Learning Chinese (Primary/Preschool)

[lifestylelink]

sembgal:

In order to improve my child's spoken Chinese, I created funny stories and shared with my child. My child was excited and wanted to create her own Chinese stories to share with me too. I find this activity helpful in getting a child to speak Mandarin. The parents can help the child to replace the English word with Chinese word and it really makes learning so much fun. My main concern is getting my child to communicate in Mandarin proficiently before she enters P1. if you have any other ideas to share how to encourage a child to speak Mandarin, please share. Thanks.

When my son was born, I expose him to English first, intentionally so that he will have advantage. 99% of the time, my hubby and I communicate in Mandarin, but when it comes to him, I speak English. And therefore, his first languauge is English and daddy has no choice but to talk to him in English too. However, everyone else in our family, my parents and parents in laws, all communicate in Mandarin 98% of the time. Guess what, my son obviously don't understand and he is frustrated. In fact, he boycotted the Art Lesson I signed up for him at the nearby CC because the trainer speaks Mandarin. And to make things worst, since December last year, I've switched him from a \"potato\" childcare to a \"mandarin\" childcare. You could imagine the frustration in him when he cannot convey his feelings or thought anymore, the feedback i got from the new childcare is he is a quiet, obedient boy. LOL... but actually his is the talkative and KPO type.

Anyway, in order to help him blend in with the rest of the family and with his new friends at the childcare centre, I have to teach him Chinese. I wanted to send him to the classroom based Chinese enrichment centre and he protested, also the enrolment were very full and I couldn't get a seat anyway. Since he likes to play with eletronic devices, not that I want him too but he is already kinda addicted, and daddy bought a new laptop, I decided to let him learn online.

I searched and came upon this chinese learning software, meant for 2-10 years old, developed in China. There are three modules, first for baby which consists of flash cards, two is chinese for 3-10, and the third one (new addition) is maths for 3-10.

I signed up for the trial and my DS is totally captivated. He just keep returning to the programme daily till we got locked out, end of trial. It is fun and interactive, and the success factor, I believe is in that he gets to learn 3-5 new words every day. And because it is child-initiated learning, his mandarin improves quickly. There was a little difficulty when I tried to pay for it because this software is from China, I can't pay with our Singapore issued credit card.

Anyway, cut the story short, I managed to pay and subscribe to the software (I took both the Chinese and Maths modules). After just 2 weeks, DS is able to response to me in simple Mandarin and now, he is much happier at home and at school and not felt left out. The other day he was able to speak in Mandarin, with proper Grammar, two sentences with no mistake, that is what I called impressive. And by the way, the Chinese module comes complete with Hanyupinyin and ability to print out the Chinese Charactes for practice. Subscription to the Chinese and Maths modules gives a 4 years online access. After the daily learning, the child has a chance to listen to an educational story, children songs, learn poem or make-an-origami.

I really likes the software and is speaking with them, the developer, on other payment methods that will grant easy access to more Singapore parents.

[mom72]

My P2 is weak in Chinese too. She doesn't hate chinese but she has problem remembering the characters and forgeting it very quickly. She's currently with a tution centre, but I don't see much improvement, just managed to maintain. Thinking if I should pull her out and teach her myself but yet, I'm worried I'm not able to commit to what I plan.

[Thetrees123]

mom72:

My P2 is weak in Chinese too. She doesn't hate chinese but she has problem remembering the characters and forgeting it very quickly. She's currently with a tution centre, but I don't see much improvement, just managed to maintain. Thinking if I should pull her out and teach her myself but yet, I'm worried I'm not able to commit to what I plan.

To remember the character, play 字宝宝 with her, both P1 and P2 .
Read more p1 and p2 Compo.
Do more writting, tell her more story, read story books with her.
After that, she will improve.
Check tuition centre doing all the above? or purely doing assessment?
I am a tutor ,everyday with children, I know them very well.
Chinese is simple and fun, depend on how you teach the kids
Thanks

[lifestylelink]

This is to follow up from my last post, just checked the date, exactly one month. I am pleased to inform that you can apply for a trial account here http://sgp.kidscn.cn.


My hubby and I are really happy with my DS progress in mandrin but sometimes feeling frustrated as he now \"eavedrop\" on all our conversations!! We switched to speaking hokkien and DS will ask \"what mummy? WHAT?\" :whut: LOL....

The first improvement I see in him is he no longer speak with the \"angmoh\" accent after he learned Hanyupinyin.

The second improvement is he is more responsive as he is able to \"think in chinese\" and not \"think in English then translate to chinese\". The straight through processing speed is much faster as he now knows more chinese characters.

And like experts said, a child learns fastest through playing. To him, it is a fun game, so he is just playing. The best part is when he takes a holiday, his progress is tracked.. when he returns to the program, he was asked \"where have you been?\" :scratchhead: He obviously was taken aback.... ops.... I am not pressing him to restart because I want to keep it stress-free for him and keep it child-initiated. Otherwise it may backfire.

Anyway, just introduce the game to your child, then sit back and relax. If they like what they see, they will come after you. I suggest 'play hard to get' so they will appreciate more. It works for my DS, :rahrah: I hope it works for you too. Share your experience here so more parents may benefit.

[Germainxxx]

Hi mummies,

I have a friend whom her DD is under this home tutor. She has trained several students, including Korean and Indian students, and they end up getting an A+ for PSLE. She stays in the east, and requires students to travel to her home. Pm me for more details

Cheers,
Germainxxx

[district98]

Dear All,


If any parents here can recommend a Chinese teacher that does home tutoring 1 to 1? In particular good with Preschool.
can please PM me. Thanks in advance!

[Susan Koh]

My daughter is four this year and I'm starting to get anxious about her Chinese abilities as we intend to send her to a SAP sch as it's the closest to my place.


Recently, she started to receive Chinese homework from her Chinese teacher and I started to converse in Mandarin with her more. We have been reading chinese books all along but now with a greater emphasis on character recognition.

To help understand what she reads, we read these books that are in English and Chinese and I've been making flashcards of certain words for both versions.
http://i41.tinypic.com/jzikuc.jpg\">

I didn't use to like Chinese but now looks like I have to also pick it up again so that I can coach her at home. But ultimately, what I hope is that she can learn to develop an interest and liking for the language. I shared some thoughts about this on my blog, http://ajugglingmom.com/developing-a-love-for-chinese-in-children/

[yluvly]

Hi,

anyone can advise in which age we should start send our kids to chinese enrichment program ? N1/N2 ?

Thx,

[timtamfan]

kangks:

Hi,


Any good 1-1 chinese tutor for a primary school boy? I am in particularly looking at innovative and fun teaching, like using pictures/drawings to associate chinese words.

I am staying at east.

Thank you

Hi, maybe can check out Children's Art Theatre (opp Kembangan MRT at Kembangan Plaza B1) ? (http://www.childrenartstheatre.com/). I used to send my two kids there when they were at lower primary. Group lessons can be more fun for younger kids I feel.

[rosnyus]

Looking for an experienced tutor to teach my boy the chinese language.


He has been in Pat's school house for two years, so he has been exposed to the language (not completely a newbie). I want to build on this foundation.

We stay at SK (beside buangkok mrt) and prefer tutor to come to our home to teach.

my email is [email protected]