristin was trained in Montessori Early Childhood that she knew how to design learning materials that can help children learn new concepts quickly. These books also include free audio reading and I love the large prints on this book
If you are interested in purchasing these books, you are welcome to use the promo code MANDARIN10 at checkout to get 10% off for the set of these bilingual books. Also, Kristin informed me that she will have two new books that will be coming out soon, “Let’s Learn Measure Words” and “Let’s Learn Action Words”. With what she has already accomplished, I can’t wait to see what her new books would be like! Make sure to check out her website and social media to stay tuned. Great job to this mama who is dedicated to empowering both kids and parents to learning Chinese! ❤
Asian Mama Journal 
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