Move over Dora, Kai-lan is our new favorite!

Dora has been a favorite of my 2 year old's.  She goes along with her on the adventures, responds when Dora asks her to-in English or Spanish.  It has made me wonder if maybe we should have signed up for Spanish instead of Mandarin! Until...

Kai-lan's Great Trip to China came in the mail from Netflix yesterday. Instant hit.

I've read reviews of how Kai-lan was essentially a Chinese version of Dora, and to an extent she is.. but it is different. The episodes don't have the same set-up like Dora's use of the map, backpack and three steps to make it to a destination.  Instead the episodes are more about certain topics and her friends include her Grandpa. How sweet is that? 

We've watched it one time through and had a chance to practice some of our established vocabulary plus learn some new words-like "happy," "grandpa," "grandma," and "pull." Most of the episode is in English-with just a few words in Mandarin Chinese.  While I don't really like to have the TV on much-I certainly am happy to have found another cute option for helping our Mandarin learning.

The Nick Jr. website has a few print-ables as well for Ni Hao Kailan.  Here is a link to number flashcards. I appreciate that they have the Chinese characters and pinyin on the cards.