“中文游乐园-Chinese Learning Playground” is a Mandarin Chinese study group for young children, recommended for ages 5 and above, led by volunteer native-Chinese-speaking parents. Children will learn to read, speak, and write Chinese through many fun activities. The first half of the class will focus on reading Chinese folk rhymes, memorizing Chinese characters, and writing simple Chinese words. The second half of the class will consist of fun activities including arts and crafts. Participating children are encouraged to speak Chinese throughout the class, and parents are encouraged to help kids practice Chinese songs, memorize characters, and write simple words at home. The group will meet upstairs at Westbank Library.
中文游乐园-Chinese learning playground is currently organized by four volunteer parents:
- Xiaoqing Zhu, a PhD from Stanford and currently a tech lead in a Fortune 500 company, whose favorite side job is to teach and learn from her kindergartner.
- Wendy You, a college finance professor, who finds it more challenging to teach her five-year-old than to teach a college class.
- Celine Wright, an MBA and finance executive who worked for many large companies and had managed many difficult mergers and acquisitions projects, realized that her three young kids are the most difficult, but fun, projects of all.
- Lan Luan, a research professor of biomedical engineering at UT, who finds it extremely fun to guide and observe young children including her own 4-year-old son to grow physically and intellectually.