Watching Kids’ Shows on iQIYI: Our Family’s Holiday Treat
iQIYI series in Chinese that my kids enjoyed — along with a few quirky ones worth exploring.
Review: Nanjing Mandarin Immersion Camp 2025
An Adventure for the Whole Family We spent our June holidays doing something wildly different—and absolutely unforgettable. My three kids and I traded our usual routines for ten jam-packed days in Nanjing, China, attending a local school entirely in Mandarin. No English and no regrets. If you’re curious about what it’s like to throw your…
C Dramas for Tweens: What We’re Loving Right Now
After a long day, sometimes the best way for my kids (and me!) to unwind is to curl up on the couch and watch something fun, meaningful, or just downright silly. In our house, we try to keep things bilingual — an equal mix of Chinese and English shows. That balance has gotten trickier as…
Hello again, old friends
In 2024, I barely managed to type out two blog posts all year. This year? Not even one—until now. I was starting to worry I’d forgotten how to log into my WordPress account (spoiler: I totally had). I’m not much of a social media person, and the chaos in the upper echelons of Twitter and…
5 Years of Lah Lah Banana: A Journey of Growth, Struggles, and Success
A Very Personal Journey It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly five years since I started this blog. Time flies, doesn’t it? We’ve been having fun too (for the most part). The journey began when my eldest daughter started primary school. She had always loved Chinese – in fact, she thrived in a bilingual…
Helping a child with P1 primary school Chinese as a non-Chinese speaker
How to help my child with primary school Chinese Every year in January, the visits to my blog spike and the queries are search terms like “P1 Chinese” , “non Chinese parents with children studying Chinese”, “how to help children with Chinese homework”, and “help with Chinese as mother tongue at local school”. Every year…
Book Review: Silly Wolf Chinese Comic Series《笨狼的故事》
Silly Wolf series comes in two forms – firstly a cute story book ( 注音版 / bridging book, with Hanyu pinyin), and secondly a comic book series (漫画 / comic book, with no Hanyu pinyin). Both are by popular Chinese author, Tang Su Lan 汤素兰. This review is specifically about the Silly Wolf Comic series.…
Habbi Habbi Bilingual Flashcards & Puzzles: Parent Review
Review of the beautiful Habibi Habbi bilingual flashcards and puzzles, available in Chinese, Spanish, Korean and French,
Book Review: Sherlock Holmes 大侦探福尔摩斯
A wonderful detective book series for upper primary or lower secondary …. the Geronimo Stilton of Chinese detective stories.
Tips for PSLE Chinese Oral Exams
Acing the PSLE Chinese Oral exams isn’t just a matter of language fluency. This post lists out a few practical tips to prepare wholesomely for your child’s Chinese oral assessments, without trying to sell you a tuition class to solve the problem! How you ever noticed that if you google ‘Tips for PSLE Chinese oral…
Vitamin M: practicing for PSLE Chinese Oral in Singapore
Not sure how to preparing for PSLE Chinese oral? Here is a review of a great practice tool to ace exams with sample Chinese oral video questions.
Parent Review: BrookieKids Chinese Activity Packs
BrookieKids produce fun learning products for preschoolers to bring Mandarin alive. This is our family review of their latest game package.
Dou Dou Books: Review of new Chinese levelled readers
What are Dou Dou Chinese Readers? Dou Dou Books are “first readers” for young children who are just starting to read in Simplified Chinese. There were meticulously written by an American early childhood education expert, Miss Stella Beaver. Throughout two decades of teaching and researching across top immersion and Montessori schools, she has developed her…
Book Review: Sometimes it rains pigs on sunny days
Review of the classic series Sometimes it rains pigs on sunny days 晴天有时下猪. A great bridging book in Simplified Chinese for upper primary.
Book Review: Squid for Brains Chapter Books
This review looks at the Squid for Brains Readers (also called Mandarin Chapter Books) published by none other than Squid for Brains. These are different from the Squid for Brains Picture Books which I’ve reviewed earlier, however the Readers are just as zany and unique. One thing I try really hard to do with this…
Ting xie word lists and apps for Singapore curriculum
This post has links to all the wordlists I have created which align with the MOE Primary Chinese curriculum 欢乐伙伴. They’re ready-made in Skritter and ready for you to use.
Best Children’s English Composition & Creative Writing Books
Great companion texts to encourage English compositions and creative writing, which will work in an Asian context too.
Book Review: Squid for Brains Picture Books
Squid for Brains picture books have fun, readable and accessible content for beginners learning Chinese as a second language. They are designed based on the theory of comprehensible input. combined with a dose of good humour.
Christmas gifts for preschoolers 2022…. with a Chinese literacy twist!
It’s my final blog post for the year! As always, the entire month before Christmas will be dedicated to a social media free Advent period (so please forgive the spelling errors, as this is being hurriedly typed in the few minutes before we jump on a plane). Given there is still time to buy Christmas…
Helping a child to write Chinese characters
Creative ways o encourage your child to write more in Chinese, from apps to smart pens, and magnetic tiles.
Book Review: 朱尔多日记 Zhu Er’s Diary
This review is of a bridging book set 朱尔多日记 (Zhū ěr’s Diary), which is ideal for middle-to-upper primary school readers. My daughter borrowed it recently from the library. Until that point, I really thought we’d heard of most of the better known early chapter booksets from mainland China, especially those written in diary format, but apparently…
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Nice to meet you! I’m Emma. A mother of 3, engineer, believer and day dreamer.
Here are the most recent blog posts about learning Chinese with my little Bananas, and helping them to understand their yellow sides a little more, lah!
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