I have ambitiously started my 3.5-year-old twins on the Sage Formula Basic 500 in August this year (2020).
Since I am still homeschooling the preschoolers and intend to do so until they go kindergarten, I need to find a way to start teaching them Chinese.
Basic Information on Sage Formula
Sage Formula aims to teach children 500 basic words via 5 sets of books, from Beginning Reader 启蒙级 to Fluent Reader 实力级.
Each set contains 5 books with 20 words per book. That adds up to 500 words in total.
According to the author, if we teach our kids one new word a day, we will be able to finish the entire set in 18 months.
Wow, getting my twins to remember 500 Chinese characters in 18 months seems to be a tall order.
The books introduce one new character in each chapter. Subsequent chapters build on the earlier words learned.
The first chapter is as simple as 3 pages of 山，the second chapter is 山，高山，高山，and the third chapter is just 山，高山，高高的山.
Check out the video by Sage Books introducing its Sage Formula Basic 500.
Our Starting Point
The entire set is priced over S$400 excluding shipping from Hong Kong. The Level 1 and 2 sets were out of stock island-wide in Singapore, and I was unable to get hold of a complete pre-loved Level 1 set.
I couldn’t decide whether to invest in the entire set at all, until when my hubby clicked “buy” due to a miscommunication with him…
With this hefty sum of money thrown in, I have no choice but to take on the challenge of teaching the “gantang” twins 500 Chinese characters.
But I find no rush in completing the entire set in 18 months given that the twins were only 3 1/2 years old. We will take in the new words at a relaxed pace.
The twins have zero knowledge and zero interest in Chinese. They watched TV shows in the English language and would reject any attempt from me to turn on the Chinese audio.
But hey, the girls actually liked the first book for a start! We spent only 5 minutes a day reading a few chapters.
I felt pretty motivated and we progressed quickly through the first half of the Book 1, until when the younger twin was a little overwhelmed by the subsequent characters and her progress slowed tremendously.
The older twin managed to master 80% of the words in Book 1 within 2 months, and then everything came to a standstill…. Both girls reject Book 2! It was boring because everything was repetitive. There was no storyline.
Nonetheless, armed with 20 new words in their little brain, we switched our attention to reading Chinese books and learning basic Chinese strokes.
They developed INTEREST in reading because they recognise and understand certain words learned from the Sage books!
We are now moving through Book 2 at a snail’s pace. I am telling myself not to be overly concerned with the pace as long as there is progress. Furthermore, they have cultivated an interest in reading Chinese storybooks.
My Conclusion on Sage Formula for now
3 months into using Sage Formula, this is what I think.
First and foremost, every child learns at a different pace. Chill when there is no progress. Move on to something else and return to the book after some time.
Sage Formula introduces new characters based on how frequently these characters appear in storybooks.
Hence, we see a lot of sight words such as 在，有，一 个，是， 的 that have absolutely no meaning if used singly. These examples appear in Book 1 and 2.
Sage Formula Increase Confidence in Reading
And thanks to these sight words, the twins have more confidence and interest in reading Chinese storybooks, which prior to August before we started Sage Formula, was something unimaginable to me. My two elder never like reading Chinese books in their preschool days anyway.
Thus even though the twins are currently not as excited in Sage Formula books as before, not all is lost.
Treat Sage Formula books like a textbook for homeschooling. Ask yourself honestly. When do you ever get excited about reading a textbook? Rarely, isn’t it?
Thus, use Sage Formula books like textbooks and move to other fun Chinese learning activities for further engagement.
The book shown here is currently our regular favourite. I love its huge font size that suits my failing eyes and is age-appropriate for the twins too.
Another favourite of ours is the reader by 乐中学。My friend gave me her set of big readers, superb for nursery kids in my opinion. I am gonna find more of these.
Sage Formula – The Cons
The characters introduced by Sage Formula are not in order of difficulty, and thus, Sage Formula is not suitable as a tool for teaching the little ones writing.
Nonetheless, my twins love to trace on the new character introduced in each chapter. The number indicated on each stroke definitely helps with guiding them to write in the correct sequence.
Last but not least, the sentences in the books are translated from Cantonese, according to a Cantonese-speaking acquaintance of mine. That gives rise to strangely structured sentences on certain pages. Not a major issue though as I have found only one such sentence in Book 1.
As shown below, I think at least in Singapore, we say “我的手很小”.
Supplementary Activities for Sage Formula Level One Book 1 and 2
My girls learn well using the Bingo Board. We had done it for numbers and alphabet recognition, and now I am creating more to help them with learning Chinese.
You can download the printable here for free if you wish. Scroll down further for links.
How To Play The Bingo Board Chinese
This Bingo Board set consists of 4 Bingo Boards and 39 flashcards using characters from Sage Book Level 1.1 and Level 1.2.
Arrange the flashcards in a stack facing down. Flip over the first card. For starters, read aloud the word on their behalf. If they can, encourage them to read out the word independently.
Find the matching character on the board and mark it with a chip, Lego block or whatever counters you already have at home.
Shout “Bingo!” or ask the child to call out their own when he or she gets 4-in-a-row (horizontal, vertical or diagonal). Our twins prefer to fill up the entire board before a winner is declared.
Word Search
The other activity that I like to do with them is word hunt. I will put together a number of similar-looking words on a piece of paper and get the girls to look for the words.
Circle the same character using one colour pencil and the next character using a different colour.
This activity helps the young children to differentiate the similar-looking characters and trains their focus and visual ability while doing the word search.
Scavenger Hunt
The Scavenger Hunt game always get my girls all excited. Simply hide the flashcards all around the house and get the kids to find them. Read aloud out the character whenever they locate a card to score a point.
We do this a lot at home to learn new vocabularies and beginning sounds .
Download the free printables here. The pack includes the Sage Formula Flashcards for Level 1 Book 1 and 2, the corresponding bingo boards and search word activity search.
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Laminate them if you want to ensure reusability.
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