Teaching Chinese at Home

[mamii]

tamarind:

Hi mamii,

Since your DS is only 4 yo, it is very easy to teach him to like Chinese. In fact, it took me only one year to teach my girl to progress from picture books to long novels.

For children age 5 and below, it is very important that we use games to teach.

In my blog :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/12/teaching-chinese-at-home.html

Look for the words \"Parents are advised to use different types of games to teach the words :\". There are 2 photos of the pages in which the author described 18 different types of games that parents can use to teach the kids. Click on the photos to read the words.

Many parents skipped the first 30 pages and thought that they can just use the word cards as flash cards, or just point and read the words. If they do this, the child will lose interest very quickly and they will hate the books. I know many parents find it difficult to read the 30 pages, but at least read the 2 pages of games. These books are only resources, whether they are useful or not, depends on whether parents know how to use them correctly.

thanks tamarind. I have read the whole introduction about a month back, i will read it again and take notes of it.

i recall the author mentioned about talking about \"bu shou\" and linking words. do you talk about that from the beginning ? it sounds too \"chim\" for 4yo. I wonder if i could even get DS to sit and listen to me for even 2 mins if i started talking these stuff.

i dont understand the part that uses 7-8 boxes and putting the word cards in them after revision. Does it mean during each lesson the words must be reviewed 8 times ? the author wrote that the words need not be reviewed after the 8th time until much later. (sorry i cannot figure out how to type chinese character in my computer so i did not type out the full sentences, but the pic are in your blog link you attached). thanks

[Brenda10]

tamarind:

PiggyLalala, Brenda,

When my girl was in P1, I first introduced 笑猫日记 to her by asking her to read every word of 保姆狗的阴谋 out loud to me, helping her with difficult words. At P1 she could read about 90% of the words in 笑猫日记, after reading 8 books in the series, now in P2 she only needs help for 1 or 2 words in 200-300 words. She has gone ahead to read other books in the series on her own.

I am also surprised at her level of understanding, she can remember small details and even analyze the story and talk about her opinions. 杨红樱 uses many 成语, 谚语 and good vocabulary, every page of her book is far better than any model composition that you can he words without my help.

Hi Tamarind,

Nice to see you again after such a long time.

During the period of June till now, DD has finished three 卫斯理小说： 老猫，寻梦 and 玩具！ We also manage to complete the many CL 漫画 like 笑傲江湖，孙子攻略，红楼梦，水浒传 etc

True all these help her a lot in the CL subject and I am happy that she get to know more 武侠人物 like 岳不群，令狐冲，任我行 etc

[tamarind]

Brenda,

Glad to know that your girl likes to read 卫斯理小说, I was a big fan of those books in secondary book. I used to love 漫画 too !

It's my school holiday now, I will be busy again soon

[tamarind]

mamii,

We can briefly mention about how a Chinese character looks like a picture, but there is no need to make sure that a 4 or 5 year old child understands this. Just talk about it once in a while for them to get an idea, when they grow older and know more words, they will figure it out. Both my kids understand that by changing certain parts of a word, they get a new word even though I rarely teach them about it.

I do advise parents to teach the names of the 偏旁, for example:
单人旁 「亻」 如：他
　　提手旁 「扌」 如：打
　　竖心旁 「忄」 如：情
　　立刀旁 「刂」 如：刊
　　双人旁 「彳」 如：行
　　丝字旁或绞丝旁 「糹」 如： 绞（现已简化为“绞”）
　　左耳旁 「阝」 如：队
　　右耳旁 「阝）」 如：邓

About the 7 - 8 boxes, read the last 2 paragraphs of this page:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_w1nyHWTEh94/SzQMM0_2kGI/AAAAAAAABas/fiu6YIcA5gk/s1600-h/b2.JPG

Do not revise 8 times a day. Revise 1 or 2 times every day, slowly stretching the period in between revisions to once every 5 or 10 days. Note that every child is different, my boy requires more than 20 repetitions before he can remember new words while my girl needs only 2-3 repetitions. So you should modify the methods to suit you. I did not use any boxes, I used ziploc bags instead.

[bzmum22]

Hi,


My boy is 4.5 yo.
I’m trying to teach him Chinese at home.
But I’m hvg difficulty getting him to read the words.
Every word to him is 人.
It’s not that he doesn’t know the difference in form, but he is just being cheeky and makes it his personal joke, often laughing away when I told him "No, it is not 人."
So how to know if he has master the word and know how to read?
Would appreciate some ideas.

TIA

[Happy mother 2011]

Hi, my kid is 5 and I’m helping him to learn Chinese at home with a teaching material called ‘Qiao Hu Learning Kit’. I got to know this material through a friend who has her kid learning Chinese at a language school in Jurong East, they’re selling this learning kit too. It usually comes with reading book, DVD, games book and parent guidance book. You may try to call them for more info. Tel: 6665 7558

[hquek]

hi bzmum22,


DS2 is also cheeky type. I used to use the si wu kuai du series, but actually i depend more on his enrichment classes. To know if DS2 knows the words, i will use the cards provided by si wu kuai du.

I will flash DS2 the card, if he gets it right, he ‘wins’ the card. Wrong, it gets put back to MY pile. Once he has a few cards, we will form a sentence. It can be something really crazy 我有蓝猪 or whatever (i will quietly give him something that can form sentences). He really digs that and will auto ask me for this game.

If you don’t use this series, figure you can always make your own cards.

[kids_r_innocent]

Hi,


Can any expert here advise how do we differentiate which is the 1st, 2nd and so on book for 笑猫日记? I have been trying to search and analyze what is the order of this series of books but to-date, I still can’t figure out!! Thks a lot in advance!

[jedamum]

hquek:

hi bzmum22,


DS2 is also cheeky type. I used to use the si wu kuai du series, but actually i depend more on his enrichment classes. To know if DS2 knows the words, i will use the cards provided by si wu kuai du.

I will flash DS2 the card, if he gets it right, he 'wins' the card. Wrong, it gets put back to MY pile. Once he has a few cards, we will form a sentence. It can be something really crazy 我有蓝猪 or whatever (i will quietly give him something that can form sentences). He really digs that and will auto ask me for this game.

If you don't use this series, figure you can always make your own cards.

hquek,
i play similar 'game' with my ds2 too. (but only get down to doing it once every few weeks as we mainly 'revise' berries readers.
but i use my ds1's P1/P2 flash cards to reinforce words ds2 learn during berries. we will line up all the correct cards according to colours on the living room floor. 'wrong' ones that get back into MY pile, he will ask to be re-tested again. then at the end, when everything is on the floor according to colour, but at random words, we will say out all the words to form a 'nonsense' story.

[hquek]

hi jedamum,


hee hee, I wouldn’t have thought that this would work (anything chinese, my kids turn away), but it does. DS2 gets very excited when he feels he can form a sentence (perhaps this may help in 造句 - I’m just being ambitious).

We don’t do it so much becos these days very busy, and DS2 mainly revises his SHHK reader. Your sharing certainly gives me impetus to go back and start playing.
And yes, DS1’s P1 cards are rotting away…time to let them into the sun!