Toys for learning Chinese

[David Wong]

I have been looking for some toys to help my 5 year old daughter to learn Chinese characters and their pinyin without the need for close supervision. I have seen games and toys that involve characters written on blocks or dominoes, but those look like they would require a teacher to teach the pinyin and meaning of each character.

My daughter's first language is English but she started learning to speak Mandarin about a year ago. Her vocabulary might be roughly equivalent to 3-year-old native Mandarin speaker. She speaks Mandarin exclusively with her sitter. I would like her to start recognizing characters, expand her vocab and practice some writing.

I'm thinking an electronic toy that can show characters as well as play the sound in pinyin would be ideal, but have so far been unable to find anything like that. An iPod touch with the right software might work, but she'll probably end up using it to watch cartoons on youtube instead.

We got her children's books in Chinese, but she's much more interested in her English language books. So I'm looking for ideas to make learning Chinese fun for her.

Thanks in advance for any suggestion you might have.

[xiaotao]

There is a DS game to learn Chinese. You can check it out at Amazon. I have seen a Chinese learning video program called "After School Chinese." You can see the promo clip on youtube. They have it for sale at AFK.com. There are 4 levels.

[anonymoose]

How about audio stories?

[feihong]

The poster above is referring to the My Chinese Coach game for the Nintendo DS. I too have heard of this game, but apparently it is saddled with obvious errors.

[Gleaves]

I don't have ideas on toys, but -

Maybe Disney/Pixar movies in Chinese? Or maybe some Chinese cartoons like 喜羊羊?

I've heard people mention Chinasprout.com for ordering kids stuff. Something like this looks fun. I've also seen betterchinese.com mentioned.

See this thread, especially the link from creamyhorror.

[cababunga]

An iPod touch with the right software might work, but she'll probably end up using it to watch cartoons on youtube instead.

Hmm... What if you don't tell her password on your WiFi router? Do you think she'd still be able to crack it to watch youtube?

You can also look for some cheaper with bigger screen Android tablets. Something like this http://www.dealextreme.com/p/7-touch-screen-lcd-google-android-2-1-tablet-pc-w-wifi-camera-hdmi-tf-2-mini-usb-arm11-800mhz-54065. Seems like there are some application for Android that you may find suitable

http://www.appbrain.com/app/chinese-characters-quiz/nba.ChineseQuiz

http://www.androidzoom.com/android_games/brain_puzzle/learning-chinese_cipo.html

http://www.androidzoom.com/uk/android_applications/chinese%20characters

[David Wong]

Thanks for all the useful suggestions!

Hmm... What if you don't tell her password on your WiFi router? Do you think she'd still be able to crack it to watch youtube?

Good point! It did not occur to me to disable the wifi.

Now that makes it a viable option - sifting through and downloading apps onto my phone as I type. Will test-drive with the kid before I take the plunge on a new device.

[trisha2766]

If you do find some other toys - please post what you find. I have a 2.5 yr., still a little early for her to start learning characters, but I'm still looking around a bit to see what is available.

You might want to consider these too: http://chinasprout.com/shop/VVL071 I have one of the Sing to Learn Chinese dvd's, I wasn't that impressed, at least at first, but my daughter loves it. They are made in Singapore though, I'm not too sure how different their pronunciation is, some words sound a little different to me but I don't think enough to be a problem.

This looks like it might be good too, but I don't have it yet either: http://chinasprout.com/shop/BLF070