Teaching Chinese at Home

[Blobbi]

Tks so much, Charmaine. I’ll look into it and try to turn it into bed time reading for us. Looking forward to your findings!

[RAchelmum]

Hi Charmaine


Pls share more details & update on 儿童读经, I am interested to learn
how it is condensed for children.

As someone who took Chinese literature as a subject in school, personally find it diff to stomach 论语 (The Confucius' sayings),
i had not figured out how to introduce it to my girl in a fun way yet.
I rem how my teacher taught us to sing 诗经，唐诗，宋词， 文言文 etc. to memorise with less pain.

We started with 唐诗 1st with an interesting video series which is able to
explain the meanings of the poems & the characters. She is not just learning to recite but also understand the meaning & recognise
some characters at 21 mth.
We recite/ sing together often as she loves it so much.
I am also teaching her Chinese words by sight-reading.

http://v.ku6.com/show/uz4UEu10HvpuCu5x.html

Think it is only available in China but can do a few online search on Youku.com or other video-sharing websites.
Ignore or give the unbearable English explanation a miss! :stupid:

Besides using the rote method, hope other parents can share interesting ways to teach Chinese classic.
The modern teaching method in China seems to be more creative than what we are practising here.
I guess they had to do so before the next generation cant write or don even bother to learn about our Chinese roots & culture.
It really takes a lot of immersion to appreciate the beauty of Chinese language.

Will post more on animated stories/ videos of 论语，唐诗，宋词，弟子规，三字经，千字文 etc. if i manage to find more!

:celebrate:

[RAchelmum]

Chanced by this series.

Had anyone read before?

http://www.edventurebooks.com/TipTop/index.html

[sleepy]

My dd2 can memorise & recite 三字经, 论语 and 唐诗 easily. The only problem is retention. Unless I revise with her actively, she will forget those she learnt after a few months.


I gave up asking her to re-learn since 论语 and 唐诗 aren’t something we use frequently. She can still read those 诗, just can’t recite from memory after a few months break.

Nowsaday I concentrate on writing skills instead since she can read sufficiently well.

[Charmaine_chong]

5 Importance Books in a Child's Life


和谐社会从和谐家庭开始，从培养和谐的孩子，从每一个孩子一生一定要读的五本书开始。 如果中国的孩子要有创新意识，诵读是最好的教育方法之一，现在的教育过分强调答案，我们知道有答案就有标准，有标准就有模式，有模式就有教条，有教条的话思维就受到约束，不会创新。

每一个孩子就应该象天上的恒星一样，家长应该让孩子找到自己的运动轨迹，而不是盲目的被吸引.

每一个孩子一生一定要读的五本书”是属于课题研究中的素质教育部分，一个孩子是不是教育成功我们不是看他分数或者考上大学，而是看孩子是不是和谐，和谐是孩子最成功的教育，一个和谐的孩子表现在与家庭、社会、自然、金钱以及人生哲学思想的和谐。 如果这五大方面和谐了，这个孩子的人生应该是幸福的，事实上我们的整个社会也和谐了。

人和家庭最好的书是《孝经》，因为家庭的和谐最重要是孝顺父母，西方教育孩子童年象天堂一样，中年在忙碌中进行，而到了晚年则进了养老院。西方人强调的是“爱”，而东方人在爱的基础上更有孝这个字。

人和社会最好的书是《论语》，相信和韩国、日本的朋友打过交道的都知道，他们大多数都非常注重礼节，因为他们从小读就诵读《论语》。 论语》是孔子与其弟子的语录结集，儒家重要经典之一。 结集工作是由孔子门人及再传弟子完成的。

现在我们人类太要强了，但最后伤害的只是我们自己，因此我们要教育孩子学会和自然的和谐，那么这本最好的书就是我们中国老子留下来的《道德经》。 老子的《道德经》，其精炼的九九八十一章，仅以简洁优美的五千文字，洋洋洒洒深邃博大地，构造出了一个朴素、自然、豁达、飘逸的宇宙观、人生观、方法论的宏大框架。

现在人类的城市化肯定会影响地球磁场运动的平衡，读《道德经》让我们了解自然之道，可以让我们人类更好的和自然和谐存在。

其实和商业的和谐也是很重要的，因此也应该给孩子读商业方面的书籍。《孙子兵法》是中国古代的兵书，作者为春秋末年的齐国人孙武。 全书为十三篇，是孙武初次见面赠送给吴王的见面礼，事见司马迁《史记》：“孙子武者，齐人也，以兵法见吴王阖闾。

商场如战场，世界首富比尔盖茨，亚洲首富孙正毅都在看《孙子兵法》，事实上，商业如果处理和谐并不会如你说的出现这样的事情。

最好的哲学书籍不是黑格尔的，也不是马克思的，而是来自七千年前人类智慧结晶《易经》。 舒云涛早期教育研究的“生命教育科学教育”就是来自《易经》为哲学基础，知识经济就是变化快，因此学校教育一直在“变易”，而我研究的新经济家庭教育体系则是强调家长抓住“不易”的教育，同时考虑到家长工作比较忙，我们还尽量能帮家长找到一种“简易”的教育方法在家庭中教育孩子，这就应用了《易经》中“不易、变易、简易”的概念。

古人说：不读易者不能为将相，无论在预测、风水、中医、军事、科学、宇宙等领域都离不开《易经》这一本书，因此我真的是拜托家长一定要让孩子去读这一本书，别说这么多涉及，就当哲学书来读就好。

Source from http://www.zhse.com/

[Charmaine_chong]

Hi RAchelmum,


I share the same view as most of the parents here. It is not easy to undertand and to remember what we have recite. They may know it now, soon they will forget.

This is what i understand during parenting orientation about recite classics.

1. No explanation needed
2. Revise consistently 7-10 times daily.
3. Recite 100 times and a child will never forget.
4. Expose children to good music and well known painting.
5. Pop music, nursery rhymes is not good music.
6. The child will have amazing memory by exposing them to classics young enough.
7. Will never be a spoilt child as they need to learn 孝经

I find it a lot easier for a child to pick up in class. And never forget repetitive pratising daily is needed to help them retent what has learnt.

With regards to Tip Top (New Edition) Chinese Readers, I personally find it unnecessary to spent on expensive readers just to get a child to recognise words.

Library has many options you can browse through. I often borrowed Wo hui Du for my younger one. For those series that are not available, i just borrow other readers or next series to read to her. My purpose is not for her to read immediately but to encourage her love for reading. If i consitently do it, i am sure she will pick up when she is 3 or 4 years old. She is 17months old now.

I have few hundred of books and couldn’t finish even 1/3 of them. We go to library weekly. Now i extend to once a month as i would like read what we have at home first.

Hi Sleepy,

Try to recall as often as possible what they have learnt.

Revision is essential.

[RAchelmum]

Thanks so much for sharing Charmaine.:D


I believe your effort will pay off.
Early exposure to Classics is definitely an advantage to the children.
These Classics & discourses had been ard for thousands of years & subjected to varies interpretations,
it is also up to individual to follow or take as a ref.

On the part on knowing 孝经will make a fillial person, i'm not sure how it will really happen
unless it is more direct to be lead by role models like parents.
Theory & practical is still different, though awareness would help.

Also understand that listening to gd music alone will not make one smarter,
only playing an instrument would foster discipline, concentration, memory, creativity, and lateral thinking skills et.

I am also trying out to teach my girl with large hand-written verses to couple with reciting.
She can also trace over the characters with her pointer finger to learn
abt the strokes 笔画 of the more commonly used words.

Read a book on early education which mentioned that besides tracing,
stroking the words over the child's back / palm will help to teach them to learn writing / printing faster.
The characters are like imprinted on their mind, which enhanced memory.

For Sleepy's child who can write now, will have better chances to retain
the info.

I am using the Wo Hui Du Level 1 & 2 but they lack storyline which is important for creativity.

Thks for your feed back on the readers, i agreed there are many good & affordable ones ard.

Just relocate back to SG recently & had been visited the library almost weekly too but rather lost in the seas of books.
Cant seem to find chinese books with large fonts.
Need recommendation for that, at least i can reserve them online.

Thanks again! :celebrate:

[windows]

tamarind:

You may still encounter problems. Sometimes when I entered the password, an error message was shown. I had to reset the password and try again. This is a problem with the Citibank server, hopefully they will do something about it after I feedback. The same thing happened when I tried to use the Citibank credit card to book cinema tickets from Golden Village website ! So it has nothing to do with dangdang.


I am going to apply for the Amex card I have a feeling it will be easier.

pardon my ignorance, how wld you know if your transaction is successful and the books are being shipped? will dangdang email a confirmation after payment? i didn't rec any emails from dangdang nor the bank after the message on dangdang that says \"you have made a payment of XXX through XXX\"... thanks!

[hamamatsu1999]

I am new to this forum. Looking at how parents worry about their kids’ Chinese education, I wish I do not need to go through the same thing when I become a parent. I don’t remember studying Chinese was very hard for me, I still like Chinese a lot. Hope my blogs can help some parents and kids out there.

[tamarind]

windows:

tamarind:

You may still encounter problems. Sometimes when I entered the password, an error message was shown. I had to reset the password and try again. This is a problem with the Citibank server, hopefully they will do something about it after I feedback. The same thing happened when I tried to use the Citibank credit card to book cinema tickets from Golden Village website ! So it has nothing to do with dangdang.


I am going to apply for the Amex card I have a feeling it will be easier.

pardon my ignorance, how wld you know if your transaction is successful and the books are being shipped? will dangdang email a confirmation after payment? i didn't rec any emails from dangdang nor the bank after the message on dangdang that says \"you have made a payment of XXX through XXX\"... thanks!

Hi windows,
You should receive an email :
订单xxxxxxxxxxx支付的货款已经收到

when your payment went through successfully. This may take a couple of hours to reach you.

Then later dangdang will send another email to you asking you for verification.

The items can take 1 to 2 weeks to be shipped out, then you will receive an email :
订单xxxxxxxxxxx中的商品已发出，请注意查收

You can also check the status by logging into dangdang and view your order details.