Teaching Chinese at Home

[autumnbronze]

GreenQ:

maltbibi:

My girl likes the color and illustration.

Hmm..I am nuts on overseas ordering :oops: Let me see whether I can figure out how to order online

No worry. You may preorder and buy from local outlets like: http://elmtreebooks.com/locate_us.php if you prefer it.

Cheers...

Yeah .... :rahrah:

I just bought the odonata series oready from Popular Marine Parade (only this outlet seems to order from elmtree). Got discount wif m'bership card.

No doubt tad expensive cuz not online order, but I at least get to see what I buy first ....

Thanks all, for the recommendation

[RAchelmum]

wyou:

hi!

I am a SAHM. Was wondering how to teach my 18 mths DD chinese? tks!

I started with common words which my DD (when ard 12mths) can speak/ understand like 爸爸，妈妈，公公，婆婆，姐姐 etc &
things in the house, then body parts, numbers, colours, food, animals......
so the list just expands as she progresses.

Only handwritten with bold red/ black markers on A4 papers/ cards
(landscape) , characters as big as my palms.

Read with her at most alert times, after naps/ meals/ 1st thing in morning
etc. Relate with toys or actual items or photos, so i got labels eveywhere
in my house. Or ask her to match the cards with the labels.

Occasionally write on dry erase white board for a change.

Singing & story-telling would enhance memory of characters.
Chanting nursery rhymes, Tang poems/ Chinese classic etc.

For a good DVD series, personally like Baby Learns Chinese (for Age 0-6), which i ordered fr US site:
http://www.childbook.com/Baby-Learns-Chinese-DVD-Level-1-2-3-Flashcards-p/dvd361bundle.htm

For more info: http://www.babylearnschinese.com

Its interactive concepts & principles are similiar to Your Baby Can Read,
for those who are familiar with the renowned early English reading program.

China VCD/ DVDs need to filter cos some come with weird accent/
structures due to locality. U don wish to hear your child say 你干啥?

[wyou]

thank you for all the suggestions. will try them out.


the problem now is that my girl will say in english when i mention the word in mandarin. I taught her \" I can Read\" chinese version bought from Growing Fun shop. She understands all the words in mandarin from the whole series of Level 1 but will only say it out in English instead of chinese. Eg: when said ' li' she will say Pear.

[RAchelmum]

Hi Wyou

got the same prob 2 initially cos taught DD English 1st.
Would ask her again what does the word means in Chinese.
If she knows the meanings, it is great! As she remembers the characters.

It will take a while, just repeat the words or give/ eat a pear when she gets it right.

[wyou]

hi RAchelmum,


Just checked out the website. Very interesting. Was thinking if itz possible to buy it from US coz hubby going to States soon.

How do u manage to teach ur DD so many things in Mandarin? How about English? Do u mention a word both in english n chinese at the same time? coz sometimes i will. Not sure if that will confuse her?

[wyou]

hi RAchelmum,


ya! good idea! should reward her sometimes...

[RAchelmum]

Hi Wyou

My DD is better in English, guess it is easier to pick up. She converses more in English & i am trying to encourage her to speak more Mandarin.

In SG context where almost everybody speaks Eng, don really need to worry that she cant handle, more on whether if it is gd Eng.

When teaching Chinese, i speak Mandarin only, unless i need to explain more.
Would occasionally ask her the names of the items in Chinese or English, so she can relate both lang. Eg. Butterfly calls??? 蝴蝶

Or based on the JG method: speaks Mandarin only on days when teaching Chinese & the same goes for English.

Food, fruits & veggie are some of the categories that are easier to teach. After a trip to the market, we would have a small session to recog the food before packing them in the fridge, with or without the word cards & even better with a little salad/ fruit party.

On the following trips to supermkt or mkt , she would point & start spouting out the names... :celebrate:

[wyou]

hi RAchelmum,


tks for the good advise. will try to do that. maybe i'm too 'kan cheong', afraid that she will not speak chinese. :lol:

[auntieM]

I do have a strange way of getting my boy to like Chinese and would like to share. Please bear with me if they sound silly to you.


From TV since young, news from Taiwan, same news from CCTV... Get the child to discuss and 'guess' what the presenter is talking about.
My boy finds it challenging.

MTV, pop ones, proper Chinese ones like Teresa Teng, new slang one like Stephanie Sun and Jay Chou.
He learns to differentiate diff 'types' and 'style',proper and slang. Do choose simplier and appropriate songs.

At 6
TVB period dramas. Just an short part of course.
My boy get to play with the remote.. He will listen in mandarin, read the
Eng subtitles,then Chinese subtitles. After that he will listen in Cantonese.

He is now able to read and write with ease, I guess mainly because he finds it interesting. ....so far that is.

[wyou]

hi auntieM,


yes... the method does sound strange to me. :shock:
i dun even have time to watch any tv programs or listen to music! But i think it is definately more interesting though. Will u be concern about the content of the TVB series or the song lyrics?