English–Chinese Vocabulary Workbook for Kids

Each of the 96 words in this workbook sits on a colored bridge that joins three things: the English word in blue, the simplified Chinese characters in red with pinyin underneath, and a yellow number. A picture on the left shows what the word means, and a dotted strip below repeats all three in pale gray for tracing. The cover marks the book for ages 4 to 8.

The page routine

Word pages carry four entries each, three pages to a theme. The overview page at the start of a theme lays out all 12 pictures with their English and Chinese names, and the line at the bottom asks the child to say all three out loud before writing anything.

On the practice pages the three forms get mixed up on purpose. The matching page pairs six words with their numbers. The fill-in page lists all 12 pictures, and each row leaves one form blank, sometimes the English, sometimes the characters, sometimes the number. The review page is an “I can read these” checklist, a few lines for what the child learned, and three stars to color.

What the numbers are for

They aren’t a counting exercise. A word’s number is simply its place in the theme, so Cat is 1 and Pig is 12. For a child who can’t read yet in either language, the number is the part they can already handle, and it gives them a way into the matching and fill-in pages. The numbers theme itself goes from 一 to 十二.

The eight themes

Animals, food, family, colors, numbers, body, nature and everyday things, 12 words each. Most are first words: duck and pig, bread and noodles, grandmother and grandfather, eye and tooth, sun and snow, door and phone. 55 of the 96 are written with two characters.

For parents who don’t read Chinese

The exercise instructions are printed in Chinese and English. The short explanations on the how-to page and on the page introducing the three parts are in Chinese only, under English headings. The pinyin on the word pages lets you say each word with your child.

Printing

Print in color if you can. Blue, red and yellow are how a young child tells English, Chinese and the number apart, and in black and white the pages lose that help. Print at Actual Size or 100%, since shrinking the page makes the tracing strips too small. To use a theme more than once, slide the pages into a clear sleeve and write with a dry-erase marker.

Questions

Simplified or traditional characters?

Simplified, throughout the book.

Where does the pinyin appear?

Under the characters on every word page, with tone marks. The overview and practice pages show the characters without pinyin.