Teaching Chinese at Home

[phankao]

tamarind:

Kids learn best between the age of 3 to 6. Parents should make sure that the child learn to recognize as many Chinese characters as possible. It is not necessary to memorize the individual strokes at this age. At this age, the child is able to take a photograph of the whole word and store it in his brain and it is not necessary to practice writing Chinese words.

The author of the http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/12/teaching-chinese-at-home.html books wrote that any child is capable of learning enough Chinese words to enable him to read about 80% of Chinese newspapers before entering primary school. I can confirm from personal experience that this is true.

She also wrote that it is very important to read as many story books as possible. The author of another excellent book http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20464285&ref=search-1-A also wrote the same thing :
小学，甚至初中，没有真正的学业落后，也不存在绝对的成绩优秀，一切都是可逆转的。使情况发生逆转的神奇力量就是：课外阅读。有一根“魔杖”，它确实是有魔力的，哪个孩子一旦被它点中，就会变得更为聪明，在学习和才能上更有潜力。这个“魔杖”是什么，谁能有幸被它点中，这一定是许多人想知道的——请原谅我的故弄玄虚，我不是在讲童话，是在作一个现实的比喻，因为想不出比它更贴切的比喻了。

Once the child is able to read Chinese very well, and has read extensively, he will have no problem writing.

I wrote earlier that parents cannot simply leave all the teaching to the private tutors or the enrichment centers. A child cannot learn a language just by going to tuition twice a week. If we want our child to do well, then we must spend time reading with them everyday.

Alamak - if i can read all those paragraphs that you posted in Chinese, then i can help my child, lor.

We were fortunate to have a good tutor for our older 2 children. But this same tutor does not work for our 3rd child, who refuses to be helped. this child - can only pray. he don't want to work, then tutor also dun want to teach already, bc all the usual motivational steps don't work, then got to resort to threat.

Then our 4th child who's only 21months can read characters up to at least p1 standard vocab already in both \"jian ti\" and 'fan ti\". Better than me, liao! but how i can further help him since i am below that standard, haha - i too wonder.

[phankao]

daisyt:

Hope the above helps. My child did not attend any Chinese tuition or enrichment class before and she did well in PSLE HCL and now still doing fine in Sec.

Ah, i hope my 3rd child can cope well now w/o tuition (read above post - no more CL tuition from now on). He does HCL and in p5. Let's see how he handles on his own. He's a superlazy pig. And i can't help him, unfortunately.

[Brenda10]

HI rocklee, Jedamum


I bought a few CLIPS (Chinese Language Instructional Materials For Primary Schools) during May’s book fair in 2009. It’s quite true my dd had finished reading those books without much issue. I refer the book on hand and realize volume 4 (suitable for P4 & P5 came with HYPY) and volume 5 (suitable for P5- P6 was without HYPY). I remember paid $3 for volume 4 book and $4 for volume 5 book (Hopefully is right :? ). I would like to buy some more during the coming book fair.

[Brenda10]

hquek:

jedamum:

let him watch channel 8 or u drama, he will read the english subtitles! :stupid:

Same issue! Chinese enrichment teacher suggested that we use paper to block the lower part of the tv screen.

But this won't work on mine cos he'll just not be interested to watch the show.

I bought the 倚天屠龙记 with the Chinese Subtitle. DD is enjoyed watching the show and she would have to refer the Chinese Subtitle (presented in 简体字) when ever she feel their talking are too fast.

[daisyt]

Building up interest for something they dislike, takes lots of patience and time. It takes me about 9 years to have things work out, from hate to dislike to OK lah to like. When dd told me, she likes Chinese, I know our effort is not wasted. So jia you to all parents, this is a long learning process.

[rocklee]

I don’t sent my kids to chinese enrichment class. I teach them at home. It is very very challenging and I have to try out various methods and see what works for them. And mind you I am still searching for the best. It really takes time.


Just to share with you, I like to teach my kids 成语 using english story books or chinese comic books cos it tends to sink into their mind better. For example, when they were young like 4 to 5 years old, I remember reading a story about how a racoon became ungrateful to the ants who saved its life. So i told them ungrateful means “忘恩负义”. Years later, while watching a movie, they blurted out this word to my surprise. Then they told me they remember this word because they remember how ungrateful was the racoon. That shows that my kids learnt better through visual and stories. Subsequently i exposed them to some simple cheng yu using comics and it really works cos they find it easier to understand and they can relate to the comic.

I feel that speaking mandarin to them frequently helps cos that’s where they know how to express themselves and then subsequently they can move on to writing out their thoughts.

[rocklee]

Jedamum


Recently i borrowed some chinese story books from the library. It is a series of 5 books on "Moral Education for Young Citizens" ie 好公民价值观丛书. The 5 titles are:

1. 小红花找朋友
2. 四个好朋友
3. 你喜欢谁
4. 长大后
5. 原来是她

These books are suitable for P1 and P2. Actually there are really a lot of interesting books in the library. Hope you can find something suitable for your kids.

Regards
Rocklee

[jedamum]

rocklee:

Jedamum


Recently i borrowed some chinese story books from the library. It is a series of 5 books on \"Moral Education for Young Citizens\" ie 好公民价值观丛书. The 5 titles are:

1. 小红花找朋友
2. 四个好朋友
3. 你喜欢谁
4. 长大后
5. 原来是她

These books are suitable for P1 and P2. Actually there are really a lot of interesting books in the library. Hope you can find something suitable for your kids.

Regards
Rocklee

hi rocklee,
thanks for the recommendation. it is more challenging to browse chinese section cos really have to go book by book to find the hidden gems.

[toddles]

I find that I always get a bit lost in the kids chinese section in the library.


Esp for younger readers (toddlers etc). there’s no equivalent of the english Board book section in each library… the board books, or books with fewer 密密麻麻的字 are scattered all over the whole children’s chinese section, and I have to Really Hunt to find something suitable.

I’ve come across a few suitable mandarin board books in the series of 小售不是用来打人的 and another series that is large with colourful pictures. But other than that, all their 童话故事书 seem daunting even for an adult with a reasonable standard of mandarin like me!

Any specific recommendations, or help wrt to finding suitable books?

提前对你们致谢！

[toddles]

hee hee, jedamum our posts crossed. my sentiments exactly.