6 Best Chinese Children Books to Read Aloud for Babies and Toddlers

by fortunecookiemom | Blog, Teaching Chinese at Home

Reading Chinese children’s books is one of the best methods to teach Chinese at home. It’s even better when you start early when they are babies and toddlers.

In this blog post, I share tips and methods for reading aloud and how to build a foundation for babies and toddlers.

Also, I will introduce 6 of the best Chinese children’s books to help you get started. Plus, other activities enhance language learning for babies and toddlers.

>>>>> Enter the huge giveaway below!

The post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission to support my blog and free printables at no cost to you. See the Disclosure for more details.

Table of Contents

5 Essential Early Reading Skills to Aware

Reading and language skills begin to develop even before babies are born. The University of Texas at Austin has identified five early reading skills essential to learning:

Phonemic awareness — being able to hear, identify, and play with individual sounds in spoken words
Phonics — being able to connect the letters of written language with the sounds of spoken language
Vocabulary — the words children need to know for effective communication
Reading Comprehension — being able to understand and get meaning from what they read
Fluency — being accurate and quick when reading text

“Reading aloud is a form of conversation and conversing with children matters.” Reading to children allows them to gain all five early reading skills naturally. We should read to them as often and as young as possible.

My Reading Experience

Reading at home wasn’t emphasized growing up. My parents were not educated, and they both work hard every day. So, I only read books assigned by teachers to complete school assignments.

Since becoming a mother I learned the significance of reading. I grew to understand how important it is for a child’s development and language learning. So, we borrowed books from the library and started to collect books for our home library.

We have personal reading time and family reading time before bed almost every day. We have 15-30 minutes sitting together while reading our own books. Then my husband and I take turns reading aloud as a family.

Buying books as gifts instead of toys or carrying books on outings has become normal for our family.

We focused on teaching our children to read in whatever language they wanted first. My girls learned to read in English first. We encouraged them to read more and more. Learning to read in one language helps them to learn to read Chinese later on.

How?

Because they know how to read and get information from books. They already have the skill of comprehension when they start learning to read a second language.

Are you too busy and overwhelmed with activities, prep, finding time to be with your children? Drop everything but keep reading with your children.

When children love reading and learning from books, the world opens up to them. The activities and other things come later.

How to Read to Babies and Toddlers

It can be difficult to read to babies and toddlers. You may be even wondering if it is necessary since they won’t respond much. Or toddlers will only spend 5 minutes flipping the books, and then they may want to chew them or destroy them.

The Benefits of Reading Aloud to Babies and Toddlers

Here are several benefits of reading aloud, there are many more than listed here.

Create family bonding
Build family culture and traditions
Expands vocabulary
Helps develop language skills, cognitive thinking skills, and enhances memory
Exposed to different cultures and places
Improve reading comprehension
Opportunities to start conversation and discussion
Encourages imagination and creativity
Encourages learning
Enjoyment and reduce stress

Benefits specific to reading Chinese books aloud to babies and toddlers

Exposes and connects them with new vocabulary
Exposes a different kind of cultural background
Provides opportunities to hear different sounds and tones and expression
Encourages learning Chinese at home
Make learning Chinese natural

Reading to Babies

Why Read to Babies?

abies seem to only eat and sleep all day. But there is a lot of learning going on, especially in their senses.

Their hearing is far more developed than other senses. Babies respond to their mother’s voice during the third trimester of pregnancy.

The more words your babies hear over time, the more words they learn and understand.

How?

Birth – 6 months

Use small, chunky board books, soft fabric books, or vinyl bath books that your baby can hold onto.
Talk about the pictures with your little one.
Sing the text to keep their attention.
Play peek-a-boo with lift-the-flap books.
Help your baby to touch, feel, even chew the books.
They may not pay attention to the story, and it’s fine. So take a break when they get bored. We are trying to create the habit.

6-11 months

Offer short, simple stories with colorful pictures and images board books
Let them explore books by looking, touching, opening, and closing the books.
They may have a favorite story they want to read over and over
Talk about the pictures and ask them simple questions about the pictures
Sing the text to keep their attention.
Use different voices and expression
Have your child help turn the pages.

Reading to Toddlers

Why?

It’s an important period for developing routines and good habits. It also helps them to explore the world and sate their curiosity. Reading will help expand their vocab and comprehension. They will find joy and comfort from reading books and learning.

How?

12 -18 months

Offer board books with simple stories, stories with rhymes, and repeated phrases
They love stories and pictures about babies and familiar objects. Things such as animals and toys.
Start reading word by word while pointing to the picture or acting it out
Use different voices and expressions
Point to the pictures and say the names of objects and colors.

18-24 months

Introduce longer stories with more plot and content.
They love humor, funny stories, and silly rhymes at this age.
They love to run and move around during reading
Read word by word while pointing to the picture or act it out
Use different voices and expression
Allow them to turn the pages and hold the book
Take time to discuss what’s happening in the books
Ask your child to describe the pictures. Repeat phrases used in the story and predict what will happen next
Take time to answer questions.
Follow the words with your finger as you read.

What Chinese books are suitable for 0-3 years old?

I get this question quite often.

For little kids, I prefer books that are easier for little hands to hold and flip, such as board books, soft books, etc.

Also, bright colors with clear big images will be more attractive.

Of course, simple vocabulary or phrases are plus as well.

If you don’t have a Chinese library at home

Use family albums, magazines with fun photos, any books your kiddos show interest in. Go for it.

You can translate and describe the images in any language you want.

Here is a list of amazing bilingual Chinese-English children’s books. They are interactive, fun, and perfect for little kids for fluent or non-fluent families to use.

Gordon & Li Li: Learn Animals in Mandarin

I won this book from a giveaway on Instagram! I was so happy because we had begun to introduce Mandarin to my children, so it was a perfect book to first with.

Basic Information

Title: Gordon & Li Li: Learn Animals in Mandarin
Author: Michele Wong McSween
ISBN-10 : 0982088124/ ISBN-13 : 978-0982088128
Age level: Birth – Age 6
Where to buy: you can get it from Amazon here

Summary

Learn English and Mandarin words with panda cousins Gordon & Li Li in this charming and colorful bilingual first words book series.

What to Expect?

Each page highlights a single animal using colorful images. It has simplified Chinese characters with pinyin, an English translation, and phonetic pronunciation to help parents to read along.

In this book, you and your child are going to learn about the following animals:

Alligator
Lion
Fish
Horse
Duck
Hippopotamus
Cow
Zebra
Panda
Dolphin
Giraffe
Monkey
Shark
Killer whale
Polar bear
Penguin
Pig
Snake
Chicken
Elephant
Sheep
Rhinoceros
Rabbit
Frog
Mouse
Seal
Tiger
Bear

This is also a hard-board book, it’s perfect for babies to touch, flip, and play with.

Other Books & Resources from Gordon & Li Li

They also have other Chinese bilingual board books & resources:

My First Mandarin Words with Gordon & Li Li
Gordon & Li Li: Celebrate Chinese New Year
Gordon & Li Li: Count in Mandarin
Gordon & LilLi: Words for Everyday
Gordon & Li Li: Learn Animals in Mandarin Coloring & Activity Book
Gordon & Li Li: Learn Animals in Mandarin App – Apple App Store & Google Play

If you want more information about them, click here to go onto their official site.

Bitty Bao Bilingual Board Books

I have received the Round 1 book bundle (with a total of 3 books) from Bitty Bao. When I opened the boxes and looked at the books, my kids fell in love with them.

We love the quality, the images, the contents, pretty much everything.

These two moms did an amazing job creating wonderful Chinese bilingual books.