This is a clear guide to reading interesting, living, narrative books which will cause the story of Chinese Americans to stay with children much longer than a textbook would! Streams contains a list with descriptions of many picture books, a chapter book and two poetry books with a schedule that organizes them chronologically so they provide a cohesive overview of Chinese American history. Discussion questions and text notes are included for the Angel Island Immigration Station poetry. The other materials are for parents and children to enjoy together without the burden of worksheets - simple discussion or oral/written narration can be used if parents would like.

No. Purchasing Streams does not give you any books or poems. Those will have to be obtained elsewhere - library, used bookstores, etc. For convenience we have links to the books for sale on Amazon and/or bookshop.org, an online bookseller that supports local bookstores! (These are affiliate links so we will earn a commission if you click through and purchase.)

Absolutely! Our guides are designed to be easy for all parents, teachers and tutors to use to give kids the story of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans.

Our lessons are short - 10-15 minutes a day, 4 days a week will cover the core material in our Chinese American history guide in 8 weeks. The supplemental materials will provide opportunities for a deeper dive into history and culture.

Good question! Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders are an incredibly diverse groups with different histories and they should not be all lumped together. Chinese American heritage is what we know best, so we are starting with that. We are working with other AANHPI friends and hope to eventually have a year-long homeschool edition that would cover East Asian, Southeast Asian, South Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander history. We also plan to offer shorter regional guides that parents can choose to use during summer breaks or to supplement what their kids might not be learning at school.

Streams was designed for children in grades 1st-6th grade, about 6 - 12 years old. The lessons work well when used with multi-age siblings. Some of the materials younger children might not be ready for, and this is clearly marked. Our children were 2nd and 5th grades when we took them through the core materials. However parents know their children best and should preview all items for appropriateness for their family.

We think so! We use mainly own voice living books, short lessons, plenty of poetry, and a little art, music and architecture.

The focus of Streams is the history of Chinese in the United States. That being said, some of the themes would be similar, as both countries had Chinese Exclusion Acts and both had waves of Chinese immigrants come to their West coasts who worked in mining and railroads.

Also, we include a book by Paul Yee, who was Chinese Canadian. And if you are looking for representation in picture book biographies, there are a lot suggested in Streams.