Teaching Chinese at Home

[keltong]

porcupine12trade:

Congrats! i know the joyous feeling ! :lol:

Thanks! It feels good to see him responding.

porcupine12trade:

Thanks, I seldom go shopping so dont have a chance yet to browse around. The nearest I go to is vivo and I do frequent the DVD shop, but lately no time to go.

Btw I want to get the Doremon comics coloured for my gal too. I chked popular but saw only the b/w and its $5.50. So expensive, i gather the coloured ones will be more expensive. Dangdang only going for 10yuen! but need to wait till neck long long haaa

Huh...I bought it at $3.50 at Popular. B/W total 18 books in a series. Even comes with worksheets... :lol:

[tamarind]

keltong:

Just to report a minor success I have with my P5 Chinese hating boy with Doraemon comics.


Yesterday, he reminded me to read the comic to him before bed, seeing his interest, I got him to read all the 大雄 conversation while I read the rest. And he actually did! Haha, will now do so every night so he at least now get to be the one reading parts of it.

Hurray!

My K1 boy is also not rejecting the 基础汉字 and I have been able to do with him every morning and night, with the morning been a revision for all the previous words plus the new word introduced the previous night.

Yeah!

I am happy for you too

[tamarind]

Herbie:

hi, i need advise as to how to teach a sec one boy to learn and love chinese. Which are the books that are suitable for a sec one boy? Appreciate advise.

All these books are suitable for age 10 to 16 years old.
1. 雾灵三部曲（全3册)
2. 笑猫日记（12册）
3. 佐贺的超级阿嬷（亲子共读版）
4. 狼图腾：小狼小狼

I advise you to read these books with your boy, starting from the first series of books.

If there are any English books that your boy loves, you can also buy the Chinese version of those books, he may be interested to read them.

You can also try these best selling books in China :
猫武士系列
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20503986
猫头鹰王国
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20703038

I haven't bought these 2 series yet, but I believe that since so many kids in China like to read them, they must be good.

Just to share, I read 金庸 novels at Sec 2 and these are the books that really made me love Chinese. After reading all his books, 15 series, each series about 2 to 4 books, Chinese became the easiest subject to me.

After your boy finish reading the books above, I suggest reading 书剑恩仇录 by 金庸. There are only 2 books in the series, very exciting and packed with action. Before you let your boy read the book, let him watch the movie or the series first to get him interested in the story.

Don't worry if there are many words that he does not know. In fact, when I read those books at Sec 2, I only knew how to read about 70% of the words, but that was sufficient to get me hooked on to the books.

Also let him watch TV series like 倚天屠龙记, 仙剑奇侠传, etc, and Chinese movies to let him know that learning Chinese can be very enjoyable

[pummanuel]

Hi Tamarind


I’m interested in the Chinese composition books that you mentioned, i.e. 《小学生作文起跑线》 and 《大鼻子李教授新体验作文》. However, dang dang didn’t scan and post the contents for these 2 books. If it’s not too much of a trouble, could you scan and post selected pages of the 2 books on your blog? If it’s not possible, it’s ok. Thanks.

Also, I saw another book 《我教儿子学作文》by 肖复兴, an award winning writer. This book is recommended by 中国教育学会家教专业委员会 and came in second on this week’s top 10 list of 中小学教辅书. Do you have this one too?

From the reviews, it seems to be an essay-writing guide book for parents. The previews suggest that the author believes parents can start to teach their children essay writing from kindergarten, when children verbalise their essays instead of writing it. I find this very refreshing and would be getting this book for reference.

[pummanuel]

hquek:

lil_jade:

Hi Tamarind,


With regards to 四五快读, can it be re-used? Was thinking after my #1 go through it, can #2 use it? Or are there worksheets etc so that it's better to get a new one?

Many thanks!

hi lil_jade,

Taking the liberty to answer. This series of books are read only (no activity to colour/write), there are flash cards behind that you can cut out so kids can 'play' with those. definitely can reuse.

I cut out those cards and put them in different ziploc bags - not confident I can put them back according to the book level.

I did that too. I bought small ziploc bags from a provision shop (the kind that sells pots, cups, bowls, etc). As the size is alike the ones we get from our doctor for our tablets, so the 四五快读 cards fit snugly into the bags, 1 bag for 1 lesson. I think Tamarind does that too.

For each book, there will be 10 packs which can be stored in a small tupperware. Likewise, you can also pack more than 1 book (ie 10 packs) in one box. I will label my packs 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and the container Book 1 & 2, etc. So whenever I need to travel, I just bring one pack along and when I go home, I can put it back to where it belongs.

[Herbie]

Hi Tamarind,


Thanks very much.

For item 1, 2 and 4 which you have mentioned, are they comic books? Do you know where I can get them???

Appreciate yr help.

My son only has two chinese lessons per week and he is in an ang mo school so chinese is very weak… so i need to do something abt it before it is too late…

I still have to worry abt his compo. Do you have any good book to recommend for compo writing??

Can recommend??? Thanks!

[tamarind]

pummanuel:

Hi Tamarind


I'm interested in the Chinese composition books that you mentioned, i.e. 《小学生作文起跑线》 and 《大鼻子李教授新体验作文》. However, dang dang didn't scan and post the contents for these 2 books. If it's not too much of a trouble, could you scan and post selected pages of the 2 books on your blog? If it's not possible, it's ok. Thanks.

Also, I saw another book 《我教儿子学作文》by 肖复兴, an award winning writer. This book is recommended by 中国教育学会家教专业委员会 and came in second on this week's top 10 list of 中小学教辅书. Do you have this one too?

From the reviews, it seems to be an essay-writing guide book for parents. The previews suggest that the author believes parents can start to teach their children essay writing from kindergarten, when children verbalise their essays instead of writing it. I find this very refreshing and would be getting this book for reference.

pummanuel,
OK I will take photos of the pages and post in my blog when I am free.

I also ordered 我教儿子学作文, but it will only arrive in March.

Yes I also use small ziploc bags, bought from Daiso.

[tamarind]

Herbie:

Hi Tamarind,


Thanks very much.

For item 1, 2 and 4 which you have mentioned, are they comic books? Do you know where I can get them???

Appreciate yr help.

My son only has two chinese lessons per week and he is in an ang mo school so chinese is very weak.. so i need to do something abt it before it is too late..

I still have to worry abt his compo. Do you have any good book to recommend for compo writing??

Can recommend??? Thanks!

The first series 雾灵三部曲 is 50% comics, 50% novel. The 笑猫日记 series of books are novels. All books that I recommended are available at dangdang.com, or you can borrow from the National Library.

http://www.nlb.gov.sg/

Click Search Catalogue, Advanced Search, then paste the title into the Keywords. You can place reservations for the books.

雾灵三部曲 has just arrived in the library and not available for loan yet, but you can still place reservation and you will receive a letter once it is available for collection.

In order to write good compositions, your son must first read many Chinese novels to build up the foundation, otherwise, books about composition writing techniques will not be helpful.

[laughingcat]

Hello tamarind,


Need your advise. Your library list is so extensive and I am confuse which one to get hold of coz scare my ds not keen leh. Can you advise which are more suitable for K1 and I try it out.

BTW, he is now into book 3 of SWKD

[tamarind]

laughingcat:

Hello tamarind,


Need your advise. Your library list is so extensive and I am confuse which one to get hold of coz scare my ds not keen leh. Can you advise which are more suitable for K1 and I try it out.

BTW, he is now into book 3 of SWKD

My boy loves these books :
鸡蛋哥哥（全四册）
可爱的鼠小弟(全12册)
小猫当当系列
你真好
永远永远爱你

But every child is different, so I am not sure whether your boy will find this books interesting. All the books in my blog can be found in the library, you can search for them and try out first.

Also, the reason why I listed so many books in my blog (actually I have many more that are not listed), is because it is necessary for kids to read that many books in order to be good in Chinese. If parents can let kids finish reading all the books in the age 2 to 6 group before entering primary one, then kids will find Chinese very easy when they enter primary school.

Parents should sit with your kids, point to every word, and ask them to read out loud to you. Then teach them when they don't know any word. This is the best way to encourage them to read any book. We cannot wait for kids to pick up the books to read on their own.