Between the lines: learning the meanings depends on the book

"What's 'magical?'" my younger daughter asks. "Magical means muo shu," my elder daughter replies.

When my younger daughter wants to know what something is, her big sister simply gives an English or Chinese translation (depending on what language they're conversing in) rather than provide an actual definition.

My younger daughter, armed with only an English equivalent of a Chinese word or vice versa, somehow figures out their meanings.

I try to extract more from my elder daughter by asking: "And what does muo shu mean?" She replies: "It means magical." This is a drawback of growing up in a bilingual home.

I use the Kingfisher First Dictionary to show my children that there are generally accepted definitions of words.