家门外的自然课 Nature Lessons Outside Our Home Door (Set of 7)

This is an excellent and gorgeous set of books about nature outside our door, some right in our neighbourhoods!

Titles included:

• 看！蜗牛 Look! Snails
• 看！树木 Look! Trees
• 看！草儿 Look! Grass
• 看！蚯蚓 Look! Earthworms
• 看！蚂蚁 Look! Ants
• 哇！大熊猫 Wow! Pandas
• 哇！水母 Wow! Jellyfish

What we love about this series:

• Gorgeous, realistic illustrations
• Contains lots of amazing details and facts! We learnt so many new things about the plants and animals that we see often.
• Is a reference book that we can refer back to, and will grow with us over the years

Tips on how to use this series, tried and tested with my kids of ages 3, 8 and 10

• Just flip through the books, not necessarily reading every single page and word for word, just to pique their interest and see what catches our child’s attention. Then maybe go deeper a little on that specific aspect or fact. Don’t overwhelm them!
• If your child has a specific high interest, bring out the related book to delve deeper.
• Bring a related book out when going for a field trip to see pandas, to the ant museum, aquarium to see jellyfish, on a gardening session to see earthworms, on a visit or picnic to the park where we would see lots of trees and grass, right after the rain or in the evenings where snails may appear! These real-life experiences help the subject matter come alive, and even little kids would be more willing to read this seemingly “difficult” series 
• Pair the reading of the book with watching a related documentary (if it’s in Mandarin, it’ll be even more awesome!), painting or colouring a related picture, or if you have bandwidth can consider a simple craft to go along!
• For young ones, or with kids who may not have interest in a particular animal, just look at the pictures and try to help them relate to what they see or have experienced! This helps learning come alive and Mandarin to be more meaningful than dry facts on paper
• Gather a few books on a particular topic and display them in the home! For example, choose books relating to trees in both English and Mandarin and display them on book stands, on the coffee table, or in a little reading corner. Gives our books a lease of new life when kids get interested in them again with a slightly different lens. Tip: IKEA Vivalla bamboo tablet stand is excellent and very sturdy for propping books up!

Suitable for ages 2-99

Number of books in set: 7